Physician assistants are becoming increasingly needed with the recent shortage of health care providers. Physician Assistants are very crucial parts of the recent modern approach to health care. The main goal of physician assistants is to increase access to quality health care for everyone in a population or community.
A physician assistant usually works under the supervision of a physician or surgeon in all areas of medicine and healthcare. The physician’s responsibility entails examining, diagnosing, treating, and surgical assistance.
The level of experience, specialty, and work setting determines the complexity of the role of a physician in a healthcare system. Every role which a Physician assistant performs in a healthcare facility is usually supervised under the direction of a physician. A good physician assistant will be able to offer encouragement and care to the patients.
Table of contents
- What Does A Physician Assistant Do?
- Physician Assistant Job Description Brief/ Intro
- Duties and responsibilities
- Requirements and Qualifications
- How Much Do Physician Assistants Make?
- What Are The Basic Skills Required Of A Physician Assistant?
- Frequently Asked Questions On Physician Assistant Job Description
- Conclusion
- References
- We Also Recommend
Writing a comprehensive and quality job physician job description is key to identifying and hiring the best of the best in the field. Well-written physician job descriptions will help in separating the experienced from the inexperienced applicants. Your physician assistant job description should contain all the relevant and important duties and responsibilities of the job and the qualification and basic requirements needed. Physician job description templates are easily customizable and ready to post to job boards.
Are you interested in creating a Physician assistant job description template? This article will highlight everything your physician assistant job description template should contain, and everything about being a physician assistant.
What Does A Physician Assistant Do?
A physician assistant is also referred to as a PA, is a medical practitioner who examines, diagnoses, and treats patients usually under the supervision of a surgeon or medical doctor.
As a physician assistant, you have a lot of duties and responsibilities including at the very least prescribing medications for an illness, clinical tests to diagnose the cause of the patient’s illness, and accurate recording and testing of the vital signs of the patient.
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Physician Assistant Job Description Brief/ Intro
We are searching for a very skilled and experienced physician assistant @ … to join our healthcare system. You must be highly knowledgeable and detail-oriented. You would be involved in patient care, requesting lab tests, physical evaluations, and developing a treating plan with top health care officials. your aim will be to ensure that patients receive the best care possible in managing their illnesses or health issues.
Duties and responsibilities
A physician assistant job description template should contain all the needed and required responsibilities which a physician assistant would have to cover.
- Taking detailed and comprehensive information on the patient’s health history.
- Provide help to surgeons during surgeries.
- Attend to emergencies.
- Carry out first aid care and minor stitching up.
- Discuss symptoms with patients to ensure they understand the cause of the illness correctly.
- Cultivate a safe environment for patients. They should be able to make patients trust them.
- Work well with other members of various health specializations.
- Be able to detect early problems in test results and pass the information to superiors.
- Develop medical status reports for patients.
- Undertake diagnostic, radiological, and laboratory studies necessary for the patient’s condition.
- Perform physical examinations and record relevant data in medical forms.
- Present medical diagnoses and begin therapy or refer patients to the appropriate physicians or health care facilities.
- Kickoff emergency measures and treatment or proper stabilization actions if necessary.
- Request hospital admissions and discharges at the direction of the supervising physician.
- Accurately and appropriately understand and execute physicians’ orders.
- Interpret and assess patient data to plan for patient treatment and management.
- Provide guidance and instructions regarding medical care to patients.
- Offer emergency medical services during a declared national disaster or emergency.
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Requirements and Qualifications
The necessary requirements and qualifications for your physician job description template include:
- Having an accredited degree in physician assistant studies, health science, medical science, or any related physician assistant program.
- Must have passed a national commission on certification of physician assistants approved physician assistant national certifying examination.
- At least a year of experience in any health environment.
- Knowledge of modern innovative medical technology.
- Ability to make quick decisions and multi-task.
- Strong sense of compassion and personal ethics.
- Good communication skills and must be a team player.
- Should have a DEA registration and a basic life support CPR card.
- Should be able to take instructions and complete tasks without 24/7 supervision.
- In-depth knowledge of medical procedures, rules, and regulations.
