<p>So I know you could get a masters, but is it the same as M.D/D.O school? Like does the masters program have clinical work and afterwards you do a residency at a hospital?</p>
<p>Yes, a PA program has both coursework and clinical rotations. A PA program takes ~2.5-3 years to complete</p>
<p>After you complete the classroom portion and pass all your exams, you do clinical rotations thru all primary care fields. Sites might be hospital-based or practice-based, depending on the medical field. (My private practice OB/GYN used to take PA students for clinicals every year.)</p>
<p>Upon satisfactory completion of your clinicals, you sit for the national licensing exam. If you pass you can seek employment in most primary care fields.</p>
<p>If you want to do something specialized–like surgery–I believe you will need to take additional clinical training and possibly additional coursework before you can sit for specialist exams.</p>
<p>Whats the employment rate for PAs? How hard is it to find a job after you graduate?</p>
<p>Q1.) [Physician</a> Assistants : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physician-assistants.htm]Physician”>http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physician-assistants.htm)</p>
<p>Q2.) It depends on where you live and if you’re willing to relocate</p>
<p>Do further research and reading here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.aapa.org/[/url]”>http://www.aapa.org/</a></p>
<p>and</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.paeaonline.org/[/url]”>http://www.paeaonline.org/</a></p>
<p>WOWmom is correct, except for the part about needing extra training/exams to work in specialties like surgery. Friends of mine who recently graduated as PAs started working immediately in surgery/urology/trauma/etc practices. There are PA “residencies” out there, and more are starting. The big ones I know of are in Emergency Medicine (usually about a year long), where PAs are being heavily utilized to staff the fast-track sections of EDs.</p>
<p>So the job prospects are excellent</p>
<p>Psychiatry, emergency medicine, nephrology, orthopedics and cardio-thoracic surgery require additional training beyond a PA and advanced certification.</p>
<p>[NCCPA:</a> Specialty CAQs](<a href=“http://www.nccpa.net/SpecialtyCAQs.aspx]NCCPA:”>http://www.nccpa.net/SpecialtyCAQs.aspx)</p>
<p>There are currently 49 programs that offer PA “residencies” in fields like oncology, neurology and critical care. (Polansky, Maura; Garver GJ, Wilson LN, Pugh M, Hilton G (2012). “Postgraduate clinical education of physician assistants.”. J Physician Assist Educ 23 (1): 39-45.)</p>
<p>^ No, they don’t require additional training - additional training is available, but is certainly not required to work in those fields. It helps a PA get a job in those fields, but PAs without that training get jobs in those fields all the time. </p>
<p>And those CAQs aren’t “additional training” - from the looks of that page, its based on already having experience in the field you’re applying for certification in.</p>
<p>I’m actually interested in oncology. Can I go to any P.A program for that ?</p>
<p>You will probably get better and more accurate answers if you ask on a PA-specific message board. There are several on the internet–and they are hosted by professional PA organizations so I would consider them to reliable sources of information.</p>
<p>They can be found with <30 seconds of googling.</p>