What is a Physician Assistant (PA)?

Physician Assistants are health care professionals licensed to practice medicine with physician supervision.  PAs are trained in the same educational format as physicians, for a shorter period of time.  Their training consists of over 100 weeks of general primary care education.  Most PAs have obtained a bachelor’s degree prior to entering the PA training program.  The program consists of classroom and laboratory instruction in medical and behavioral sciences, followed by clinical rotations in various medical specialties, such as internal medicine, surgery, emergency medicine, etc.  Upon graduation, PAs take a national examination from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, and become certified (PA-C).

All PAs work under the supervision of a physician and share the responsibility for patient care with the supervising physician.

More than 7000 PAs work in orthopedics, performing history and physicals, ordering and interpreting diagnostic studies, drafting treatment plans, assisting in surgery, and prescribing medications.  At the Southern California Orthopedic Institute, we are proud to have well-trained, highly skilled Physician Assistants as part of our provider team.

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