Doctors Assistants

A Day in the Life

Like the majority of physician assistants, you work in a medical practice that's staffed by several MDs. Although you thought about finding work at your local hospital after graduating from your PA program, you weren't able to work at night or on the weekends. However, you've thought about going to work at the hospital once your kids are older. With so many new physician assistant jobs appearing each year, you're confident that there will be a spot open for you.

For now, you work in a full-time position at a doctor's office. If there is a major appointment backlog, you might be asked to work into the evenings or come in on Saturday mornings. This doesn't happen every week. Most of the time, you work a regular Monday-through-Friday schedule.

Today, you arrive at the office at 7:30 a.m. The family doctor who directly supervises your work is already attending to the first patient of the day. You greet the office's receptionist and enter the employee bathroom to wash up and change into your scrubs.

Once this is done, you sit down at your desk and check the day's patient schedule. You'll be seeing several patients this morning and nearly a dozen this afternoon. This is a typical workload: Despite rapid job growth in the medical profession, demand for the services of doctors and physician assistants continues to increase.

Since your training and licensing permits you to give shots, draw blood, prescribe basic medication and perform other medical tasks, you typically don't see the same patients as the doctor with whom you work. She usually sees the more "complicated" patients who have complex medical conditions or require special attention. You handle many of the more "routine" patients.

Your first patient of the day is a nine-year-old boy who's getting his annual checkup. First, you lead him into a special room and draw some blood for routine diagnostic tests. Next, you give him a shot of a tuberculosis antibody. This will determine whether he has the early stages of the disease. Finally, you lead him back into the examination room and check his reflexes, blood pressure and cardiovascular responses. Once you've determined that nothing is amiss, you hand him off to a nurse for a check of his hearing and vision.

Much of the morning passes in this manner. You give a one-year booster shot to an adorable baby girl, change the dressing on a teenager's arm cast, and speak with an older man who has been having diabetes-related health problems in recent months. Since the man's case is a bit more complicated, you write him a prescription for a new type of insulin medication and refer him to the doctor at your practice. Since your doctor is legally required to sign off on the scripts that you write, the man will need to see her anyway.

After lunch, you have a long conversation with a parent whose child has gained a significant amount of weight recently. You counsel her on the appropriate amount of exercise that her child should be getting and talk about various healthy eating options. She listens politely and seems to understand your point of view. By the time she leaves, you're confident that she'll effect a positive change in her child's life.

During the afternoon, another one of the practice's doctors comes by to help clear its appointment backlog. This creates a temporary lull that enables you to sneak away to your office and process some of the insurance claims that your patients have left. While this is routine work that is often practiced by your office's bookkeeper, you sometimes shoulder the burden on busy days.

Time flies when you're doing paperwork. Before you know it, it's time for you to go home. You wash up, change out of your scrubs, and bid "good night" to everyone who's still at the office. As you drive home, you smile as you think about the day's successes.