Physician assistant?

Question

Is this career path a good choice? how hard can it be to become one?

Answer 1

Physician assistant is an awesome field to go into.  There are a couple of different educational paths:  You can get a 4-year bachelor's degree in PA, or you can get a 4-year degree in something like biology and then get a master's degree in physician assisting.

Either way, you're going to have to have a minimum number of patient contact hours before you will be admitted.  You can get these hours by being a certified nursing assistant, an emergency medical technician, a paramedic, or a military medical corpsman.  There are other ways to get the hours; those are just the 4 I'm most familiar with.

Check out the schools you would be most interested in attending and find out their specific requirements.

For a typical 4-year bachelor's degree program, look at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina:  http://www.ecu.edu/pa/

You will find their admission requirements, admission process, and the details of the 27-month PA program there.  Be sure to look at the FAQs, the PA Student Handbook, and the program brochure.

One example of a master's program is this site from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina: http://paprogram.mc.duke.edu/.  I know several people who went to Duke to become PAs.  They loved the program and they are marvelous practitioners.  My family physician is one of the clinical sites for the Duke PA students, so at least once a year my exams are done by a PA student.  I really enjoy being a learning experience for the students.

Another master's program in North Carolina is Methodist College in Fayetteville:  http://www.methodist.edu/paprogram/index...

Yes, I do live in North Carolina.  How could you tell?  ;-)

I looked into the East Carolina program a few years ago because I would dearly love to be a PA.  But I don't want anything badly enough to take any more college-level chemistry.  I still have nightmares about the chem classes that I took 30 years ago!

As for difficulty - oh yeah, this is one tough education.  It has to be - PAs have to be able to recognize illnesses and function without direct supervision every minute.  They are responsible for patients' lives, just the same as a doctor or nurse.  But if you want to be in a health field, this is a great field to consider.

Good luck to you!