What Does A Physician Assistant Do?
In recent years, the job of physician assistants (PA) has gained tremendous popularity in the United States. In fact, such profession has been predicted by the US Department of Labor as one of the fastest growing jobs in the health care field. Despite the popularity of this profession, many still do not have a thorough understanding of the nature of this job. Some even commit the mistake of likening the profession of physician assistant to medical assistant. Read further to get an in-depth understanding about this profession.
Essentially, physician assistant is a licensed health professional who practices under the supervision of a physician. As its name implies, physician assistant assists the physician for many tasks which include a broad spectrum of health care services traditionally performed by doctors. They help to carry out most tasks performed by doctor except those that are more complicated in nature. As such, physician assistants possess considerable autonomy in the workplace.
The general duties of a physician assistant include taking the patient’s medical history, examining and treating patients, treating minor injuries, providing injections, counseling patients, interpreting laboratory tests and performing therapies. Generally, the person with this job title provides approximately 80 percent of the services typically rendered by a physician. The precise job scope of a physician assistant is not universal for all practitioners. Rather, it varies with training, experience and state laws.
In addition, the job scope of a physician assistant also depends on the supervising physician’s practice. For instance, if the monitoring physician is a surgeon, then PA is expected to be skilful in surgical techniques and carrying out various tasks that a surgeon usually performs. In regard to areas of medicine, it is reported that about 50 percent of all members in this profession practice primary care medicine, which concerns with family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics. On the other hand, about 23 percent of members are in surgery or the surgical subspecialties. Owing to this reason, they usually receive a broad education in primary care medicine.
Central to a physician assistant’s practice is that he or she must constantly be aware of the limits of job scope. Whenever appropriate, they must refer to their supervising physicians for cases deemed complicated. This is of paramount importance so as to ensure that patients are able to obtain the best possible service from a practitioner, thereby ensuring the reliability professionals in the medical field. Can they prescribe medications to patients? This is dependent on whether the state law allows for such practice. Presently, thirty-nine states allow PA to write and sign prescription without a physician’s cosignatory.
Although physician assistants are educated as generalists in medicine, they can work in specialty fields such as cardiovascular surgery, orthopedics and emergency medicine. One interesting role that these professionals may play is to consult their supervising physicians using the applications of telemedicine. As rural areas hardly attract physicians, PA can fill this gap by working in these areas and consult the physicians on certain issues while treating patients.
Is this a lucrative job?
The average annual income for a new physician assistant is $40,000. Depending of their experience, their annual income can be as hefty as $100,000. Another factor that determines this amount is the location they work. Generally, the higher the cost of living in the area of work the higher the salary will be.