PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS: Are rigorously medically trained and are licensed medical professionals as advanced medical providers who establish and build a medical practice diagnosing and treating their own patient roster, medically trained to serve in a variety of clinical settings, in all medical specialties.

MEDICAL COMPETENCY: Physician Assistants are trained in the same medical model, as are physicians. PA's medical training advances their expertise in all areas of medicine in a condensed time frame-raining is roughly two-thirds the length of medical school with 108 weeks of general primary care education. PAs further enhance their chosen medical specialty in a structured residency program and/or hand in hand with their physician colleagues. Physician Assistants must also pass a national medical certification board and recertify every six years.

CHARACTER and VALUE: Physician Assistants are by character compassionate advanced medical providers and team builders through individual professional excellence in collaboration and partnership with physicians, consultants, fellows/residents, nursing and other medical staff, achieving high quality outpatient and inpatient care, through medical problem solving, working interdependently and assuming responsibility for their patients. PAs are cost effective medical providers for patients, businesses, and insurance plans, contributing to a solid financial foundation for the whole health care system.

Physician assistants (PAs) provide health care services with supervision by physicians. They should not be confused with medical assistants, who perform routine clinical and clerical tasks. PAs are formally trained to provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive health care services. They take medical histories, examine patients, order and interpret laboratory tests and x-rays, and make diagnoses. They also treat minor injuries by suturing, splinting, and casting. In 46 States and the District of Columbia, physician assistants may prescribe medications. PAs may provide care in rural or inner city clinics where a physician is present only occasionally.

All States require that new PAs complete an accredited, formal education program. As of July 1999, there were 116 accredited or provisionally accredited educational programs for physician assistants; 64 of these programs offered a bachelor's degree or a degree option. The rest offered a certificate, an associate degree, or a master's degree. Most PA graduates have at least a bachelor's degree.

René McCarty, PA-C