Graduation from an accredited physician assistant program and passage of the national certifying exam are required for state licensure. In the mid-1960s, physicians and educators recognized there was a shortage and uneven distribution of primary care physicians. To expand the delivery of quality medical care, Dr. Eugene Stead of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina put together the first class of PAs in 1965. He selected Navy corpsmen who received considerable medical training during their military service and during the war in Vietnam but who had no comparable civilian employment. About 19 percent are in surgery or the surgical subspecialties.
Physician assistants receive a broad education in medicine.
Their education is ongoing after graduation through continuing medical education requirements and continual interaction with physicians and other health care providers. What a physician assistant does varies with training, experience, and state law. In addition, the scope of the PA's practice corresponds to the supervising physician's practice. In general, a physician assistant will see many of the same types of patients as the physician. The cases handled by physicians are generally the more complicated medical cases or those cases which require care that is not a routine part of the PA's scope of work.