When you walk into a doctor's office, clinic, emergency room or other medical facility, who is the first person you encounter? It is generally not the doctor. It is an assistant, a nurse or other healthcare personnel known as a paramedical or a paraprofessional. Paramedical workers should not be confused with the term paramedics. Paramedics are members of an emergency medical technician team. The term paramedical refers to the many different trained health professionals who work together with and support doctors and other healthcare professionals. Paramedical careers include physician assistant, medical assistant (very different from physician assistant), eye care professionals, physical therapy assistant, and occupational therapy assistant.

What is a paramedical?

The definition of paramedical Is "related to the medical profession in a secondary or supplementary capacity." Professionals in medicine, as in other fields, must go through extensive education and training to develop the skills needed to practice their specialties. The level of the education and training depends upon the specialty and its responsibilities. For a medical doctor (MD), including training in a medical specialty, this can mean up to eight years of additional university training, after graduating from college. Paramedical assistants, on the other hand, can play a vital and increasingly useful role in the healthcare system, after a much less lengthy period of training - usually requiring one to two years after graduating from high school. Increasingly states require licensing, registration or certification in order to practice even at the assistant level. More and more employers are requiring a high standard of professionalism. The term para comes from the Greek word for beside. Thus, the paramedical works close to or beside the doctor. Such is the case for the physician assistant who may be qualified to diagnose and treat patients, perform physical examinations on patients, and in some cases, prescribe medications for patients. In order to do this, however, the paramedical must have the education and training necessary to develop the skills to work alongside the doctor.

A new and fast-expanding field Most paramedical positions were not even in existence 25 or 30 years ago. And while doctors have always had assistants, they were not educated or trained in anything except the most basic duties. In fact, the field is so new that it is still evolving with many job titles, responsibilities, and the nature and content of educational programs in a state of change. While there has been a sharp increase in the number of doctors across the United States, they are mainly in medical specialties. There is a critical shortage of primary care physicians - those who first see the patients, such as internists, family practitioners, pediatricians, gynecologists and obstetricians. Because primary care physicians are the ones most likely to employ paramedical workers, the demand for paramedicals is expected to continue to accelerate. And the need will be greatest in the inner cities and rural areas. In addition, the delivery systems of healthcare are changing. The population is living longer, healthier lives and the emphasis is on prevention and health maintenance. In healthcare facilities from clinics to birthing centers to nursing homes, paramedicals will increasingly be employed to handle the more routine tasks that a doctor might perform in a private office practice.