Doctors Assistant Jobs Are In High Demand

Doctor’s assistants are people who can practice medicine under the supervision of a licensed physician. Doctor’s assistant jobs are aplenty what with the plethora of fields that are cropping up in the medical discipline. Doctor’s assistants are generally also known as physician assistants. The basic questions that need to be answered are the following:

What is the scope of a doctor’s assistants job? How does a doctor’s assistants job differ from that of a licensed physician? How does the future look for these people? This article tries to answer the aforementioned questions and some more that might rise along the way.

First, let us answer the first question as to the scope of a doctor’s assistants job. As mentioned before, the doctor’s assistant practices medicine under the supervision of a physician. The scope of a doctor’s assistant’s job ranges from obtaining medical histories and records, to performing examinations, from diagnosing illnesses to prescribing medication and from interpreting the results of diagnosis to referring the patient to another specialized practitioner in that particular field. Basically, a doctor’s assistants job requires versatility. This is because a doctor’s assistant can shift from one specialized practitioner to the other. That is to say, they can change from one medical or surgical speciality to another.

Next, we shall see how the job description of a doctor’s assistants job differs from that of a physician and more people in the field. The primary difference is the fact that for a doctor’s assistants job one does not need a license from a medical authority. Yes, the medical license is optional. Some assistants have it while others don’t. This differs from the case of specialized practitioners who have to have to compulsorily get a medical license. While the medical field for practitioners has various accrediting bodies, the study for a doctor’s assistants job has only a single accreditation source, namely, the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physical Assistant (ARC-PA).There is a striking contrast between nurses and doctor’s assistants too. While nurse practitioners study advanced levels of nursing in particular, doctor’s assistants are trained generally in the field of medicine. You can find out more about jobs in the medical field at http://www.jobsformedicalassistant.com

The future looks pretty strong for a physician’s assistant. According to a survey conducted by the American Academy of Physician Assistants, there are 63,609 assistants in practice as of January 2007. The number of positions is greater than the number of practicing PAs because some hold two or more positions. For example, some PAs work with a supervising physician, but also work in another practice, clinic, or hospital. One assistant can hold one or more jobs, and that provides a higher rate of job security. Doctor’s assistants jobs are currently in highest demand in the hospitals. The rest are employed in public health clinics, nursing homes, schools, prisons, home health care agencies, and the like. Some factors that will contribute to the rise in employment levels are:

An expanding medical industry. An aging baby-boomer population. Concerns for cost containment. And more.

This has also been quoted as the fifth best job in the United States of America based on salary and job prospects. Attractive indeed.