What are physician associates (PAs)Physician associates (PAs) are healthcare professionals with a generalist medical education who work alongside doctors and surgeons providing medical care as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team. PAs work under the supervision of a doctor but can work autonomously with appropriate support. The first PAs were formally introduced in 2003.

What do physician associates do?
PAs are trained to work within a defined scope of practice and limits of competence to perform the following duties:
‍
• Taking medical histories from patients
• Carrying out physical examinations
• Seeing patients with undifferentiated diagnoses
• Seeing patients with long-term chronic conditions
• Formulating differential diagnoses and management plans
• Carrying out diagnostic and therapeutic procedures
• Developing and delivering appropriate treatment and management plans
• Requesting and interpreting diagnostic studies
• Providing health promotion and disease prevention advice for patients.

However, currently PAs are not able to:
‍
• Prescribe
• Request ionising radiation (eg chest X-ray or CT scan).
‍
Watch a short video about Physician Associates below: