How to Become a Physician Assistant

Got a college degree and at least two years of health care work experience? If so, then the physician assistant (PA) career might be for you. This is a fast track, 26 month medical course. Find out more about one of the hottest medical careers in the allied health industry--today!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bachelor's degree

1. Go to the American Academy of Physician Assistants website.

2. Choose the ¨About AAPA & PAs¨ option from the top menu. Scroll down the menu to the ¨What Is a PA?¨ title and select.

3. Read all the information on the page. It will explain in detail what a physician assistant does and how to become one.

4. Return to the top menu and once again select the ¨About AAPA & PAs¨ option. This time, scroll down to ¨PA Educational Programs¨ and open the link.

5. Select the state you want by clicking on the state abbreviation. Investigate each individual school program by either calling or emailing inquiries about program requirements and costs.

6. Determine the physician assistant school program to which you want to apply.

7. Push the ¨Back¨ button on your browser to return to the page with the different state links. Once you have determined which program to join, go to the top of the page and press on the ¨Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA)¨ link.

8. Click on the ¨Before Applying¨ link from the CASPA website. Read carefully and print the page by selecting the print option on your browser.

9. Follow the instructions to gather all required information and materials prior to creating an account and applying to a physician assistant program.

10. Press the ¨Back¨ button on your browser and click on the ¨Create A New Application¨ link. Fill out account information and press the ¨Create New Account¨ button. Now, you are ready to start the application process and take the first step in becoming a physician assistant.

Tips & Warnings

• Take a couple of days to investigate each physician assistant program. Read through the material on all websites carefully.
• Visit school campuses and talk to other students already enrolled in a physician assistant program.

Resources

• Find out more about becoming a physician assistant at aapa.org.

[dubliner1]

on 1/4/2009 Here is an excellent blog on a current PA student:

http://dailymeds.wordpress.com

This should help answers some questions for you.

[dubliner1]

on 1/4/2009 Here is an excellent blog from a current PA school student, you can learn a lot here:

http://dailymeds.wordpress.com

[starval3]

on 12/23/2008 I would like to correspond with and ask questions of a practicing Profusionist.
steve
[e-mail]

[Brigman15]

on 10/17/2008 To whom it may concern, i would like to get more infomation on becoming a physicians assistant. My email is [e-mail]