Professional Health Care Career Path: Physician Assistant

About this field

This professional health care career path requires an advanced degree beyond the Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences.

A Physician Assistant is a health care provider who works under the supervision of a physician to provide medical care to a wide variety of patients. Physician Assistants evaluate and diagnose illnesses or injuries, develop treatment plans, and coordinate care for patients. They work in hospitals, clinics, and other health care facilities.

Read more about Job Statistics.

Degree Requirement

Master’s degree from an Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) accredited program.

Typical Prerequisites Needed for Admissions to a PA program

• 8 semester hours General Chemistry or Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry with labs
• 8 semester hours of Biology with labs
• 8 semester hours of Human Anatomy and Physiology with lab
• 3-4 semester hours of Organic Chemistry with lab
• General psychology
• 3 semester hours of statistics
• Microbiology with lab
• 2 English composition courses or intensive writing course series

NOTE: Students are strongly encouraged to determine the exact PA prerequisites for a program by visiting that program’s website. The link provided below shows all accredited PA degree programs.

ARC-PA Accredited PA Degree Programs.

Why choose Health Sciences as a bachelor’s degree?

In addition to offering a strong background in orthopedic injuries and medical illness assessment, the Health Sciences degree also provides a great degree of flexibility in course options for the student. Courses with content such as musculoskeletal evaluation, therapeutic interventions, kinesiology, and medical disease and illness provide the student with a strong foundation for medical school. The degree offers flexibility by allowing the student to take 9 hours outside of the health science area. When combined with core requirements, students should be able to meet all the typical prerequisites required of the average PA degree program.