With great pay and less educational requirements than other health care professions, is being a PA right for you?

Being a physician is hard work. Physians are responsible for the overall well-being of their patients. A lot of patients. For example, recommended ratio of patients to physician is about 23, but that number is often much more in reality.

With this many patients with important health demands, physicians need helpers. Dubbed physician assistants, or PAs, these medical support professionals work alongside or under indirect physician supervision.

Although working as a PA does not lead to becoming a certified physician, there are a lot of perks that come with the occupation.

Perks of Being a Physician Assistant

First and foremost, physician assistants do not have to spend as much time in school, compared to the physicians they assist.

PAs spend roughly 4 years in college, roughly 2 years in a PA program, and then a year in residency training. This means PAs spend about 7 years getting certification and license. Physicians usually train for double that amount of time.

Another major perk of being a PA is job security. As technology advances, the odds of any occupation being replaced by automation increases. PAs are considered to be one of the most unlikely to experience replacement, due to important human aspects, such as bedside manner.

High Demand

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for PAs is going to keep increasing over the next decade and at a much faster rate than other healthcare occupations. This may be due to the versatility associated with the PA position.

PAs can work in any specialty. A physician assistant can try family medicine, and if that doesn’t fit, they can assist a physician in another field.

That said, there are some specialities, or subcategories, that are more demanding than others. In some subcategories, a physician assistant may be asked to be on-call, but the majority of PAs are typically not required to be on-call.

Physician assistants are also able to work on a well-informed team. Health care professionals often deal with difficult and emotional cases, and team support can provide the professional and mental support that workers need. This type of support tends to make the occupation itself less stressful than other health care positions.

For salary, the average PA makes about $52 an hour on average, which is roughly $108,000 a year.

General Overview of What PAs Do

As we mentioned above, PAs are unlikely to be on-call. Those that are typically make a bit more money than their counterparts.

The standard 40-hour week, plus the occasional overtime of about 2 extra hours per week, should be anticipated. During this time, PAs will likely do several of the following, based on their current specialty.

• Physicals
• Analyze test results
• Order tests
• Diagnose illness
• Formulate treatment plans
• Prescribe prescriptions
• Do clinical research
• Assist in surgery and other procedures

If you’re looking for a versatile healthcare occupation with mild stress, comparatively less educational requirements, great pay, and job security, then you should consider being a physician assistant.