Accredited Physician Assistant Schools Grant One of Today's Hottest Job Titles

Increasingly at the doctor's office, patients are seeing health care professionals who carry a different acronym after their names. Your PA, or physician assistant, works under the supervision of your doctor to provide health care services. According to U.S. News & World Report, physician assistants have one of the 30 best careers in the United States.

Along with examining and diagnosing patient conditions, physician assistants prescribe medications, order lab tests and x-rays, treat minor injuries and assist in surgery. As U.S. News & World Report puts it, physician assistants can do "80 percent of what doctors do."

The occupation first came into existence in the 1960s in response to a shortage of primary physicians in the United States. Since that time, over 140 accredited physician assistant schools were developed to meet the growing demand for PAs in the medical field, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA).

Training to become a licensed physician assistant generally involves two years of study in a master's-level physician assistant program. You also have to earn passing grade on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE).

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Of course, earning a degree from an accredited physician assistant school and receiving a license does not signal the end of your training. The AAPA describes how, on a regular basis, physician assistants must take continuing medical education courses and be "retested" on their clinical practice skills.

Many practitioners also choose postgraduate physician assistant programs that provide advanced education in medical specialties. Among these, you will even find some accredited physician schools that provide online training in postgraduate studies (for instance, A.T. Still University and Drexel University Online).

Their title might be less recognizable to some, but physician assistants have built a solid reputation for delivering the high quality care that patients have come to expect at the doctor's office. And if they happen to belong to one of the best careers in the country, that's just one of the perks of the job.

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Related Reading:

• Explore Colleges With Physician Assistant Programs

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