Physician Assistant Bachelor Degree
With a physician assistant bachelor degree and licensing, you can enter a career field that is expected to grow by as much as 39 percent over the next decade, meaning your job opportunities with this degree should be excellent.
Working under the close supervision of doctors and surgeons, physician assistants provide a range of therapeutic, diagnostic, and preventive healthcare services. In addition to treating minor injuries, they also counsel patients, take medical histories, and process lab tests. In certain cases, they may prescribe medications and actually diagnose medical ailments. In nearly all cases, however, formal schooling is mandatory, with a physician assistant bachelor degree becoming the preferred standard at many facilities across the country.
What Can You Learn with a Physician Assistant Bachelor Degree?
Usually offered through schools that have close relationships with existing medical facilities, a physician assistant bachelor degree program provides you with training in:- Anatomy
- Clinical pharmacology
- Pathology
- Biochemistry
- Clinical medicine
- Medical ethics
- Physiology
Increasingly, many programs also provide clinical training in more specialized areas such as:- Prenatal care
- Gynecology
- Family medicine
- Pediatrics
Because of the emphasis on hands-on knowledge, be prepared to pursue a number of internships and rotation opportunities with partnering hospitals over your four years of study. In addition, with your practical and academic training, you are expected to pass a licensing exam before you can begin practicing as a professional physician assistant.
For What Careers Can a Physician Assistant Bachelor Degree Prepare You?
The majority of physician assistants work in hospitals, private offices, and other medical facilities. This is unlikely to change over the next decade, even as new job opportunities for qualified physician assistants expand by as much as 39 percent from 2008 to 2018.
|
