Last Updated on October 21, 2021 by admin
How To Become A Physician Assistant In Louisiana
Physician assistants are very different from other health care providers in the nursing industry, mainly because they are allowed to prescribe medications and they have a series of additional duties and responsibilities, as opposed to registered nurses or licensed practical nurses, for instance. In addition to this, one of the many benefits of working as a physician assistant in Louisiana, in addition to the financial benefits, is the fact that you can easily get an entry-level position with a two-year nurse practitioner program.
Having said that, most physician assistants choose to firstly earn their Bachelor’s Degree in Health Science, followed by a two-year Master’s physician assistant program in the same field. Throughout the course of the six years of training, these health care providers will get a deeper insight into fields like pharmacology, disease prevention, biochemistry, pathology, physiology as well as anatomy. While the first part of the study program focuses mainly on theoretical training and classroom teaching, the latter is more focused on the practical aspect of the job, as physician assistants will get a deeper insight into the entire spectrum of surgical and medical care, thus allowing them to practice in a variety of different medical specialties in the future.
That being said, throughout the course of the training, physician assistants practice in fields like emergency medicine, psychiatry, inpatient medicine, paediatrics, geriatrics and many others. There are some accelerated Bachelor’s Degree training program that allow future physician assistants to get their Bachelor’s degree and to speed up their training – this way, these professionals can easily earn their bachelor’s degree within as little as one or two years, as opposed to the regular length of the Bachelor’s Degree in Health Sciences of four years.
Physician Assistant Job Description
Physician assistants have numerous duties and responsibilities to hold on to, as these professionals work under the direct supervision of a trained and licensed surgeon or physician. That being said, the basic medical duties of a physician assistant in a public hospital or a private clinic include examining, diagnosing and treating the patients, ordering laboratory tests and x-rays, interpreting them and looking for any suspicious abnormal result and so on.
Moreover, it is not uncommon for physician assistants to also splint or cast minor injuries, to stitch wounds, to conduct various therapies, to prescribe treatments and medications and so forth. In addition to this, physician assistants can also choose to work in one or more medical specialties, including but not limited to medical surgery, paediatrics, internal medicine, geriatrics, family medicine and so forth. The precise duties of a physician assistant vary from state to state, and they are dictated by the state laws as well as by licensed physician who oversees the entire medical activity of the physician assistant.
Licensing And Certification Options For Physician Assistants
As you may know already, all physician assistants who work in all the 50 states of the United States of America are required to achieve the designation of PA-C, or Physician Assistant-Certified, and in order for that to happen they must firstly sit for the certification exam, after having graduated from a physician assistant training program that has been reviewed and accredited by the ARC-PA, or the Accreditation Review Commission on the Education of Physician Assistants. After that, the physicians can proceed to passing the PANCE examination, or the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination, which must be kept active every two years by completing one hundred hours of continuing education in the medical field. Moreover, all professionals are required to sit for the PANRE, or the recertification exam every six years, as the PA-C is set to expire.
Salary and Career Info
The interactive chart above is a visual representation of the annual salary of Louisiana PA’s compared to the national annual salaries, all based on the latest May 2022 Occupational Employment Statistics figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Physician Assistant Schools In Louisiana
At the time being, there are no less than three ARC-PA accredited physician assistant training programs and schools in the state of Louisiana, where future physician assistants can get their bachelor’s or their master’s degree. These programs are the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center located in New Orleans, the Our Lady Of The Lake College in Baton Rouge as well as the Louisiana State University Health Sciences center, located in the city of Shreveport, Louisiana. These are the only accredited institutions that can offer state of the art physician assistant training, including theoretical and practical education.
List of All 3 Accredited PA Programs
The accrediting agency is ARC-PA and they have 3 fully accredited AL programs listed as of November 2014.
1. Our Lady of the Lake College
Initial Accreditation Date: September 4, 2010
Next ARC-PA Review: September 2020
Website: http://www.ololcollege.edu/academics/academic-programs/physician-assistant-studies
2. Louisiana State University – Shreveport
Initial Accreditation Date: April 1, 1996
Next ARC-PA Review: September 2016
Website: http://www.lsuhscshreveport.edu/AlliedHealth/AlliedHealthPhysicianAssistant1.aspx
3. Louisiana State University – New Orleans (Provisional)
Initial Accreditation Date: September 2012
Next ARC-PA Review: September 2015
Website: http://alliedhealth.lsuhsc.edu/pa/
I would like additional information about the application process including the website to complete the online application. I am interested in the program at Louisiana State University New Orleans.
Does LSU accept student from Texas into the PA program