The Life of A Physician's Assistant

Hello.

My name is Izzy Vander Camp and I'm presenting my media project for this semester

and that is on what is a P. A.

Um I chose this career as a P. A.

Because it's something that I found very interesting

and I wanted to know more about.

Um I'm also unsure whether I want to go to P. A. School or nursing school.

So I decided to do

more research about both careers in this class.

So what is a P. A. While Appiah can examine order tests and prescribe medicine

to their own patients and they don't need to be under

a lot of supervision for these kinds of small tasks.

Um A physician assistant is a licensed medical professional

who holds an advanced degree and is able to provide

direct patient care.

They work with all patients.

They work with patients of all ages and

virtually all specialty and primary care areas,

diagnosing and treating common illnesses and working with

minor procedures.

Um As a P. A.

You will be working with others including physicians,

surgeons and other healthcare workers as a team

to effectively treat patients. So

having good relationships and effective communication with coworkers

is an essential part of this job.

Um Physician assistants also work with a in a variety of different areas

in medicine such as primary care, family medicine,

emergency medicine and psychiatry.

Mm hmm.

So education and certification

in order to become a P. A.

You will need to graduate with a

bachelor's degree as well as obtain 1000 to 2000 hours of

clinical experience to even be considered as a student for P.

A school.

So

in order to become a P. A. And really gain the title, you're going to need

5-9 years of clinical experience,

but you're really going to have to be able to find some time

open up in your day to day life to get those hours in, which may be pretty hard to find.

Um

I know that I'm struggling with finding ours that actually count.

I volunteer at the hospital. And some of my responsibilities include

moving a patient from bed to wheelchair or rolling the wheel chair down

to their car and lifting them out of the wheelchair into the car,

helping wash and change incapable patients as well as

a few other minor things.

Anyways, after obtaining your degree, you're going to need to pass the

pre P. A cat

And that could take anywhere up 2-3 years.

Um Then you're going to need to take your board exams

and after that you will be able to practice immediately.

Um But you can only practice immediately if

you have all of those hours of clinical experience

like I mentioned before,

we're going to need anywhere up to 4000 hours depending on the P. A.

Schools requirements. So as many hours as you can get your hands on

that count is clinical

as clinical experience.

Um

Moving on.

So certifications have added qualifications. Um

certifications of added qualifications is a voluntary credential

that physician assistants can get in seven different specialties,

one being cardiovascular thoracic surgery.

In having this, you show advanced expertise in that area chosen to zone in on,

it demonstrates dedication and passion to your

field of practice while also getting benefits.

The C. A. Q.

Is valid for 10 years and if you want to continue after that you will need

to repeat the process you completed the first

time in order to obtain the certification again

um

must have 4000 hours of experience as well and

75 of C. M. E. Focus credits to be qualified for this

additional certification as well.

So I just added in this slide um which just kind of breaks it down more simple.

It's just the six steps to becoming a P. A. So

uh yeah on this side I decided to make a basic

bullet point list of the things needed to be done in order

to start working as a pa.

Um So as shown on this slide

this will include obtaining a bachelor's degree

in completing the common prerequisite courses,

obtain up to 4000 healthcare and patient care experience hours

apply for P. A. School and interview for the position to become a student

and then study so that you can pass the final P. A. Exam

called the pants.

Um

This is a very basic step by step process to become a P. A.

But I hope it kind of gives you an idea of

what is needed

and required.

Um

So next I have

pros and cons um

on this side I wanted to share some of the pros and cons of working as a P. A.

To give you an idea of a PS schedule their salary and their responsibilities.

So some of the pros include having a flexible schedule and not having to be on call.

Um There's also less responsibility for ps

because you're working under a physician. So

um

it mostly goes you're mostly

kind of shadowing a physician.

Um There also isn't any outside work needed to be done which is rare in healthcare.

Um And that also helps keep better track of patients which is also another pro.

Um

Nps get paid very well and receive a wide variety of benefits.

Um a few cons regarding the career as a pia

include working under a physician as I already mentioned,

meaning that you will always need to be supervised by a physician.

You will have to re certify your license every 6 to 10 months.

Another con is P A. School is very expensive,

you will not be able to perform any solar surgeries and the pay is lower than

what the physician is making,

even if you are doing way more work than the physician themselves.

Um

But that's just because they have

more expertise in this field as well as

they have gone through more schooling and training as well.

Um The number one reason why I am interested to become a P.

A rather than a nurse is because of the flexibility in hours

and I love to travel and I want to be able to spend time with my family. So I thought

a career as a P. A. Would allow me to

be able to do these things.

There are a lot of medical cases that come into law because

a lot of things do go wrong.

