Thinking about becoming a physician assistant (PA) or pursuing a career in the medical field? Maybe you already know by now that it is not that easy to land in such profession and certainly it would require certain degree of physician assistant training before you can become a physician assistant.
After all, although you will be working in the future under the supervision of a doctor, you would practice medicine too with a high degree of independence. Since you will be dealing with human lives, you need to undergo appropriate training before you can be given a license. This article will give you an overview on how you can be a physician assistant from education to certification.
Your journey will start on your college education. You need to finish an undergraduate course that focuses on hard sciences such as Biology, Anatomy, Psychology, Chemistry and others. Before you enroll in any university, make sure that its curriculum is in accordance with the standards set by the physician assistant program you want to go to in the near future. There might be additional courses that the program will require you to take. It pays that you know everything so that you will maximize the amount of time you have.
In addition, you need to be active in clinics as it will be a perfect training ground in order for you to have an idea on how things go in a real setting. Most of the time physician assistant schools require their students to complete a range of 50 to 200 experience hours. It will be wise to accumulate volunteer hours and paid hours, too. This will help increase your chance of getting hired when you apply for a physician assistant job later on.
The journey of becoming a physician assistant needs perseverance. Besides the courses you take in college, you will want to complete another program in graduate school which will last for a couple of years. This will further prepare you in dealing with various medical areas such as cardiology, pharmacology, pediatrics and others. During this stage, you can even consider specializing in a certain area that you are interested in. There are specific organizations for every medical area. Joining one will be extremely helpful in your career.
As mentioned above, it will be best if you can work as an intern while you are studying even if the pay is not that high. When your curriculum vitae reflect that you have had paid working hours, most companies tend to hire you. After the schooling, here comes PANCE or Physician Assistant National Certification Examination.
It tests if you have gained enough knowledge before you get certified. This is important as it can measure the likelihood of your success in the medical field. There are certain requirements that you need to accomplish prior to the physician assistant certification exam. You are allowed to take the exam up to six times in six years. Once you pass the exam, you will be on your way to become a physician assistant.
