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What is a Physician Associate?
What is a Physician Associate?
A Physician Associate (PA) is a medical professional who works as part of a team with a doctor. PA duties include diagnosing and treating illness, performing physical exams and procedures, assisting in surgery, prescribing medications, and providing patient counseling and education. PAs are trained and educated similarly to physicians, and therefore share similar diagnostic and therapeutic reasoning. Physician-PA practice can be described as delegated autonomy. PAs use autonomous decision-making for patient care, under the purview of a physician.
The PA profession emerged as a cost-effective way to manage the demand for health care services. With an ever-increasing shortage of primary care physicians, an aging population, and increased numbers of Americans receiving health care under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the demand for PAs continues to grow. Learn more about the history of the PA profession from AAPA.
FAQs about the PA profession, including but not limited to:
What can PAs do?
How do PAs work with physicians?
How are PAs similar and different from nurse practitioners (NPs)?
Physician ASSOCIATE: Click here to learn more about this change in title
Learn about different specialties and settings PAs can practice in from these articles and virtual shadowing opportunities:
Every Monday eShadowing will bring you a PA at 7 pm EST and a physician at 8 pm to talk about their profession, offer a case presentation, and allow Q&A. Replays are available within an hour of the session and through through Sunday of the same week. After that you can watch Replays on Youtube. Specialties covered include:
Emergency Medicine
Psychiatry
Hospital Medicine
Occupational Medicine
Radiology
Click here to search past sessions using keywords "physician assistant" and "PA-C" and learn more about these specialties that have been featured:
sports medicine
primary care
hematology/oncology
inflammatory bowel disease
dermatology
pathology
The University of Colorado School of Medicine has an online course that includes 5 videos featuring physicians, PAs, and NPs as they go bedside in the Emergency Department to assess and diagnose a simulated patient. Each video is followed by a series of questions, summary by the physician, and a short quiz on the topic addressed.
Timeline for Applying to Physician Associate Programs
Timeline for Applying to Physician Associate Programs
While the cycle remains open for a year, it's best to submit your application through CASPA as early as possible in the cycle and when you have enough patient contact hours as required by the schools.
April
Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) application cycle opens
See complete list of deadline dates and requirements here (schools review applications and invite for interviews on a rolling basis)
See PAEA Directory of PA Programs and CASPA fees & waiver to see if you qualify
Are you a re-applicant to CASPA? See more information here.
Review CASPA Applicant Help Center before the cycle opens to avoid unnecessary errors
Questions? contact caspainfo@caspaonline.org or 617.612.2080 during business hours, Monday-Friday
What are patient contact hours?
What are patient contact hours?
Programs may prefer/recommend or require health care experience (may be referred as "patient contact hours"). If health care experience is required, the program will specify the kinds of experiences that are acceptable and the minimum number of hours.
Here's a list of experiences with varying training/certification requirements to satisfy your hours:
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Paramedic, or ER Technician
Home Health Aide, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
Medical Scribe
Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, or PT/OT Aide
Clinical Research Assistant (with patient contact)
Other experiences that are less common in undergraduate students: Surgical/OR Technician, Radiology Technician, Optometrist Technician, Respiratory Therapist, Patient Health Educator, Military corpsman/medic, Phlebotomist, Patient Care Technician/Assistant, Medical Assistant, Athletic Trainer, Cardiac Rehabilitation
The Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) has compiled the following reports:
PAEA Student Report (Updated January 2025) This data provides a snapshot of PA students at the very beginning and end of PA school, including their applications to PA school (e.g. GPA, patient contact, community service), program characteristics, student demographics, health & well-being, experiences in PA school, employment plans, financial information, etc.
PAEA Program Report (Updated January 2024): This report reflects information PAEA member programs report in May of the previous year: student demographics, student and faculty characteristics, tuition, scholarships, etc.
PAEA Curriculum Report 6 (Updated February 2023)
PA Schools & Requirements
PA Schools & Requirements
PAEA Program Directory Search for PA programs by requirements for overall GPA, GRE, health care experience, recommendation letters, prereqs, etc. Please also visit individual program websites for the most updated information.
Click to learn more about the GRE, CASP-er, or PA-CAT. Be sure to check the official websites of the PA programs you plan to apply to and see if they require any of these exams or assessments.
Pre-PA Virtual Events and Recordings
Pre-PA Virtual Events and Recordings
Click here to access recordings from these PA Virtual Fair sessions:
PA Work Life with Jillian Joseph
Tips for Prospective PA Applicants with Kandee Griffith
Changes & Innovations in PA Education Due to COVID-19 w/ Kasey Dillon
Preparing for a PA Program Interview with Louise Lee
Andriana Cellini, PA-C has been practicing for 7+ years in multiple specialties and reacts to the video from Med School Insiders "So You Wanna be a Physician Assistant." See what she agreed and disagreed with.
Transforming the Physician Assistant Landscape: Kathryn Reed is a certified physician assistant and the founder and president of the National Society of Black Physician Assistants (NSBPA). She received a BS in emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in 2014, graduating cum laude with a minor in chemistry. She received an MS in physician assistant studies at Pitt in 2016. Reed practices internal medicine on an acute inpatient psychiatric unit at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Pittsburgh. She also serves Pitt’s Department of Physician Assistant Studies as an adjunct assistant faculty member. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
After you have completed one semester of PA school, you can apply for this scholarship. Applicants may only apply during one cycle, based on the applicant birth year (even-numbered vs. odd-numbered).
Cycle 1 – Opens January 11; closes March 12 – for applicants with even-numbered birth years (e.g., 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, etc.)
Cycle 2 – Opens June 14; closes August 13 – for applicants with odd-numbered birth years (e.g., 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, etc.)
Scholarship applicants must meet all of the following criteria:
Have successfully completed at least one term of PA studies (semester or quarter) and be in good academic standing
Be enrolled in PA school at the time the application period closes
Attend an ARC-PA-accredited PA program
Be a student member of AAPA
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