Physician assistants: Competitive field grows

McClatchy Newspapers

MIAMI — Charity Ramsey has the white lab coat, the stethoscope, and the prescription pad. She spends all day treating patients. But she’s not a doctor.

Ramsey is a physician assistant, a fast-growing, profession whose members say they can do most of what a doctor does, but without the seven-plus years of medical school and residency.

Instead, PAs, as they are called, typically take a 27-month graduate degree, after which they can take the licensing exam and jump right into practice.

After that, starting salaries in Florida average almost $55,000, while experienced workers average almost $100,000, according to the state labor department.

New patients are sometimes unfamiliar with PAs, but most warm up quickly, practitioners say.

“They say, ‘Are you going to go on to be a doctor?’ and I say, ‘No, this is my chosen field,’” said Ramsey, who works at a small family medical practice in Boca Raton, Fla.

“We really see the same type of patients with the same problems.”

PAs must work under the supervision of a doctor, but beyond that they have wide latitude. They can work in any specialty, and can change specialties if they can find a doctor willing to work with them.

Miguel Garcia, who just graduated from Barry University’s PA program, has a job lined up with a cardiac surgery practice in the Tampa area. He will assist the doctors at the operating table.

“You’re scrubbed in, you stand across the operating table from the surgeon and you’re assisting throughout the course of the surgery,” he said.

Admission to PA school can be competitive. Nova Southeastern University has received more than 1,000 applications for 85 seats in its master’s program, said Bill Marquardt, NSU’s associate dean for physician assistant education. As with other PA programs, NSU’s requires students to have taken undergraduate science courses such as biochemistry, microbiology and anatomy.

The school strongly prefers students with some experience working in health care so they know what they are getting into.

For those admitted, the program is intense. While a master’s in business administration might be 40 or 45 credits, and a law degree 90, NSU’s PA program includes 140 credits. Study must be full-time. The first 15 months are spent mainly in the classroom, while the rest consists of a series of rotations working with doctors in a variety of specialties.

Barry’s program is similar, but Miami Dade College has a slightly different arrangement. MDC offers a bachelor’s degree program, with the PA classes and clinical training making up the second of two years of study.

After graduation and licensure, PAs can work in hospitals or doctors’ offices, but not every institution uses them.

For example, some hospitals prefer to employ advanced registered nurse practitioners, who serve similar functions to PAs.

Nurse practitioners typically have undergraduate and master’s degrees in nursing. Like PAs, they can prescribe drugs. Many work in primary care, while some specialize in fields such as cardiology or pediatrics.

Details on becoming a physician assistant:

Education: 27 months of training, typically in the form of a master’s degree.

License: Required, issued by the state after passage of an exam.

Salary: $55,000 to start in Florida, about $99,000 for experienced workers, according to the state labor department.

Employment growth: 29,000 new jobs expected in the United States by 2018, a 39 percent increase, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For more information: American Academy of Physician Assistants, aapa.org.