Definitions

Didactic year The portion of PA school that involves classroom learning. Clinical year The portion of PA school that involves rotations in various specialties providing care to patients and putting the medical knowledge gained during the didactic year into practice. Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) This is an application service used by most …

What is a PA?

Definition The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) website has extensive information about the PA profession. According to their website, “PAs are medical professionals who diagnose illness, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe medications, and often serve as a patient’s principal healthcare provider. With thousands of hours of medical training, PAs are versatile and collaborative. …

My Story

Going into junior year of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew that I was good at math and science. I was looking at careers like Data Analyst or Actuary, none of which truly caught my attention. There was increasing pressure to start looking more seriously at what …