Becoming A Physician Assistant - Join The Future Of Health Care

As health care systems modernize, physician assistants (PAs) are playing an increasingly important role in providing expert assistance to doctors. Becoming a PA is a rigorous, rewarding process that will help you developing medical expertise and the skill set necessary to provide the highest level of medical care to a wide-range of patients.

Physician assistants work in varying settings from medical clinics to government programs to private practice. In order to enter this rapidly growing career field, you must first have a bachelor's degree with a strong background in biology. Some schools offer a BA-PA certification degree, although most PAs earn a science degree followed by a MA-PA master's degree.

Graduate programs will help expand your base of scientific knowledge needed for certification, as well as earning valuable medical experience. The two-year master's degree programs begin with a year of developing your expertise in areas such as anatomy and microbiology, with an internship after your first summer serving as a bridge to the hands-on skills developed in your second year of the program. By the time of graduating, you will have the necessary skills to earn certification and immediately enter the work force.

Carefully research accredited institutions to determine a school that fits best with your career plans, and apply through the CASPA application service. You will be required to provide recommendations, as well as conducting an in-person interview; PA certification programs are as competitive as they are rewarding.

Once you have a degree from a ARC-PA certified program in hand, you must then pass PANCE (Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam) and complete the necessary continuing education requirements to continue your PA career. As an important part of a rapidly evolving health care system, you will be at the cutting edge of modern medicine as a certified PA. Source: Certphysicianassistant dot com, Louis Zhang