Being A Physician Assistant Essay

A physician assistant (PA) is a professional in the health field who practices medicine with physicians as well as other providers (1).

The representative working conditions for a PA are indoors in hospital setting with a well-lighted environment. PAs often walk a substantial amount and if they are a surgical PA they may be required to stand for several hours (2). Someone who is aspiring to be a physician should have strong interests in the health field, science, and working with people. Important soft skills that a PA should have would be communication skills, tact, good interpersonal skills, organizational skills, flexibility, and an overall calm, professional manner. There are also technical skills, which include writing minutes, report

writing, data management and filing. Moreover, the abilities that a PA should have would be the ability to think on their feet, be adaptable, be able to work independently or in a group, think critically, problem solve, pay attention to detail and and enjoy having a great deal of variability throughout the day. The knowledge of medicine involving the techniques and treatment needed to diagnose and treat medical illnesses, preventative health care practices, and drug properties. A PA should also have knowledge of cells, tissues and their functions, behaviors, customer and personal services, computers including applications, different cultures, legal codes and policies for health care, and it is beneficial to know a foreign language such as Spanish (3).
There are numerous rewards and satisfaction found in this career.

While a PA must sign off under a physician at all times, they are still able to write prescriptions, and unlike a physician, they can enjoy the freedom of moving to different specialties within the health field and are not locked into one practice. A PA program is also only two to three years as opposed to four years plus a three-year residency in medical school, meaning someone in this career is able to start working sooner with less debt than a physician. The greatest satisfaction to being a PA is that they have the perfect balance between life and medicine while still receiving a high paying salary. PAs have less administrative responsibilities than a physician and abundant job opportunities as the job growth for PAs is expected to grow thirty percent from 2010 to 2020 (5). When I was an intern in the Emergency Room I always asked the physicians if they could go back and do it over again would they have still chosen to be a physician or would they have rather been a PA? Overall there were more doctors who would have rather gone the PA route and only two PAs who wanted to be a physician instead. As far as a PAs hour, it really depends on the specialty. Surgical PAs can work as much as eighty hours a week and be on call while family practice PAs work about forty hours a week with a 9-5 day (6). While there are traveling PA careers, such as being a PA in the military, most stay in one office of a physician.

PAs do work nights, weekends, and holidays and can also be on call (7). This career does not require physically strenuous work other than assisting nurses in lifting patients and a substantial amount of walking. PAs do not typically work outside as 57% work in offices of physicians with the rest of locations being in hospitals, outpatient care centers, government, and educational services (7). While there are not a lot of physical risks of being a physician assistant other than long hours standing on one's feet, there are costly risks of being sued for malpractice. However, the risk for a PA getting sued is much less than a physician, with average instance of being sued seven times more likely for a physician than a PA (8). Besides the risks and places of work, the actual job duties of a PA include recording patients' medical histories, examining patients, diagnosing the patient, giving treatment such as setting broken bones or stitches, prescribing medicine, educating patients, and staying up to date on the latest treatments (7).
The opportunities for advancement as a PA are slightly limited but they can earn higher wages with acquiring new responsibilities such as overseeing staff or students and can pursue an additional specialty through a postgraduate educational program. PAs can also obtain doctorates and teach in universities. The employee outlook for this career is bright, with projected growth of 30% from 2014 to 2024 according to the occupational outlook handbook. This is due to the population of the United States is growing larger and getting older which will require a need for more healthcare providers (7). The typical starting salary of a PA is around $88-90,000 annually on average (9). The median annual salary is $101,480 with the lowest ten percent making around $65,000 and the highest ten percent making $142,210. The salary for a PA does not change much after ten years of experience and any additional experience does not significantly increase or effect the salary (9).
The related occupations listed for a PA include nurse anesthetists, occupational therapists, registered nurses and speech language pathologists (7).

The education required that a prospective PA needs to be accepted into an accredited program is a Bachelor's Degree which showcases a strong background in science, including the courses: Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry another 300 level additional chemistry course, five courses in Biology 200 level and above (genetics, physics, physiology, cell biology, biochemistry), a biostatistics course, psychology, and sociology. In addition, PA programs require the Graduation Rate Exam and a minimum GPA of 3.4 for most programs but a current average of 3.72 are being admitted to Butler's PA program (4). PA programs last two to three years depending on the program. The cognitive competency requirements expected in a PA program are for students to develop the critical thinking for medical decision making as well as the ability to conduct medical primary literature searches, interpret pertinent research findings and apply them in clinical practice. The non-cognitive competency required upon completion of PA programs include a range of skills such as working as a member of a team, writing detailed patient histories, performing physical exams, ordering labs, writing drug orders, perform a range of clinical procedures, counsel patients regarding their health, and referring patients to other facilities or resources

(10).
As far as my progress so far, I have taken or will take all of the required prerequisites. I will be taking inorganic and analytical chemistry next year as well as biostatistics. I will have patient care experience as a home health aid, have interned in the Emergency Room and have had some experience with taking patients' history as a scribe. While I have strong social skills, there is room for improvement. I will work on improving my active listening skills and learn more when to ask questions at the appropriate times. Mainly I need to improve in developing the ability to speak and act in a professional manner and need more hours involving direct patient care. I also need to study for my GRE to obtain the best scores and keep my GPA high. I have a large amount of volunteer experience serving in clubs at Marian so I have enough extracurricular activities. I need to start now on developing my applications for both PA programs and medical schools to be ready to apply at the end of summer of next year. As far as the cognitive competencies, I am working on research in biochemistry and physical chemistry which will help me conduct primary literature searches and for non-cognitive I am working fully as a team member in Biochemistry. I am also learning to develop medical decision making through Dr. Boldt's medical physiology course.
Overall, I am on track to be ready to apply for a PA program. What will be important for future directions is being able to present all of my experience and knowledge extraordinarily well to distinguish myself in the application process.