Physician Assistant Course Details - Fees, Subjects, Syllabus, Duration, Eligibility, Career Scope

What is Physician Assistant

Physician Assistants are people who work under a Physician or independently to provide healthcare services. They are medically trained to practice in distinct medical specialities and medical settings to ensure patients’ good health and improve treatment and medications provided to them. Their responsibilities include diagnosis of disease and giving treatment and medications to patients either in collaboration with a physician or independently. In the case of collaboration, they are supervised by the physician for providing healthcare facilities.

B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) in Physician Assistant is an undergraduate course of three years. The course has a lot in store for students to get well-equipped to assist doctors. The course prepares the students for activities like collecting the medical record of patients, examining them and assisting doctors in the diagnosis of the illness to provide the appropriate therapy and medications.

The students are properly trained to be adaptable in every medical specialization and work in any medical setting. The training prepares you to provide solid support to doctors in managing healthcare services.

After B.Sc. in Physician Assistant, you can go for M.Sc. in Physician Assistant in any medical specialization. Other options for further studies include M.Phil. and PhD, etc.

Eligibility Criteria (UG & PG) of Physician Assistant

Students should be 12th pass outs to be eligible for this course with Biology as one of the subjects (other subjects include Chemistry, Physics and English) in High School and have at least 50% aggregate in the board exams. Other than this, they should possess the required skills mentioned in the ‘Required Skillset’ section later in this article.

Entrance Exams for Physician Assistant

Generally, colleges give admissions for B.Sc. (Physician Assistant) based on the merit of students in board exams of 12th. After completing the program, students need to give a national-level exam, known as PANCE, for professionally working as a Physician Assistant.

Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE)- PANCE is a computer-based exam conducted by NCCPA (National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants) for aspiring Physician Assistants after their Physician assistant graduation program. It can be given once in every 90 days, or thrice a year. It has questions on general knowledge, current affairs, English, Biology and covers diseases, disorders and treatment methods.

Required Skillset for Physician Assistant

• Aspirants should be good at understanding and identifying the problem of the patient.

• They must be capable of dealing with tough situations and life-threatening diseases.

• All that a patient needs is someone who could listen to them without judgement. Physician Assistants should be good listeners and pay full attention to ensure that they fully understand the patients’ problems. They should also ask the required questions without interrupting.

• They should have problem-solving skills, critical thinking abilities, analytical skills and solution-oriented attitude.

• They should have soft skills like emotional intelligence, flexibility and adaptability to adjust in every situation and circumstances.

• They should be empathetic towards patients and have patience along with counselling capabilities.

• They should be a dedicated team player and good in teamwork.