PA Program

Physician Assistants (PAs) work under the supervision of a physician to treat patients in a wide variety of healthcare settings. PAs can prescribe medication, diagnose illnesses and injuries, provide treatments and examinations, order and interpret labs, and perform many other tasks in collaboration with other medical professionals.

There is not a specific bachelor’s degree needed to become a PA. However, all PA schools have certain prerequisites in science, biology, chemistry, etc. that need to be met before they admit students into their program.

In addition to a bachelor’s degree and the completion of science prerequisites, you’ll need to attend an accredited PA program and complete a certain number of hours in clinical rotations. From there, you’ll take an exam to become certified as a PA and pursue licensure in the states you wish to practice in.

While both PAs and NPs serve as healthcare professionals with advanced degrees, PAs focus on a medical model of care while NPs focus on a nursing model of care. The difference between the two is their focus: PAs tend to hone their skills on the pathology of the disease and how to treat it, whereas NPs tend to emphasize the holistic care and wellbeing of the patient themselves. PAs typically take the approach of a generalist, while NPs may gravitate toward a specialty such as oncology or pediatrics in their area of practice.

To earn the Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) degree at Butler, students will take 108 credit hours completed in two years. The MPAS curriculum is taught in two sections, didactic and clinical, that students must take in a sequence of each other.

The DMS Bridge program at Butler is available to new PAs who have recently completed an ARC-PA program and aim to obtain a Doctor of Medical Science degree. The program seeks to build on the entry-level PA curriculum with a professional doctorate curriculum focused on a greater understanding of medicine, research, and the demands of a changing healthcare environment.