The History of Physician's Assistants
The profession of physician's assistant began in the mid-1960s as a response to the shortage of doctors in the United States. The U.S. population grew after World War II, a trend known as the baby boom. As result, there was often a need for primary care doctors. Physician's assistants filled that gap and became quickly accepted in medicine; by the 1970s, physician's assistants had founded a professional association, and a certifying examination had been established.-
What is a Physician's Assistant?
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A physician's assistant provides medical services such as physical exams, diagnostics tests and treatment of minor injuries or illnesses. A doctor supervises the physician's assistant, although some physician's assistants are the main care provider in areas where a doctor is only available part of the time. This is particularly the case in rural or poor areas that are more likely to suffer doctor shortages. The type of work a physician's assistant does depends on state law, the wishes of the supervising doctor and the field of medicine in which the physician's assistant works. Physician's assistants can be found in internal, pediatric or family medicine, but they also can work in fields like surgery, emergency medicine, geriatrics or orthopedics.
Origins of Physician's Assistants
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Charles Hudson in a 1961 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) argued that medicine needed a midlevel provider to compensate for a shortage of primary care doctors. The maturity of medicine had multiplied specialties, which many doctors were choosing over family or internal medicine. Additionally, certain areas of the country---rural and inner city---were more prone to shortages than others. A midlevel provider, which Hudson called an "externe," could help address these problems. Hudson thought Navy hospital corpsmen would be especially suitable for such a position since they already had training and experience.
First Physician's Assistant Programs
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Eugene Stead, head of the department of medicine at Duke University, began the first physician's assistant program in 1965. He recruited military corpsmen, as Hudson had suggested. The first class had four members who spent two years training. When Reader's Digest ran a blurb on the program, Duke was deluged by inquiries from former military corpsmen.
Professional Development
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In 1967 the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) started a surgeon's assistant program. The next year, the American Association of Physician's Assistants (AAPA) was formed in North Carolina. By the early 1970s, the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBNE) had developed a certification exam for physician's assistants.
Physician's Assistant Programs Today
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As of 2009, there were more than 50 accredited physician's assistant training programs in the United States. Although the majority of physician's assistants in the 1960s and 1970s were primarily men, today, according to Natalie Holt in a 1998 Bulletin of the History of Medicine article, 44 percent of physician's assistants are female. The requirements of becoming a physician's assistant currently include at least two years of college and some sort of experience in healthcare--for example, as an emergency medical technician (EMT) or a nurse. Training programs usually take a little more than two years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average annual salary for a physician's assistant is $81,610, with a range of $51,000 to $110,000. The BLS places the profession of physician's assistant in the top 30 of fastest-growing careers in the United States.
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