What Is a Physician Extender and How to Become One
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What Is a Physician Extender?
Physician extender is a term describing, primarily, two separate kinds of health care professionals: nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Physicians extenders are not physicians, but perform vital functions in the overall care of patients, like consulting patients, diagnosing and treating medical conditions, performing physical exams, and documenting and updating patient records. Becoming a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant, or any role that might be described as a physician extender, required you to be certified and licensed by the appropriate regulatory agencies in your state or region.
How Do You Become a Physician Extender?
The path to becoming a physician extender depends on the role you wish to pursue. For the sake of clarity, we here focus on the two most common types of physician extender, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. To become a nurse practitioner, you must earn a Bachelor's of Science in nursing, and then become a registered nurse. With experience as an RN, you may pursue a graduate degree in nursing and then become certified via a specialty nursing board. To become a physician assistant, you must study science as an undergraduate, or even premed. After earning your degree, you must get some medical experience by working in the medical field at a lower level before entering PA school. Once you are in your program, you must pass and then obtain certification and your state licenses.
Who Can Work as a Physician Extender?
Although physician assistants and nurse practitioners are the two most common types of physician extenders, they are by no means the only. Athletic trainers, clinical nurse specialists, midwives, and radiology assistants all fit under the umbrella term of physician extender because they all perform at least some of the same duties and responsibilities as a physician. Although the skills and qualifications needed for some of these jobs are quite a bit less than for PA, NP, or physician candidates, their roles are still vital to the health care field, and they are still considered a part of the physician extender team.
