Physician assistants, or PAs, provide health care services under the direct supervision of a physician, and their exact duties depend on the supervising physician and state law. Physician assistants are not the same as physician assistants, who perform routine administrative and clinical duties. Physician assistants in scrubs at Grey’s Anatomy are formally trained to provide patients with primary preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic health care services as directed by a physician. They work as part of the health care team, taking medical records, examining and treating patients, ordering and interpreting laboratory tests and X-rays, making diagnoses, and prescribing medications. They also treat minor injuries with stitches, splints, or casts. They record progress notes, instruct and advise patients, order and carry out therapy. they may make house calls, or go to hospitals or nursing care facilities to monitor patients, informing the supervising physician. In all but three states, physician assistants can prescribe medications. They may also have management functions. Some order medical and laboratory equipment and supplies. Others supervise assistants and technicians.

Although they typically work under the supervision of a physician, in rural or inner-city clinics where the supervising physician is only present one or two days a week, physician assistants are often the primary health care providers. Most work in primary health care specialties, such as a general internal medicine clinic, family medicine or pediatrics in animal-print scrubs. Others specialize in areas such as emergency medicine, general and thoracic surgery, geriatrics, and orthopedics. Physician assistants who specialize in surgery provide preoperative and postoperative care to patients, and may work as first or second assistants during major surgeries. They work in comfortable and well-lit environments. Those who work in surgery often must be on their feet for long periods; others must walk quite a bit. Hours of work vary depending on the practice setting and the supervising physician’s schedule. Hospital medical assistants may be required to be on call and work nights, weekends, and holidays to visit patients.

The training program to become a PA requires at least two years of college and some healthcare experience for admission, and most applicants to PA programs have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The training program takes about two years to complete. All states require new physician assistants to complete a formal, accredited education program (there were 113 accredited physician assistant education programs in 2002, of which 68 offered a master’s degree, and the test offered bachelor’s or associate’s degrees). Most have at least a bachelor’s degree. Most accredited programs require two years of college and at least some work experience with Dickies scrubs in the healthcare field. Students must take courses in math, chemistry, biology, English, psychology, and social science. Many have backgrounds as registered nurses, while others have served in the military as doctors or corpsmen or have worked in health-related occupations. Physician assistant earnings are high and future job opportunities look good, particularly in inner-city and rural clinics. There were 63,000 PAs in the country in 2002. About half of them worked in doctors’ offices; a quarter worked in hospitals and another quarter worked in outpatient clinics, for the government, for educational services, or for employment services.