Physician Assistants
What is a Physician Assistant (PA)?
Physician Assistants are health care professionals licensed to practice medicine with physician supervision. As part of their comprehensive responsibilities, PA’s conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery and in virtually all states can write prescriptions. At River Valley Orthopedics, the PA and orthopedic surgeon work as a team to treat the patient.
How is a Physician Assistant educated?
PAs are educated in intensive medical programs throughout the country. There are currently over 130 accredited programs. Because of the close working relationship PAs have with physicians, PAs are educated in a medical model designed to complement physician training. PAs are taught, as are medical students, to diagnose and treat medical problems. Education consists of classroom and laboratory instruction in the basic medical and behavioral sciences (such as anatomy, pharmacology, pathophysiology, clinical medicine, and physical diagnosis), followed by clinical rotations in internal medicine, family medicine, surgery, pediatrics, ob-gyn, psychiatry, emergency medicine, and geriatric medicine.
What patients are treated by a PA?
What a physician assistant does varies with training, experience, and state law. In addition, the scope of the PA’s practice corresponds to the supervising physician’s practice. In general, a PA will see the same types of patients as the physician and sometimes in tandem with the physician.
What are the benefits of a Physician Assistant?
In today’s age of busy medical and surgical practices, a PA benefits both the patient and the supervising physician. They typically have more time to educate and answer questions which increases the patients’ understanding and satisfaction with their care. A PA in orthopedic practice cares for patients while a physician is in surgery or is backed up from a busy office schedule. A PA can perform physical exams, interpret x-rays and if necessary order tests such as a CAT scan and MRI.