Physician assistants (PAs), health care professionals licensed to practice medicine with physician supervision, deliver a wide range of services that traditionally have been performed by physicians.
As part of their comprehensive responsibilities, PAs conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery, and in virtually all states can write prescriptions. Within the physician-PA relationship, physician assistants exercise autonomy in medical decision making and provide a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic services. A PA's practice may also include education, research, and administrative services.
PAs are found in all areas of medicine. They practice in the areas of primary care medicine -- that is family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology -- as well in emergency medicine, surgery and the surgical subspecialties and various medical specialties, i.e. dermatology, orthopedics, cardiology. Besides the traditional office-based setting, PAs find a growing number of jobs in institutional settings such as hospitals, academic medical centers, public clinics, and correctional facilities.
Graduates of MCPHS MPAS programs are sought-after by employers because they have completed a rigorous program emphasizing primary care medicine and have gained experience evaluating and treating of a broad spectrum of medical problems through the clinical clerkships in New England’s premier health care institutions. Virtually all MCPHS MPAS graduates are successful in finding employment after completing the degree program and passing the licensure exam.