Becoming a physician assistant is not nearly as time-consuming or difficult as becoming a doctor, but it still requires a lot of training and education. If you know you want to become a physician assistant or even if you’re still figuring it all out, make sure you know the steps you have to take to make your career as a physician assistant happen.
Complete Undergraduate Prerequisite Courses
Physician assistants don’t necessarily need to have a specific major for their undergraduate coursework, but there are some prerequisites that physician assistant programs will look for on student transcripts. Typically, these prerequisites include chemistry, physiology, anatomy, biology, and microbiology.
Earn Your Bachelor’s Degree
As mentioned above, you don’t necessarily need one specific major to be a physician assistant, but some majors will be more well-suited toward making sure you get your prerequisites done than others. Behavioral science, health sciences, public health, biology, chemistry, molecular biology, and biochemical studies, or other natural sciences focused majors are typically appropriate undergraduate majors.
Do Your Research
Because becoming a physician assistant is similar to other types of medical fields, make sure to do your research before you commit to a program. Make connections with current physician assistants by talking to alumni from your school or attending networking events. Having conversations with people in the profession will give you the best sense of what the career will be like.
Get Medical Experience
Most physician assistant programs will require you to have health and medical experiences to be admitted to the program. This kind of experience could be volunteering at a hospital, interning with a physician, or even doing research with medical scientists.
Go to a Physician Assistant Training Program
Most physician assistant programs last for three academic years, or a total of 26 months. PA students typically receive more than 2,000 hours of clinical trainings and course studies in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, physical diagnosis, pathophysiology, microbiology, clinical laboratory science, behavioral science, and medical ethics.
Become Certified
After graduating from a PA program, you will have to take and pass the Physical Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE). This certification will have to be renewed over the course of your career to remain physician assistant certified.
Obtain State Licensure
After passing your certifying exams, you will have to apply for a state licensure to practice medicine in your location. Different states have different licensing requirements, so make sure to familiarize yourself on your own state’s guidelines.
Continue to Maintain Your Certification
Physician assistant certifications have to be renewed throughout your career. Every physician assistant must complete 100 or more hours of ongoing training every two years to maintain certification, and they also must pass a recertification exam every 10 years.
