What is a Physician Assistant?
Official Definition
"Physician assistants (PAs) are health care professionals who practice medicine with physician supervision. They conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery, and write prescriptions. They are often found in primary care practice — family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology — but also work in many specialties, such as cardiology, emergency medicine, oncology, dermatology, gastroenterology, psychiatry, and in surgery and the surgical subspecialties."
-American Academy of Physician Assistants |
Key Points
- a PA is like a vice president,
more of a physician associate
- Trained in the medical model
- Excellent patient educators
- Generalists (whole-body approach)
- The Physician-PA team
is a perfect fit
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The Patient's Definition
Physician representatives. Basically, a physician assistant is like a vice president that acts on behalf of their president (physician). PA's are competent and qualified healthcare providers that serve as representatives for their physician in doing most of the things for you that the doctor would. They are more of an associate than an assistant that helps to improve the efficacy of the physician's practice. This means that if the doctor's office that you visit has several physician assistants then you should see an overall decrease in wait time and an increase in time with the healthcare provider (PA or physician). It also means that you should be able to get appointments sooner because there are more healthcare providers to choose from.
Generalists. An important aspect to understand is that physician assistants are generalists. They are trained extensively in the same medical model that is used for doctors. Being a generalist allows them to have a wealth of knowledge in many areas of medicine. This means that they are able to approach your medical concerns from a whole-body perspective.
Patient Educators. One of the primary roles of the physician assistant is patient education. A patient that understands their illness and what they need to do to fix it will hopefully be able to prevent further illness. In other words, understanding is a key to wellness and prevention. PA's often have more time with the patient in order to educate them about their health.
The Physician - PA Team
"We are part of a PA-MD team in health care, often serving the underserved, rural areas, but we always work as part of a team to provide the most cost-effective, continuity of health care to our patients, treating the patients the way our physicians would if they had the time we have to spend with their patients." 1
Increased efficiency. With rising demands on healthcare, increased wait times, and decreased number of physicians the role of the PA was created as a win-win solution for both physician and patient. The PA fills gaps by increasing the number of patients receiving high quality healthcare as well as decreasing wait time both in the office and for appointment scheduling. The PA will often help with many of the routine visits and common or chronic illnesses such as diabetes management, follow-up visits, seasonal illnesses, patient education, etc. These appointments, while important, normally take up a large portion of the physician’s work week. With those taken care of the physician can focus more time on complicated and challenging cases.
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Specialists enhanced. One of the places that the PA shines is in the specialty medical fields such as orthopedics, dermatology, and other surgery specialties. PA's are generalists by training, and when they work with a specialist to provide care the patient ends up getting a much more complete solution to their health problem.
For instance, let's say that really want to improve your abs because they are weak. You then focus your workouts on abs, and in time they look great; however you then notice that you forgot about the other flabby parts of your body. If a specialist can be related to the intense ab workout, then a PA would be like the core-cardio workout that you do on the off days. The core-cardio workout doesn't focus on any one muscle group, but slowly strengthens everything else in order to support your now chiseled abs. The PA's generalist background is a perfect complement to your visit to a specialist.
Consistency of Care. As previously mentioned the PA is trained in the same medical model used to educate the physician they are assisting. This leads to a unity in reasoning between PA and physician and uniformity in healthcare. The PA is trained to be a representative for the doctor and act on their behalf. The end result is improved healthcare for all.
For a more in-depth explanation please see The Physician-PA Team on the American Academy of Physician Assistants website.
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Resources
1. Wendy Cornelius, PA-C
2.
American Academy of Physician Assistants - General Information
3. American Academy of Physician Assistants - The Physician-PA Team
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