Quote:
Originally Posted by Philipp31
Fair enough, okay, so what does a PA do?
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The physician assistant or associate (PA) is a credentialed health care professional who practices medicine with physician supervision. In clinical practice, PAs perform an extensive range of medical services in nearly every medical and surgical specialty. Offering many of the services traditionally provided by physicians, PAs have been in practice in the USA for almost 60 years and in the Canadian Armed Forces for almost 30 years. The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, in association with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), and the Canadian Association of Physician Assistants (CAPA) has been introducing PAs to civilian medicine in Ontario since 2004. At present, PAs in Ontario work with a negotiated level of autonomy under the supervision of a CPSO registered physician.
As part of their many roles in the clinical setting, physician assistants:
Take patient histories and perform physical exams
Diagnose illnesses and develop treatment plans
Order tests and prescribe medications
Counsel and educate patients
Suture wounds and perform minor surgical procedures
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician_assistant and
http://www.premed101.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=63 
I came on here to answer questions about PAs and Health Sci and won't be participating in discussion about anything personal. That said, for me I knew about PAs from the States going back to when I was about 16.
