does a physician do surgery
1 Surgery. 2  Physician assistants are the first assistants in surgery, even before other surgeons. 3  Surgical PAs usually perform certain surgical procedures on their own, such as putting in chest tubes, cutting and draining abscesses, as well as working as a part of a the surgeon/anesthesiologist/nursing team.4  Emergency.here are many other specialties that use PAs, and the demand in all of these depends on the needs of the medical facility and the community in which it resides. As an estimate, PAs can do about 80% of the work a physician does.