Um, and a lot of patients feel that it might be the hospital's fault.

So there are a lot of lawsuits and as a P.

A, you are not responsible for any of those lawsuits because it's

or

up to the physician

and if you're going to be the big dog, you're going to

be the lead surgeon and

you're going to have to deal with the lawsuits. Um,

so I, I find that something that I do not want to have to deal with.

Um,

yeah. Anyways, another pro is not being on call.

Um, like I mentioned family vacations,

you can put your phone down and not have to

stress about having to answer the phone all the time.

Um,

and I would also enjoy having weekends off every once in a while, which

little things like that. You know, you,

I don't think are going to matter, but

if you don't know about them, you might

screw yourself over in the end.

Um,

you don't have to do paperwork at home. That's also

okay.

A pro. I should probably go to the pro slide. Um

mm hmm.

Yeah, so you don't have to do paperwork at home. Um That's all up to the physician.

So your paperwork and all your work is in the hospital when you arrive.

And that's something that I think is really cool.

So you don't have to take anything home.

Um

Obviously,

if there's something that you find deemed to do or you're way more

interested in finding some more research research that is on your own time.

Um and you get dessert

can decide that for yourself.

Um But as for a required work,

there's nothing and I love the sound of that.

Um Some more cons going back and forth here

um to being a P A. P. A.

You're definitely gonna have to take

Direction from a physician 100% of the time. Like I said

especially in surgery, you're going to

between

um

things like draining fluids, you're not going to have a lot of tasks that are

super exciting um

per se as being a lead surgeon.

But you're still going to be in the room and you get to have that experience.

And I definitely think that's worth it for me to be

able to be in the operating room and just

experience that.

Um However, I am a very strong independent leader.

I like to lead people, I like to do things on my own.

Um So taking direction from someone

above me that gets to do more hands on work might be a little bit difficult.

Um,

but it all comes off well and I'm more than happy to take direction from somebody

that I believe in and somebody that I trust. So that should not be a problem.

Another con

to this, that

you're not going to have any surgery, any solo surgeries.

And that is a hard pill for me to swallow

at first because the whole reason I wanted to go

into the medical field was to become a surgeon. But

like I said, you still get to be in the room

and do

and get to do some of the tasks. You're just not going to be able to perform

solo surgeries. Um, and lastly, like I already mentioned, just

go in more depth, you get

lower pay than physicians.

I think that's a pretty fair fair deal being that you

don't have to go through as much school as they do.

Um,

They do have a lot more knowledge and experience. They are a lot smarter and they

paid a lot more to go to school.

There are plenty of

pros to this job and

it does come with a few cons, but that's as

every other profession.

Um,

and it's going to take a lot of hard work and effort, but if you stick with it.

Um,

and you look at your timeline and

all the stuff that you need to get done, you're in it for the right reasons.

Um

So a few facts to know

on this side. I just wanted to add in some facts about being a P. A.

That I thought were interesting and wanted to share. So the P. A.

Career is a very competitive, interesting as well

As a very popular one. I found it very interesting

that

66.70% of PSR female and only 33.3% are male. As I already mentioned, the P.

A career is very flexible which allows for our free time and day to day hobbies

the salary and benefits for a PR great.

Which

is great because I want to be able to have

extra money to travel and do other things with.

And lastly I really liked that PS have a variety

of areas in medicine they would like to work in

which allows for change and experience in other fields.

So yeah, I'm very excited about the future. And this was a very fun project for me too.

Research more about

a future career in depth. Um

So in summary

to summarize all of this information at pIA is a licensed medical professional

who assist physicians,

surgeons and other health care workers to provide direct patient care.

Some of their responsibilities include reviewing patients, medical histories,

examining patients,

ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests such as x rays or blood tests.

Um Diagnosing patients, injuries and illnesses and providing treatment

such as

setting broken bones or

immunizing patients.

Becoming a P. A. Is a very intense career path due to the education required

which includes receiving a bachelor's degree,

obtaining a certain amount of hours of clinical experience.

And this is all before becoming eligible for P. A. School.

After graduating from P. A.

School pay students will need to then take and pass the

board exams before being able to officially practice as a P.

A.

So I would definitely recommend becoming a physician assistant because it allows

you to work hands on with physicians insurgents to provide patient care,

which is something I've always wanted to do.

There are many pros and cons cons to becoming a P. A. As

with any other profession but I think this is a very successful career that allows

you to have more freedom as well as gain more experience over the years.

Um

So yeah that wraps up my presentation. Thank you for listening.

And if you have any further questions about the P. A. Profession

please feel free to email me. I believe my

email address on this slide.

Thank you again.

The Life of A Physician's Assistant

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