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WHAT IS
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PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT? Education/TrainingCertified physician assistants (PA-C) are medical providers formally trained in primary care and graduating from one of over 100 accredited academic training programs in the U.S.The average PA student is age 33, has over 4 years of health-care experience, and a college degree before entering a PA program. Typical backgrounds of PA students include nursing, EMT, med-tech, paramedic, etc. Most Physician Assistant Programs last 24-27 continuous months and use the medical school model. To remain nationally certified Physician Assistants must complete 100 hours of Continuing Medical Education (CME) every 2 years and pass a national recertification exam every 6 years. While over half of all PAs remain in primary care, the rest can be found in every medical and surgical specialty, including dermatology. Physician Assistants in DermatologyBuilding on their primary-care training and experience, physician assistants are trained in dermatology in a variety of ways. Most dermatology PAs are trained on-the-job by their supervising dermatologist.All PAs have suture training; most can biopsy and many are able to perform simple and complex excisions. In a short time, even a PA without previous dermatology training should be able to start independently seeing patients for acne, cryotherapy, skin tags, warts, do wound closures, suture removals, biopsies, and patient education. PAs get additional training through their required CME hours, attendance at AAD and other dermatology based conferences, tumor boards, dermatology grand rounds and home-study courses. They subscribe to dermatology magazines and do self-study via journal and computer programs and the Internet. |
