If you have thought about treating patients but would rather enter the field more quickly than the time devoted to becoming a doctor, then you may want to consider job opportunities for physician assistant (PA). This level of medicine still requires advanced training, but once completed, it puts you on a career path faster than if you go through full accreditation as a doctor. These important assistants help doctors at clinics and in private practices to offer an important standard of care.
These types of jobs can help share some of the workload with the attending physician at many clinics. In your role, you can help work through the simpler medical cases so that the doctor's schedule is left clear to focus on patients who may have additional medical challenges. In this manner, a clinic can build in efficiencies to see more patients each day.
Rural and urban settings may offer many opportunities for you to begin or continue your career in this profession. You could find that a physician needs help in running a clinic in one of these areas. You could handle the daily caseload as the doctor visits a set number of days each week to treat complicated cases at the clinic.
Working in an isolated but still populated area with needs for medical care, you could be the person in charge of a clinic's day-to-day operations. You could oversee other staff members and manage supply orders for clinics in these remote locations. In these cases, a physician will check in on you periodically as well as work on his or her own caseload.
This career path can take a different turn in military life. Different programs through the U.S. military offer doctorate programs for these types of assistants, which is a degree higher than civilian versions of the jobs. In this position, you will work more with trauma cases and focus on battlefield injuries. As you study in this program, training is offered at different military hospitals.
For those already in the health care field serving as nurses, therapists or technicians, this type of work may be the perfect opportunity to go back to school for training and placement into a satisfactory line of work. One advantage is the training and education, while similar to that for a doctor, is not as intensive or time consuming. This means after accreditation, you can find yourself in a job soon after completing the necessary requirements.
You could get a sense of kind of work you like as you make your way through your classes and training. Newborns may appeal to you, or the special needs of older patients. You might want to work for a while in a general practice to get a sense of your preference, and then find a clinic that specializes in certain cases.
You can look for physician assistant job opportunities with the help of professional recruiters who can assist you in finding work. Take time to learn more about the type of work you would like to do in this career path, and then explore your options. A great job may be waiting for you.
