Big List of "Back-Up" Plans for Premeds- Part 2: Physician Assistant

This is Part 2 of my Big List of "Back-Up" Plans for Premeds series, intended to give a brief introduction to some alternate careers in health care that premeds might consider pursuing.

Physician Assistant Programs as well as the profession itself are very new in Canada, considering PAs were recognized by the CMA as health care professionals only in 2003.  At McMaster, the first class started in 2008 while the program was fully accredited in 2012. In Ontario, PAs are being introduced to the health care system through a 2-year demonstration and supported by the PA Employment Support Program. Considering the significance of Physician Assistants in the US (83,466 in 2010), you can expect a similar trend in Canada with the successful integration and use of PAs into the Canadian health care system.

Some important points regarding Physician Assistant Programs in Canada:

• 2-year long, with the first year consisting of clinical sciences and second year of clinical rotations—similar to the medical school curriculum, but compressed.
• Regarding admissions- it is hard to say what is competitive, but it has been said that GPA of 3.55 would be competitive. However, with the ever-increase in applications into health care fields (medicine, dentistry, PA, etc), competitive GPA for PA programs will definitely increase in the coming years, especially as the programs gain more public acknowledgement.
• There are 156 programs in the US, while only 3 in Canada. Canadian PA programs are not accredited in the US, but US programs are accredited in Canada and graduates from PA programs in US can practice in Canada after writing the Canadian licensing exam.

Here is a very small chart summarizing admissions requirements for Canadian PA programs:

Figure 1. Canadian Physician Assistant Programs requirements- click to enlarge. 

As you can see, the only programs that an average applicant would be interested in are the McMaster and Manitoba programs that do not have clinical experience requirements. As such, I chose not to include any further information on the Consortium of PA education.

Statistics
For McMaster, there were ~300 applications for ~60 interviews, and 24 accepted. Other than that, there is very little data available.

Non-academic
Both Manitoba and McMaster have supplementary applications that include sections such as Employment, Volunteer/Community experiences, Awards/Distinctions/Honours, Scholarly Activities, etc. Links to supplementary applications below:

http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/medicine/media/PAEP_Suppl_App_Form_2013_INTAKE.pdf
http://bhsc.mcmaster.ca/pa/pa_application_2011.pdf

Deadlines
Similar deadlines as graduate programs: McMaster (February 1st), Manitoba (November 30th). 

Potential salary & Job security/market
As the field is still very new, there is no reliable data as of yet- however, PA income has been quoted as anywhere from 80k- 100k, sometimes higher. In the US, the mid-career median pay has been stated as $98,900. 

A publication from CMA in 2011 states "This year the University of Manitoba program graduated 13 PAs and they all had jobs within 30 days, and I know that all the McMaster graduates are employed." The same report expects that at least 3 new programs will open in the next 10 years, with the number of PAs increasing dramatically in the coming years.

Links to school websites

McMaster
Manitoba
U of T (Consortium of PA Education)

I apologize for the lack of any concrete statistics, however as previously stated there is very little data available due to the profession's recent emergence. However, it seems certain that the field shows a lot of promise as Physician Assistants could play a critical role in alleviating healthcare shortages in Canada.

Part 3 will feature Pharmacy Occupational/Physical Therapy programs in Canada.

Matt