Physician Assistants must be able to function in a broad variety of clinical situations and to render a wide spectrum of patient care. The use of a trained intermediary would mean that a candidate s judgment must be mediated by someone else s power of selection and observation. Therefore, third parties cannot be used to assist students in accomplishing curricular requirements in the five skill areas specified. The candidate must be able to observe demonstrations and participate in experiments in the basic medical sciences, including, but not limited to, physiologic and pharmacologic demonstrations, microbiologic cultures, and microscopic studies of microorganisms and tissues in normal and pathologic states. A candidate must be able to observe a patient accurately at a distance and close at hand.
Observation necessitates the functional use of the sense of vision and other sensory modalities.
It is enhanced by the functional use of the senses of smell and touch. The candidate must therefore possess adequate sensations of vision, hearing, equilibrium, smell, taste, touch, pain, temperature, position, pressure, movement, stereognosis, and vibration. Communication A candidate should be able to speak, to hear, and to observe patients in order to elicit information, describe changes in mood, activity and posture, and perceive nonverbal communications. A candidate must be able to communicate effectively and sensitively with patients. Communication includes not only speech, but reading and writing.