PA Facts and FAQ

What is a Physician Assistant?

A Physician Assistant (PA) is a nationally certified medical professional that practices medicine on a healthcare team with physicians and other providers. They practice and prescribe medications, assist in surgery, and counsel patients.

Physician Assistants are credentialed providers and services are covered by all private payers, Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare.

PAs are trained under the medical model and requires a Bachelor’s degree with a basic science background. The program consists of over 27 months with 12 months of didactic training in sciences, followed by over 2,000 hours of clinical rotations.

Formal surgical skills are covered in first year training and rotations allow for further skill development.  Schools include a surgical course and have formal training of scrubbing, assisting, and surgical procedures.

 

The Physician Assistant in Surgery

How many PAs are in clinical practice?

Surgical Assisting Experience includes, but not limited to: