The rest of this site is written for patients and families. This section is written for colleagues. It draws on a career that has run through spine surgery, outpatient orthopedics, interventional pain management and physiatry — which is more specialties than most PAs will work in, and enough to have views on what moves between them and what does not.
PAs are certified as generalists, and the profession's ability to move between specialties is one of its defining features. It is also one of its least-discussed practical problems. Most writing about PA careers is either recruitment material or a single anecdote. This aims to be neither.
Start here
Also being written
- PAs in physical medicine and rehabilitation
- Surgical first-assist as a PA
- The orthopedic PA career path
- Interventional pain as a PA
- Learning ultrasound-guided injection
- Precepting PA students
- What I wish I had known in my first year
Content in this section reflects one clinician's experience and views on professional practice. It is not career, legal or contractual advice, and scope of practice for PAs varies by state and by employer. See the editorial policy for how content here is written.