Physician Assistant Salary In California
They are not medical assistants, nor does a nursing assistant come close to what physician assistants really are and how much they earn.
The Physician Assistant salary in California is much higher than most medical professions. Quite simply, physician assistants, or also known as Physician associates, are professionals who are a few years shy of being full-fledged doctors. They also need to undergo a minimum number years of schooling and have to be certified as well. Some medical institutions require that practitioners in this field should be members of the American Academy of Physician Assistants before they are allowed to work. But what really makes this career fulfilling, aside from the prestige it brings, is the physician assistant salary or compensation package.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Department that closely tracks a wide range of salaries, in 2013 the average annual pay for Physician Assistants was approximately $93,000! WOW! The top ten percent of Physician Assistants earned $131,000, and the bottom ten percent earned approximately $63,000. This is one of the major reasons Physician Assistant Programs are becoming so popular these days. With the implementation of health care reform, the demand for Physician Assistants is only going up. There are 8 accredited Physician Assistant Programs in California, with some of them taking as little as 22 months to complete once prerequisites are competed.
Not to be confused with a medical assistant, whose basic function is administrative in duty, nor with nurses, their aides, CNA’s, or Bakersfield Phlebotomy Technicians, physician assistants are trained in the same manner as doctors are. They are allowed to perform physical examinations, diagnose and even write down prescriptions. In a way, they really are physicians already. This is what gives the prestige to the career option.
Comparing to the salaries of a slew of other assistants in the medical field, Bakersfield physician assistants are quite high paying. With the top average Physician Assistant salary in California now topping SIX FIGURES, it’s a perfect time to consider this educational program! And this probably is the reason why it has been considered as one of the top jobs in America for years already. It has never gone out of the list.
While there are factors affecting and contributing to the differences in salaries by city, the average physician assistant salary is in the range of about $75,000-$90,000 anually. This range differs based on the location and the subspecialties. Subspecialties include being a physician assistant in the dermatological and surgical fields.
While the demand is not as popular as others, there is a growing need for physician assistants in Bakersfield Ca and in hospitals in rural areas that have almost no physicians. The market for employment is thus very competitive while being very lax when it comes to responsibility. As physician associates, the liability for malpractice suits is almost nonexistent and being on the really safe side, insurance costs are at an all-time low.
And to be in the really safe side, one may just opt to shift their careers towards the academe through taking pa jobs in schools. Physician assistants or associates are easily considered for teaching jobs in the field as schools find it more economical to hire such rather than full-fledged physicians who will end up just teaching the same coverage and may actually not be able to keep abreast with the students.
As an added bonus, universities from the international scene have taken steps to adopt the trend of training and employing these assistants or associates in their own medical industries. Physician assistant programs have been offered in countries like Australia, Canada, England, Germany, The Netherlands, Scotland, and even as far as South Africa.
To take advantage of this opportunity and to start earning physician assistant salary, one only has to comply with simple physical assistant requirements, such as two years of a post graduate medical schooling or a master’s degree, a little over a hundred hours of relevant training every year and certification once every six years. It is that easy, yet it is that fulfilling.