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(SOURCE: AAPA, http://www.aapa.org)
Q: What's the difference between a PA and a physician?
Physician Assistants
are trained in medicine, just like physicians, and in some programs, PAs attend many of the same classes as medical students.
A major difference
between PA education and physician education is not the core content of the
curriculum, but the amount of time spent in school. On average, an accredited
course of study for a PA takes approximately 108 weeks to complete, compared
to 153 weeks for the typical medical school program. Physicians are required
to do internship, and the majority also complete a
residency in a specialty following the internship. PAs
do not have to undertake an internship or residency.
A physician has
complete responsibility for the care of the patient. PAs
share that responsibility with physicians. Physicians are independent
practitioners. PAs practice medicine with the
supervision of physicians.
Q: What does a Physician Assistant do?
Physician Assistants
perform physical exams, diagnose illnesses, develop and carry out treatment
plans, order and interpret lab tests, suture lacerations, apply casts,
assists in surgery, any provide patient education and preventive counseling.
A particular PA's responsibilities vary with
training, experience, state law, and what is delegated by the supervising
physician. In general, PA's can provide
approximately 80% of the services typically provided in a primary care
practice.
To allow the
PA/physician team to be more efficient in extending care to patients, most
states do not require PAs and their supervising
physicians to be at the same location. All state laws require the supervising
physician to be immediately available for consultation, either in person or
by telecommunications, when the PA is seeing patients.
Q: What kinds of conditions can PAs treat, and what situations
require physician care?
The scope of the PA's practice corresponds to the supervising physician's
practice. In general, a physician assistant will see many of the same types
of patients as the physician. The cases handles by physicians are generally
the more complicated cases or those cases which require care that is not a
routine part of the PA's scope of work.
Referral to the
physician, or close consultation between the patient, PA, and physician, is
done for unusual or hard-to-manage cases. Physician Assistants are taught to
know when it is appropriate to refer to physicians. It is an important of PA
training.
Q: Can PAs prescribe
medications?
Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and Guam
have enacted laws that authorize PA prescribing. PAs
in Arkansas and Illinois have statutory authority to
prescribe and will be able to write prescriptions as soon as rules are
adopted. (Arkansas and Illinois are included in the 46 states.).
In California,
PA prescriptions are referred to as written prescription transmittal orders.
Q: What areas of medicine can Physician Assistants
work in?
Physician assistants (PAs) are found in all areas of medicine. Today, over 50
percent of all physician assistants practice what is
known as "primary care medicine" - that is family medicine,
internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. About 19
percent are in surgery or the surgical subspecialties.
Q: How did the Physician Assistant profession
begin?
In the mid-1960s,
physicians and educators recognized there was a shortage and uneven
distribution of primary care physicians. To expand the delivery of quality
medical care, Dr. Eugene Stead of the Duke
University Medical
Center in North Carolina put together the first
class of PAs in 1965. He selected Navy corpsmen who
received considerable medical training during their military service and
during the war in Vietnam
but who had no comparable civilian employment. He based the curriculum of the
PA program in part on his knowledge of the fast-track training of doctors
during World War II.
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