Welcome to the UNTHSC PA Studies Career Development Site.

This web-site is designed to deliver career-related information for PA students, as well as graduates. The information can be used in preparing to enter the work marketplace and in making career choices. The site may also provide information that will help them choose work that is suited to their personal interests as well as those of the patients they will serve. The site strives to accomplish this by providing information on career options in adequately and underserved communities and on other career decision related information. Our intent is to provide information on considerations that should be made during the career-decision making process.

The U.S. Department of Labor has predicted good employment opportunity for today’s physician assistants, especially in settings that are having difficulty attracting primary care physicians. While the effects of population and poverty can adversely affect the availability of primary care physicians, those conditions can also lead to more job opportunities for the PA. Trends in PA employment have also revealed increasing opportunities for PAs who are choosing to work in specialty areas. Because of the multitude of these opportunities, the graduate PA today will require decision making skills and marketing tools when traveling their career paths. Graduates also need to educate themselves on the basics of a decision making model when planning their careers in order to make choices that maximize their personal job satisfaction.

While the PA career field has enjoyed very high employment rates, we believe there are still more employment opportunities to be discovered. For example, Texas is a State with numerous rural and underserved communities. It would greatly benefit from having a large cadre of culturally sensitive and culturally aware PAs interested in working in rural and underserved communities. While PA education may focus on the rewards of being a PA, there are also unique rewards that can be experienced by serving an underserved population.

The creation of this site is made possible by a Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration Physician Assistant Training Grant project awarded to the University of North Texas Health Science Center PA Studies program.