The Student Room Group

Can anyone help me understand the physician associate course/job?

Is there any forum/page/group where people considering the physician associate (PA) course can talk, maybe with current PAs?

I love the sound of the course on paper but am unsure whats happening with prescribing and regulation etc. id love to find someone else to discuss some of the uncertainty with so I can understand things better
A couple of universities (Chester and Leeds) have recently suspended their PA courses due to the uncertainty surrounding the role of PAs in the NHS. Think long and hard before investing time and money in the course. There are some older threads you might want to read through:

2025 PA applicants thread (this is very quiet compared with last year's thread)

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7547774

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7511958
Reply 2
Original post by Michaelpool
Is there any forum/page/group where people considering the physician associate (PA) course can talk, maybe with current PAs?
I love the sound of the course on paper but am unsure whats happening with prescribing and regulation etc. id love to find someone else to discuss some of the uncertainty with so I can understand things better

Hey, recently finished my undergrad in PA studies and now a qualified PA. I usually use other platforms to get updates for the PA news etc. But just let u know that the course does sound good on paper but there has been so many issues in the last year which has made it very difficult for qualified and newly qualified PA.
From the GMC Webinar I attended on Regulations:
What it means

Registration and revalidation

Education standards for HEls

Adhere to Good medical practice

Fitness to practice

Enabling discussion around ionizing radiation

What it doesn't mean

Scope of practice

Prescribing

Pay

Pros

Finally regulated by GMC and that physician associate is now a protected title

Glimpse opportunity that we maybe able to work abroad ( currently in New Zealand but they want 3-5 years worth of experience in the specific specialty)

Able to order ionising radiation with proper training

Cons

Regulation has raised so many unwanted attention on PAs and are now under review

Over 200 PAs have been made redundant in GP

Little to no PA jobs for newly qualified PAs and I know a couple who have not had a job since they qualified last year. ) it has become so competitive that there are currently 1000 PAs unemployed

Due to competitiveness a lot of new Job Ad for PA prefer PAs with experience over newly qualified

The RCP trying changing our scope of practice because GMC do not want to defined our Scope of practice (basically what we can and can’t do)

I suggest you wait and do some research before doing this cause especially if you are planning on doing it as a masters. Because there are currently so many PAs who don’t have jobs
Here some of the links u can refer to:
Reply 3
Original post by Kawahi
Hey, recently finished my undergrad in PA studies and now a qualified PA. I usually use other platforms to get updates for the PA news etc. But just let u know that the course does sound good on paper but there has been so many issues in the last year which has made it very difficult for qualified and newly qualified PA.
From the GMC Webinar I attended on Regulations:
What it means

Registration and revalidation

Education standards for HEls

Adhere to Good medical practice

Fitness to practice

Enabling discussion around ionizing radiation

What it doesn't mean

Scope of practice

Prescribing

Pay

Pros

Finally regulated by GMC and that physician associate is now a protected title

Glimpse opportunity that we maybe able to work abroad ( currently in New Zealand but they want 3-5 years worth of experience in the specific specialty)

Able to order ionising radiation with proper training

Cons

Regulation has raised so many unwanted attention on PAs and are now under review

Over 200 PAs have been made redundant in GP

Little to no PA jobs for newly qualified PAs and I know a couple who have not had a job since they qualified last year. ) it has become so competitive that there are currently 1000 PAs unemployed

Due to competitiveness a lot of new Job Ad for PA prefer PAs with experience over newly qualified

The RCP trying changing our scope of practice because GMC do not want to defined our Scope of practice (basically what we can and can’t do)

I suggest you wait and do some research before doing this cause especially if you are planning on doing it as a masters. Because there are currently so many PAs who don’t have jobs
Here some of the links u can refer to:


Oh my gosh thank you for taking the time to write this! So helpful

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