Let's talk about Physician Associates

Hi, my name is Eleni Tsiora and I’m currently in the first year of my MSc Physician Associate at the University of Reading!

Physician Associate - what's that?

As a new up and coming role I very often get asked: ' Sorry, you're a what?'.

So, Physician Associates work alongside doctors to assist with diagnoses, examinations, management and treatment of patients. We are trained on the medical model whilst also incorporating the fundamentals of nursing into our practices. We work as part of a multidisciplinary team made up of doctors, other Physician Associates, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, occupational therapists and many more.

Where can PAs work?

To be honest, pretty much anywhere and everywhere! PAs can work in primary care settings such as GP and in the community. We can also work in secondary care which includes hospitals. As Physician Associate students we are trained to become general practitioners, meaning we qualify with a general knowledge of medicine. We can then choose to specialise wherever we are interested in working - and if you don't find YOUR specialty in the first go don't worry, you can choose a different specialty and move around until you find it. That's the beauty of being trained as a PA!

My pathway to becoming a Physician Associate

Currently in the UK there are a number of Msc Physician Associate courses running, which is what I am part of as well. I grew up in Greece and went to a general public school there up until the age of 18. After moving to England I did an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science which also involved a placement year in industry. Healthcare courses, especially post-graduate ones, require you to have some experience within the healthcare sector prior to commencing - I worked (and still do) as a Healthcare Assistant in a hospital; did a full Bsc placement year in a university hospital/private clinic specialising in nuclear medicine; worked as a support worker with children and young adults and did some volunteering. I am aware of universities who have now launched undergraduate Physician Associate courses - with the University of Reading included in that list. I am currently 6 months into my first year and absolutely loving it - let's see what the future holds!

Debunking myths about Physician Associates
- We are NOT personal assistants to doctors (yes I know it's funny 'cause the abbreviation of our role is PA 😆) - we work alongside them.
- We go to medical school - a 2 year Msc "crash course into medicine" as we like to call it + a previous undergraduate degree.
- It is not easy to get into/ graduate from - we have to go through rounds of applications/interviews/assessments to get onto this course plus have a Bachelor's degree of 2:1 or higher.
- We study a lot - yep I know it's not what you want to hear 😬 - but a typical week consists of 9-5 university attendance, placements, self directed studying plus factoring in time to be a person and relax.

Thing is, we wouldn't have it any other way - sending hugs to all my fellow healthcare students and workers - YOU'RE SMASHING IT ❤️🌈