Consider a Physician Assistant Program as an International Student

Chinese national Yue Jiang has always been drawn to medicine and health care, due to the opportunities for service and intellectual challenge. Since attending a medical school would be longer and more expensive, she says she looked into pursuing a physician assistant degree. She is currently in the PA graduate program at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"It was natural for me to do it here in the U.S," says Jiang, who already has a Bachelor of Arts and two Master of Science degrees from U.S. universities. She says U.S. PA programs are attractive for their rigorous training, flexibility and recognition.

PAs are licensed medical professionals who receive thousands of hours of training and work under a physician's supervision to diagnose and treat illnesses and prescribe medication for patients.

[Read: How a Physician Assistant Career Compares to a Job as a Doctor.]

There are currently more than 240 accredited physician assistant programs at U.S. colleges and universities, with 140 PA programs that accept international applicants, according to Steven Lane, a spokesperson at the Physician Assistant Education Association, which represents PA educational programs in the U.S. Most PA programs are at the graduate degree level.

Duke University in North Carolina is the birthplace of the PA profession, according to the school's website, as it had the very first PA program in the U.S. in 1965.

"We have seen a very slight increase in interest by international students," says Wendy Elwell-Paige, assistant director of admissions in the PA program at Duke. She says the program had 14 international applicants for the class that matriculated in August 2018 and 17 for the class that will matriculate this coming August.

Here are a few things for prospective international students to keep in mind about physician assistant graduate programs in the U.S.

Requirements. Some schools, such as the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center--Dallas, Oregon Health and Science University, Northwestern University in Illinois and Yale University in Connecticut, have separate webpages on their site for international applicants, which detail specific requirements. These can vary, but at a minimum, applicants must have a bachelor's degree, and those that hold degrees from institutions outside the U.S. must have a foreign credential evaluation and have taken an English language proficiency test, such as the TOEFL.

[Read: The Complete Guide to the TOEFL Test.]

Before applying, prospective students are typically required to take prerequisite courses through a U.S.-accredited college or university, particularly in the sciences. Applicants must complete the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants, or CASPA, which is the standard online application for graduate-level PA programs that allows students to apply to multiple programs at one time.

Many schools also require all applicants to have a number of hours of either paid or unpaid direct hands-on patient health care experience, such as working as a paramedic or back office medical assistant. For example, Bethel University in Minnesota requires applicants to its physician assistant program have 250 hours of health care experience, while Missouri State University specifies applicants must have at least 500 hours of paid experience. Additionally, both MSU and the University of Southern California require test scores from either the GRE or MCAT.

International students should note that certain schools, such as Yale, do not accept graduates of foreign medical schools into their PA program. However at other schools, such as Loma Linda University in California, the University of Charleston in West Virginia and Northwestern University, graduates of foreign medical schools are considered.

"We accept applicants who have medical degrees from other countries," says Kathy Erdman, physician assistant program director in the School of Health Professions at the Baylor College of Medicine. "If accepted, they complete the program as any other student would."

Experts suggest international students do their research carefully as physician assistant program requirements can vary.

Career options. To become a PA and practice in the U.S., students must attend and graduate from an ARC-PA accredited program, referring to the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant.

"Students who graduate from an accredited U.S. PA program can sit for the national certifying exam, PANCE, to become certified," says Susan E. White, director of the physician assistant program and assistant professor of OB-GYN at Boston University's School of Medicine.

PANCE refers to the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, or NCCPA. After students pass the PANCE they can apply for a state license to work as a physician assistant. White says international students can work in the U.S. once they obtain a work visa.

"Our student from Canada is currently working in New York," White says.

[Read: International Grad Students at U.S. Universities Can Find On-Campus Jobs.]

The PA field allows graduates to work in a variety of medical settings, such as in hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes and health centers, and in a specific field, such as emergency medicine or family medicine.

"We hope that any international graduate will go into PA practice. PAs also go into PA education and some into research," Elwell-Paige says.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the median annual wage for physician assistants at $108,610 for May 2018 and projects a 37% job growth rate for the profession from 2016 to 2026.

"The career options for these students once they graduate from an accredited U.S. PA program are the same as for all new graduates -- to seek a job in the specialty of their choice in the booming PA profession," Lane says.

White says physician assistants do not exist in all countries and that U.S.-trained PAs may find that not all countries accept the PANCE certification and may require their own exams. Several countries have adopted versions of the physician assistant profession, according to the American Academy of PAs, including Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and South Africa, and many have their own associations, such as the Indian Association of Physician Assistants. For students looking for information about international opportunities, the AAPA recommends Physician Assistants for Global Health.

Jiang says she plans to work in the U.S. and is exploring her possibilities. She is applying for a PA oncology fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to receive a more extensive understanding of cancer care. She's also exploring jobs in surgery and psychiatry in addition to oncology.

"Any of these specialties would allow me to give my best contribution," Jiang says.

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