How Much Do Physician Assistants Make?
Being a critical part of the healthcare system, Physician assistants are paid well to fit their myriad of duties and responsibilities. The estimated annual average of a physician assistant is $108,430, with states like Connecticut and Washington being one of the highest paying states for physician assistants with $125,610 and 124,000 respectively.
The states that physician assistants earn the lowest in are estimated to have an average salary of $20,000 which is relatively lower than the average income level of the country. Despite the average salary for Physician assistants in their worst states being poor, it is relatively higher than their respective annual wages for other careers.
Mississippi is recorded to have the lowest average salary for physician assistants but this estimate is soon to change with the state witnessing outstanding growth over the [past few years. The estimated average salary of a physician assistant in Mississippi rose by 62.5% from $4,930 to $81,130. States like Illinois, Hawaii, and Texas are also recorded to have shown steady improvement in the salary growth of physician assistants in the state.
What Are The Basic Skills Required Of A Physician Assistant?
Here’s a list of the basic skills needed to become physician:
1. Critical thinking
As a physician assistant, you should develop a critical thinking mind. The ability for you to use the available facts, information, observation, evidence, arguments, test, and experiments to come to a decision or judgment. When dealing with patient health care you should be able to assess and determine the cause of a problem or sickness from conducted results and arrive at a quick decision on how to combat it.
Having the habit of critical thinking will cultivate a clear and reasonable knowledge of working toward solving any problem without any bias. having a critical mind is a necessary ability for a physician assistant in order to help in giving the best care to your patients.
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2. Professionalism
Being a physician assistant entails exhibiting professionalism in everything you do. Being a professional means exhibiting certain core characteristics like competency, reliability, ethics, and a proper demeanor.
A professional physician assistant is very competent and expected to have a certain level of responsibility fused with the knowledge of putting the needs of their patients above theirs. Exhibiting professional behavior in your attitude to work especially to the health care system would include showing kindness and compassion to patients, responding with an appropriate emotional response to patients, and always being supportive.
3. Detail-oriented
As a physician assistant you must be detail-oriented, must. Being detail-oriented means paying to the smallest details when working on any project or task. You need to be attentive to minor details as they could be vital to avoiding a disaster. Overlooking even the smallest detail of an allergic reaction in a patient’s assessment can lead to unfavorable effects for your patient.
A physician assistant should be detail-oriented and focused in order to help in passing important information to other healthcare professionals to aid them in the process of diagnosing the patient. A detail-oriented physician assistant will find it easy to go about his duties as easily as possible. Detail-oriented physician assistants are able to focus entirely on the task at hand and complete it in a way that’s with zero or minimal errors.
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4. Communication and core interpersonal skills
This skill is highly required of any person working in the healthcare field. As a physician assistant, you will spend most of your working hours dealing with everything about your patients including listening to their problems and giving appropriate advice.
You can’t effectively help your patients if you can’t communicate clearly and easily with them. Interpersonal skills are necessary for healthcare as they determine how you’ll be able to interact with your patients and other healthcare providers.
5. Kindness and compassion
You can’t work in the health sector without being kind and compassionate to others. As a physician assistant, these traits should not be lacking in you. Being kind and compassionate means trying to help your patients and understanding what they are going through while doing your best to help them.
As a physician assistant, you’ll undergo periods of stress and always be on the verge of snapping out; you should be able to control this stress and always radiate kindness and compassion despite how stressed you might be. Generally, physician assistants who are kind and compassionate are the most loved in every health facility.
Frequently Asked Questions On Physician Assistant Job Description
The main duties of the physician assistant include the examination of patients and running diagnostic lab tests.
Like most healthcare careers, to maintain certification physician assistants must participate in continuing education every two years and take a certification exam every 10 years.
You will need a degree from an accreditated physician assistant program.
Conclusion
A good job description template will attract the most skilled and experienced physician assistants to your job post.
References
- ziprecruiter.com – Physician Assistant Job Description Sample Template
- betterteam.com – Physician Assistant Job Description
- mightyrecruiter.com – Physician Assistant Job Description Template
- resources.workable.com – Physician Assistant job description
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