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What do you do to become a Physician's Assistant (PA?

How to become a Surgical Physicians Assistant?

  • I'm signing up for the SAT and I need to pick colleges to send my scores to. I want to be a surgical physicians assistant and i'm not sure exactly how to get there and become one or what I need to major in or anything. I need to know so I can look for colleges that have the stuff that I need if i'm making any sense. Help please!

  • Answer:

    Most surgeons don't use PA's. They use scrub nurses. Why not try to be a surgeon, it's not that hard. 1st apply to any premed/biological sciences undergrad program. Any will do as long as its science and not arts and sciences. You'll need at least 2 years of hard sciences for a PA program anyway so it won't hurt to aim for Surgeon and fallback to nurse if you don't get into a med school. Any university (not community college) that focuses on science will be good. But aim high. If you don't get in you can fall back on PA. In the long run you'll be glad you chose to be a surgeon, they get paid more and do the more interesting part of the job. The PA works hard and does the dirty grunt work, and gets none of the glory and as I said before, not usually a part of the surgery anyway, the nurse is the one who hands over the tools. There's no need for another person and when there is they usually get a training surgeon to assist.

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There are some select PA programs which specialize in training PAs specifically for surgical careers. However this is not necessary. Any PA program will be sufficient. During your clinical rotations make connections with the surgical faculty so that you get good recommendations and possibly job offers. If you have electives use them to spend more time in surgical specialties for more interactions to allow for more job opportunities. As for the previous person they are somewhat misunderstood. Many PAs do surgical first assist which is what a surgical resident would do so it's not all scut work. Surgical first assist is not available in all hospitals because those with surgical residency programs will reserve the assisting for the residents so they get their training. Your best bet would be to look for positions in hospitals without a surgical residency program because that is where the opportunities are at. At this point get into college. When you get there you will have an adivsor help to choose the proper prereq courses (bio, chem, math, english, anatomy/physio etc.). These can be found on PA program sites so do your research. It will take around 3 years to complete the necessary coursework prior to starting PA school. You will also need volunteer or shadow hours to apply. Good luck!

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