A career with tremendous scope

Updated on: Tuesday, February 09, 2010

While the Central and the State governments are busy launching new schemes and projects to create more jobs, a promising health care programme that offers immense employment chances, especially for youngsters, remains neglected in India.

"Physician assistant (PA) programme is an American concept. This profession came into existence in the U.S. in the mid-1960s due to the shortage and uneven geographic distribution of primary care physicians," says Dr. Philomena Mariadoss, Dean, Madras Medical Mission, Chennai. "Though there are several job offers from various institutions, the number of PA graduates to take up the jobs is less here," she said.

Who is a PA?

A PA is a skilled healthcare professional who is qualified in academic and clinical training to provide healthcare services under the supervision of a specialist. "They undertake all the matters of a patient beginning from preparing medical histories, examining patients, writing case summaries, ordering laboratory tests like X-rays, ECGs, ultra-sonogram and counselling patients. The doctors who have a busy schedule may not get time to take care the problems of a patient. At this juncture the role of the PAs becomes vital," said Farida Farzana, PA programme coordinator, Frontier Lifeline Hospital and Dr. K.M. Cherian Heart Foundation at Chennai.

The PAs work in different departments such as out-patient wing, operation theatre, department of anaesthesia, catheterisation labs, coronary care units, intensive care units, organ transplant units, reproductive medicine, orthopaedics, trauma care, nuclear medicine and so on.

Scope

"The scope of this course is tremendous in our country. Apart from working as PA, they get placements in medical software institutions, pharmaceutical industry and organisations developing and marketing sophisticated medical devices, medical tourism, and medical insurance. Besides, they will be appointed as coordinators for various clinical trials. While abroad they can work as medical technologists/scientist/cardiac technician/case managers/research assistants with some additional qualification as required by the respective country's regulations. The programme has gained wider recognition among cardiologists and cardiac surgeons," says Gomathi Sundar, Vice-President, Indian Association of Physician Assistants (IAPA).

“The salary structure at the time of joining ranges anywhere from Rs.15,000 to Rs.22,000 along with special perks like free accommodation," says Gomathi, who is also faculty and medical writer at Care foundation at Hyderabad.

Challenges

Though the benefits are aplenty, not many students get attracted to this programme. Dr. Philomena Mariadoss cites lack of recognition from the government sector, lack of accreditation body to regulate the various aspects of the PA programme, non-standardised course curriculum as some of the reasons. "Though we had contacted the Tamil Nadu Health Ministry in October 2009 regarding this, we have not received any response so far," Dr. Philomena Mariadoss said. Another drawback is that only a few universities in India offer higher degree in PA programme. “Only BITS-Pilani offers M.Phil in PA programme. After that they can enrol themselves for a doctorate degree. If the students from India want to do higher studies abroad, they should study the course ordered by the respective country's rules and regulations," says Ms. Farida.

Affirming that lack of publicity is one of the reasons, M.Manesh, final-year student at AIMS, Kochi, said that he came to know of this course as he was so passionate in pursuing a career in medical field.

"I wanted to study a novel course in the medical field and found PA programme interesting. Though I spend lot of time to get details of this course, now I'm very satisfied," said Manesh, who has a degree in biotechnology. However, it is learnt that neither the universities that run the programme nor the institutions that have tie-up with the universities have shown sincere interest in seeking recognition from the government. Dr .M.G.R Medical University at Chennai plans to adopt the PA programme.

Course

"It is a 4-year degree programme, which includes one-year internship.

The course structure is designed in such a way that the PA graduates would fit into various fields like clinical (patient care) research, teaching, management /administration /functional consultant in a software industry to develop hospital information system, rural medicine, preventive healthcare," says Dr. Philomena Mariadoss. Apart from the United States, this course is available in Canada, England, Australia, Netherlands and Scotland. In England and Australia it was started recently.

Eligibility: Plus Two in science stream.

The duration of the programme: 4 years (3 years + 1 year of internship)

Fee structure: Normally it is Rs 10,000 to Rs.20,000 per semester.

Universities offering the PA programme

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, in collaboration with Madras Medical Mission and Frontier Life Line, Chennai (4 years)

Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Chennai (three-year B.Sc.)

Avinashalingam University in collaboration with G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital, Coimbatore (four years)

Kanchi Kamakoti Hospitals, Kacheepuram, Tamil Nadu.

Netaji Subhas Chandra University, Kolkata in collaboration with CARE Hospital, Hyderabad

Rabindranath Tagore Institute of Medical Sciences, Kolkata (three years)

Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences, Tirupathi (three years)

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi

Role of a PA

In the out-patient wing they take down medical histories, examine patients, write case summaries, order and interpret laboratory tests like X-rays, ECGs, ultra sonogram, echocardiogram, treadmill tests, pulmonary function tests, make diagnosis and counsel patients. In the wards and critical care units, they take rounds, manage emergency situation until the arrival of the specialist.

During surgery, they work as first or second assistants of whom one of the important tasks is to harvest saphenous vein for CABG surgery, establishing cardio-pulmonary bypass as a clinical perfusionist, prepare operation notes and take of care of post-operative management of the patients.

A career with tremendous scope

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