Some PA's pursue additional education in order to practice in a specialty area as surgery, neonatology, or emergency medicine. Others, as they attain greater clinical knowledge and experience, advance to added responsibilities and higher earnings. However, by the very nature of the profession, individual PA's are usually supervised by physicians. Employment of PA's is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2008 due to anticipated expansion of the health services industry and an emphasis on cost containment. Physicians and institutions are expected to employ more PA's to provide primary care and assist with medical and surgical procedures, because PA's are cost-effective and productive members of the health care team.
Physician assistants can relieve physicians of routine duties and procedures.
Besides the traditional office-based setting, PA's should find a growing number of jobs in institutional settings such as hospitals, academic medical centers, public clinics, and prisons. Additional PA's may be needed to augment medical staffing in inpatient teaching hospital settings if the number of physician residents is reduced. In addition, state-imposed legal limitations on the numbers of hours worked by physician residents are increasingly common and encourage hospitals to use PA's to supply some physician resident services. Opportunities will be best in states that allow PA's a wider scope of practice, such as the ability to prescribe medication. Income varies by specialty, practice setting, geographical location, and years of experience.