Education programs are generally 2 years in length, although some are longer and a few are shorter. Regardless of the institutional sponsorship, most accredited PA programs have clinical teaching affiliations with medical schools or medical school faculty. PA education begins with a classroom or didactic phase that lasts 6 to 24 months. Classroom instruction includes human anatomy, physiology, microbiology, clinical pharmacology, applied psychology, clinical medicine, and medical ethics. During the program's last 9 to 15 months, students do supervised clinical work designed to develop practitioners's skills.
Clinical training begins with a series of clinical practice assignments or rotations.
These rotations include family practice, inpatient and ambulatory medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, emergency medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry, and pediatrics. This learning experience often leads to a permanent position. The number of PA programs that award a bachelor's degree has been growing, and currently about two-thirds of the programs do so. This background allows for a shorter period of classroom training and increased emphasis on clinical experience. Residency programs, as yet unaccredited, are available in emergency medicine, general surgery, neonatology, and occupational medicine.