Anthony Amoroso MD - What Are the Key Pre-Requisites to Becoming a Physician Assistant

1. Anthony Amoroso MD - What Are the Key Pre-Requisites to Becoming a Physician Assistant? The physician assistant profession was introduced in the year 1965, it was the first PA (Physician assistant program) offered by Duke University. The amazing increase in demand for this profession had brought with it with more than 135 training modules in this medical field today. One can easily find increasing numbers of Universities and Schools offering accredited physician assistant degree and bachelor programs which are held in the Universities campus or through online program, as compared to some twenty years ago. But what are the prerequisites for anyone to become a physician assistant:- 1. Most of the PA program requires its applicants to have at least two years of college education with some relevant working experience in the health care industry. However, more stringent world famous PA degree or bachelor program from renowned Universities would require their candidates to have at least a bachelor degree in any fields with at least 3 to 4 years of working experience in the health-care industry. 2. Specifically, most of the PA program required at least some, if not all of the following courses to have been completed, before you are qualified to apply for the PA bachelor program. Find out the specific prerequisites from the University that you are targeting for is always a positive thing to do.

2. - 1 year of General Biology lecture and Lab or its equivalent - 1 year of General Chemistry Lecture and Lab or it equivalent - 1 semester of General Genetics - 1 semester of Human Physiology o At least one other upper division science course which can be biology, chemistry, or physics, o And at least 12 credit hours of Humanities, which can be in any of these courses, Philosophy, fine arts, music, speech and communications etc o And at least 6 credit hours Psychology, which can be selection of these courses such as the Biological Basis of Behavior, Drugs and Behavior, Human development, and others. - 1 semester of Statistics, which the statistics course can be through any department but there are some compulsory papers which need to be included, such as statistical measures, inference, hypothesis testing, and distributions among others. 3. The PA program emphasizes on the continuous working exposure which the applicants have had throughout his/her previous working experience. This is because of the fast pace and frequent changes which are happening in the Medical world, for nothing stay unchanged in the medical world. 4. Most of the Schools will arrange for an interview session to meet the short-listed candidate for the PA bachelor or degree program. Some of the favorite interview questions would be, " your most and least favorite working experience with any patients/colleagues"," how good your knowledge is in the health care system in your current society" . Therefore keeping a journal to keep track of these records with regards to your working experience in the current field is essential. Also record your interactions and also whatever guidance you have gained from other health care professionals will add value for you to share during the interview. 5. Some of the PA program will look for the amount of voluntary hours which one have exposed with, with the breadth of experience and the commitment in providing your continuous service and exposure in any volunteer medical health work. 6.Five Letters of evaluations from different sources are required as part of your application to the PA program. Three of them need to come from the individual faculty whom you had been tutored before, and the other two from someone who knows you well enough to write good and powerful evaluation letters for you. It is crucial for them to be able to provide specific observations and examples emphasizing on your potential and skills in the PA field, in order to add value in supporting your application into the PA program.