INTERNAL HUMAN ANATOMY

While an assistant usually performs his duties under the direction of a medical doctor, there are cases where the P.A. may be the only medical professional available, such as in remote or rural areas, and will see patients while conferring with a doctor once or twice a week, depending on state regulations regarding what an assistant is legally allowed to do. They can also visit and care for patients who are in hospitals or nursing homes, after which the assistant will submit a summary of the patient's condition and necessary treatments to his or her supervising physician.

Assistant programs do not accept everyone who applies for them. Most individuals applying for these programs have at least a bachelor's degree along with extensive experience working in the health care field, and will already be employed as emergency medical technicians, nurses, or paramedics. Different programs in this field will have different prerequisites so you should check the ARC-PA website for more information regarding physician assistant programs.

As a student studying to be an assistant, you will be instructed in both a classroom setting and a laboratory setting. Included among the courses you will need to pass in order to be accredited are human anatomy, biochemistry, medical ethics, pathology, human physiology, and pharmacology. Internships are also a necessary aspect of training to be one, which involves working in different specialized areas of medicine such as prenatal care, geriatrics and family medicine, either in a hospital or medical office setting.

Working as an intern under a certain doctor may lead to permanent employment after graduation since doctors tend to hire excellent P.A's they have trained.

All fifty states require physician assistants to pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination, directed by the National Commission on Certification of Assistants (NCCPA). Those eligible to take this test must have graduated from an accredited assistant program, and only individuals who pass the NCCPA test are allowed to claim they are a certified physician assistant. In order to retain your status as a P.A. you must achieve at least one hundred hours of medical education every two years, and successfully pass a recertification test every six years to continue working as a certified physician assistant.

Not everyone possesses the desire, empathy and emotional resiliency needed to be a good assistant. It is a difficult, stressful occupation but the rewards that come from eliminating the suffering of many people surpass that long, hard journey to becoming a physician assistant.