2023 Physician Assistants Skills You Need in Order to Stay Competitive

If you’re considering joining the healthcare profession in 2023, you might consider one of the top ten rated jobs in demand–becoming a physician assistant.

A National Academy of Medicine survey reports that 75% of physician assistants feel “happy at work.” The pay is excellent in this profession, with a low unemployment rate and job growth expected to climb by 27.6% by 2031.

Physicians supervise physician assistants’ examinations, diagnosing, and treating of patients. Physician assistants make hospital rounds and evaluate patients for treatment and medications like their leading physicians.

Needed Education

Your career will begin with a bachelor’s degree in a science-based field. Physician assistant program prerequisites like statistics, ethics, and physics are not necessarily required for your bachelor’s.

Every physician assistant program is different, but most schools require at least 1,000 hours of healthcare experience and patient care experience. Healthcare experience hours do not include direct patient care like patient care experience hours.

You will need a letter of recommendation from your professors, supervisors, physicians, or other certified physician assistants to apply for a physician assistant program. This letter should give the program insight into your character, work ethic, intelligence, and integrity.

Along with your letters of recommendation, you will also need to submit a 5,000-word essay telling why you desire to become a physician’s assistant. This essay is one of the most critical pieces to the program application because it allows you to tell your story about why you chose this medical profession.

Before being accepted to complete the most difficult 23-27 months of your academic life, you will have an intense interview by the physician assistant program.

The final step in becoming a physician’s assistant is passing the PANCE (the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam). The PANCE is a 300-question, five-hour exam that, if passed, will allow you to begin practicing your new profession–but only after complying with your individual state’s pa licensing requirements.

Many states are changing the licensing requirements for physician assistants in 2023. It is essential to find out if your state has made any changes and what the updated certification fees will be.

Your training will continue after passing the PANCE. The certification board will require you to complete additional credit hours of medical education to be recertified every two years.

Needed Character Traits

Becoming a physician’s assistant is complex and requires total commitment through the educational and certification process. For you to be successful within the physician assistant field, you will need to evaluate yourself and be confident that you are a person who loves to learn, thrives on helping others, and that you collaborate well with others.

Becoming a physician’s assistant is an individual decision; the dedication requirements are intense and rigorous, second only as needed by a physician. However, the salaries are healthy (over $120,000 per year), jobs are available, there’s room for advancement to specialize and physician’s assistants like what they do.

Whatever career in medicine you may decide on, entering a healthcare career in 2023 will be an excellent choice. The population is aging and in need of more care, the unemployment rate is low, and your options will be numerous no matter how you choose to serve.

Rely on an Experienced Healthcare Recruiting Agency

If you’re an existing Physician’s Assistant and you want to take control of your compensation and work/life balance, Momentum Healthcare Staffing is here to help! We connect qualified clinicians like you to the best hospitals. Please bookmark and check back often at our job board to find our latest Physician’s Assistant positions. You can also call us at (321) 420-6344.