Physicians Assistants FAQ

Physician assistants, sometimes know as Doctor’s assistants are individuals that are allowed to practice medicine under the supervision of a physician. There are numerous openings in the Physician assistant field and has been ranked consistently in the yearly top ten fastest growing jobs.

How Do Physician Assistants Differ from Doctors?

The basic difference between the two jobs is that a Physicians Assistant does not need a medical license to practice patient care, while Physicians do need a license. In effect, the Physicians Assistant works under the umbrella of the Physicians license

How Do Physician Assistants Differ from Nurse Practitioners?

Nurse practitioners study advanced levels of nursing. They often have a specialty field. Physician’s assistants normally train as general practitioner in the field of medicine and patient care.

What is The Scope of a Physician Assistant Job?

Physician’s assistants perform a wide variety pf medical care. Usually this includes obtaining patient’s medical records and histories, examining patients, diagnosing illnesses, interpreting the results of the diagnosis, prescribing the appropriate medicine, and referring the patient to a specialist if necessary. Physician assistants need to be versatile and know a lot about many different medical conditions, but generally do not specialize in any one filed.

Are Physician Assistants Jobs Available?

The demand for physician assistants is strong according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants. One benefit of being a physician’s assistant is the ability to be able to hold more than one job – working with one of more Physicians. This provides a higher rate of job stability.

Physician assistant’s jobs are currently most available in the hospitals. Other jobs can be found in public health clinics, nursing homes, schools, prisons, home health care agencies, and of course in private physicians offices.

With the need to reduce medical costs and the ability of physician’s assistants to provide much of the same care as a physician, the demand for physician’s assistants appears strong!