Physician Assistants Provide Routine Care

By Nancy Giguere, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: June 1, 2003 - 11:00 PM

On a typical day, Wanda Andrews, a certified physician assistant at North Memorial Clinics-Minnetonka Physicians, sees about 20 patients. She takes histories and examines patients, orders and interprets lab tests and X-rays. Andrews also makes diagnoses, and comes up with treatment plans.

What Do They Do?

Andrews is one of an estimated 700 physician assistants (PAs) currently practicing in Minnesota. PAs are dependent healthcare practitioners who work under the supervision of a physician. PAs can treat mild to moderate trauma, such as broken bones; infections; and common chronic illnesses like diabetes. Complicated cases are referred to a physician.

"I like knowing that I can make a big difference in people's lives," Andrews says. A generalist who works in family practice, she is especially interested in the areas of weight management, women's medicine and dermatology.

According to the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), 50 percent of PAs work in "primary care" - family, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology. Dawn Ludwig, director of the physician assistant program at Augsburg College, notes that PAs also work in emergency medicine and orthopedics. She predicts in the future, more PAs will enter the field of geriatric medicine.

An Emerging Profession

The first PA training program was created in 1965 at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Its purpose was to ease the shortage and uneven geographic distribution of primary-care physicians by preparing former Navy medical corpsmen to work with physicians.

Today there are nearly 130 training programs across the country. About half offer a bachelor's or associate's degree. The rest offer a master's degree, which is rapidly becoming the preferred level of training. According to Ludwig, this change has come about as more individuals without previous medical training enter the field.

To practice in Minnesota, PAs must be certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants and registered with the Board of Medical Practice. They must also hold a supervisory agreement with a licensed physician.

Occupational Outlook

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of PA jobs will increase by 53 percent between 2000 and 2010. At the beginning of this year, AAPA estimated that some 46,000 PAs were in clinical practice. The average income for those who worked at least 32 hours per week in 2002 was $72,000.

Although the first PAs were men, about 50 percent of today's PAs are women. Ludwig says that many PAs once considered becoming doctors but decided against it because of the time and expense involved.

This was the case for Andrews. "I wanted to practice clinical medicine, but I didn't want to be paying school loans forever," she says.

Many also see physician assisting as a more family-friendly medical career. "Studies show that PAs have very high job satisfaction. PAs often rate higher in job satisfaction than physicians," Ludwig says.

Learn More

American Academy of Physician Assistants: www.aapa.org

Augsburg College Physician Assistant Program: www.augsburg.edu/pap/

Nancy Giguere is owner of Wordsmith, and is a freelance writer from St. Paul, MN.

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