An analysis of the professional performance of physician's assistants.

The job performance of a national sample of 939 physician's assistants has been assessed by means of a self-rating scale as well as by a rating scale completed by supervising physicians. Three-quarters of the participating supervising physicians are greatly satisfied with the work of their physician's assistants and a similar proportion indicate that they would definitely hire the same assistant if they "had it to do over again." The influences of background and work environment characteristics upon performance were assessed by means of multiple regression. Graduating from a military-sponsored physician's assistant program appears to have a beneficial effect upon performance. Performance during training exerts only a weak effect upon job performance. Amount of education and medical experience prior to beginning physician's assistant training do not affect job performance.