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Physician Assistant Degrees and Education
Physician assistant school is similar to medical school, but less so. M.D.s would be familiar with all the topics that physician assistant students cover: anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, social sciences, human wellness and health promotion programs, microbiology, biochemistry, pathology and clinical medicine. The original physician assistant curriculum was modeled after faster-paced medical schools designed by the military to rush medics from the basic training onto the battlefield. Physicians typically must attend at least four years of medical school; twice as much as physician assistants, in addition to performing a three-year residency.Learn more about physician assistant certification.
Most of the first year of physician assistant school is spent in classroom study (known as didactic education) combined with learning about medical ethics, physical diagnosis, clinical pharmacology, family medicine, emergency medicine, orthopedics and
psychiatry. Much time is also spent in the laboratory focusing on microbiology, chemistry and pathology. As most physician assistant students have some prior healthcare background, some of the topics should seem familiar. These physician assistant education programs are typically 24-32 months long, but some are built around the schedules of working adults seeking career change and hold class at night and on weekends. In the last year of school, physician assistant students begin a few clinical rotations, each of which lasts 30-90 days. These out-of-classroom experiences expose students to a variety of specialties, including emergency medicine, psychiatry, surgery, family medicine and obstetrics and internal medicine. Students have leeway to choose electives based on their anticipated career path. The elective may be an entirely new specialty or a repeat of one already taken. Residencies are not generally required of physician assistants, but are often available in some specialty branches of medicine.
There are more than 140 accredited physician assistant programs in the nation. Not all are generic: some offer students specialty training in emergency medicine, rheumatology, sleep medicine, cardiothoracic surgery or psychology. The accrediting body for physician assistant programs is the ARC-PA, the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant. Many of these programs are part of a consortium called the Association of Postgraduate PA programs. The vast majority of physician assistant programs offer master’s degrees, with a smaller number offering bachelor’s degrees to those who have already earned an associate’s degree. A very small number award certificates to graduating physician assistants, and less than a handful award associate’s degrees. However, the lower-level degree programs are being phased out and replaced by master’s degree programs. The master’s degrees are typically in health science (MHS), medical science (MMSc) or physician assistant studies (MPAS). There are a small number of doctoral degrees available that award a Doctor of Science Physician Assistant (DScPA).
Learn more about physician assistant job description.
New York has the most physician assistant training programs, followed by Pennsylvania and California, according to the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA). The Southeast, Northeast and Midwest regions offer the most programs.
Today, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), about 12,000 potential physician assistants are studying in the nation’s programs. The competition to get into good schools is fierce, but the opportunities for qualified graduates to find jobs are large.
