 Career
Path Forecast
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
employment of physician assistants is expected to grow much faster than
the average as health care establishments increasingly use physician
assistants to contain costs. Job opportunities for PAs should be good,
particularly in rural and inner city clinics, as these settings
typically have difficulty attracting physicians.
Employment of physician
assistants is expected to grow 27 percent from 2006 to 2016, much faster
than the average for all occupations. Projected rapid job growth
reflects the expansion of health care industries and an emphasis on cost
containment, which results in increasing use of PAs by health care
establishments.
Physicians and institutions
are expected to employ more PAs to provide primary care and to assist
with medical and surgical procedures because PAs are cost-effective and
productive members of the health care team. Physician assistants can
relieve physicians of routine duties and procedures. Telemedicine --
using technology to facilitate interactive consultations between
physicians and physician assistants--also will expand the use of
physician assistants.
 Besides
working in traditional office-based settings, PAs should find a growing
number of jobs in institutional settings such as hospitals, academic
medical centers, public clinics, and prisons. PAs also may be needed to
augment medical staffing in inpatient teaching hospital settings as the
number of hours physician residents are permitted to work is reduced,
encouraging hospitals to use PAs to supply some physician resident
services.
Job opportunities for PAs
should be good, particularly in rural and inner-city clinics because
those settings have difficulty attracting physicians. In addition to job
openings from employment growth, openings will result from the need to
replace physician assistants who retire or leave the occupation
permanently during the 2006-16 decade. Opportunities will be best in
States that allow PAs a wider scope of practice, such as allowing PAs to
prescribe medications.
Note: Some resources in this section are provided by the US Department
of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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