Physician Assistant Studies

A graduate clinical programme leading to licensure as a physician assistant — diagnosis, management, prescribing and procedures, practised under a supervising physician across essentially every specialty. ⚠⚠ Master's only, and small: 6 Florida public institutions award 225 degrees a year, every one of them a master's. ⚠⚠⚠ Florida wrote the credential into statute with a date — anyone matriculating after 31 December 2020 must hold a master's.

The degrees this program covers

⚠⚠⚠ THE ADMISSION BARRIER IS A JOB, NOT A TRANSCRIPT. PAEA's Student Report puts the median matriculant at roughly 3,200 hours of direct patient contact, with the 25th percentile near 1,750 and the 75th near 5,600 — which is one to three years of full-time clinical work BEFORE the programme starts. ⚠ Grade point averages cluster around 3.6, so the GPA screens you out and the hours get you in. ⚠⚠ Verify the figures with PAEA directly; they are widely quoted second-hand and they move. ⚠⚠⚠ AND EACH PROGRAMME DEFINES THE HOURS ITSELF. Most distinguish direct PATIENT CARE experience — where you are hands-on and responsible — from general HEALTHCARE experience such as scribing or front-desk work, and count them differently or not at all. Get each programme's own definition in writing before you take a job to accumulate hours. ⚠ THE ACADEMIC SIDE: prerequisites are consistent across programmes — anatomy and physiology with laboratories, microbiology, general chemistry, organic chemistry or biochemistry, general biology, statistics, psychology, developmental psychology, medical terminology and composition. Florida's public colleges carry every one of them, most at 15 to 39 institutions, so the prerequisite year is cheap and near home even though the programme is not. ⚠⚠ Licensure requires a programme accredited by ARC-PA and a passing score on the NCCPA examination (s. 458.347, F.S.). ⚠ Check ARC-PA accreditation STATUS, not just its existence — programmes carry provisional, continued and probationary status, and it matters. ⚠ Note also that these six are Florida's PUBLIC programmes; this site does not list private institutions, and Florida has several large private PA programmes, so 225 is not the state's whole annual output.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Athletic Trainer

⚠⚠⚠ A master's-entry, state-licensed clinical profession paying $62,520 — less than a licensed practical nurse earns on a certificate ($64,400), and less than every associate-degree clinical route on this site except paramedic. ⚠⚠ The profession moved to master's entry in 2022: CAATE states that after the fall 2022 term, baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. ⚠ Florida's statute has not caught up and still reads as though a bachelor's is enough.

Nurse Practitioner and Advanced Practice Nurse

⚠⚠⚠ Florida grants nurse practitioners autonomous practice — and almost every account of it omits the limit that matters. Autonomous registration covers PRIMARY CARE ONLY. It does not let you practise your specialty without a physician protocol, and only certified midwives are excepted. 11,201 APRNs were registered for autonomous practice as of the 2024 legislative analysis. ⚠⚠ The occupation itself is nearly twice the size of the physician assistant profession — 320,400 employed, 29,500 openings a year, $132,300 median.

Physician

⚠⚠⚠ There is no pre-medical major, and AAMC's own numbers say the medical-sounding one is the worst choice. Of 54,699 applicants in 2025-26, 58.6% majored in biological sciences and were admitted at 42.1% against an overall 42.9% — while mathematics and statistics reached 57.3%, humanities 52.0% and physical sciences 51.3%. ⚠⚠ Specialized health sciences came LAST at 40.3%. Six Florida public medical schools award 757 degrees a year.

Physician Assistant

Diagnosing, managing and prescribing across essentially every specialty — $135,880 median, 162,700 employed, 12,000 openings a year, growing much faster than average. ⚠⚠⚠ The barrier is not the transcript. PAEA puts the median matriculant at about 3,200 hours of direct patient contact — one to three years of clinical work BEFORE the programme starts — and Florida's six public programmes award 225 master's degrees a year between them. ⚠⚠ So the real question this page answers is: which job do you take first?

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Nursing 78 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ The real alternative, and the comparison to make on the STATUTE rather than the job description. An APRN meeting s. 464.0123 — 3,000 supervised clinical hours plus graduate credits in differential diagnosis and pharmacology — may practise AUTONOMOUSLY in Florida primary care. A physician assistant may not: s. 458.347 requires a supervising physician. ⚠ But the PA's scope is broader, reaching surgery and every specialty, where autonomous APRN practice is limited to primary care.

Emergency Medical Services 39 Florida schools

⚠⚠ One of the standard routes to the patient care hours PA admission actually turns on, and among the fastest: EMT training is about a semester and paramedic an associate degree, and Florida teaches it at 39 public institutions — the widest clinical footprint in the state. ⚠ Confirm with each PA programme that it counts EMS hours; most do, and it is hands-on by definition.

Phlebotomy 29 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ The fastest route to patient contact hours in Florida: every one of the 772 phlebotomy credentials awarded in 2023 was a certificate of UNDER TWELVE WEEKS, at 29 public institutions. ⚠ Whether it counts as direct patient care varies by programme — ask before enrolling — but as a way to be employed in a hospital within three months while taking prerequisites, nothing else comes close.

Medical Assisting 38 Florida schools

⚠ Another common hours route, and a broader one than phlebotomy — vital signs, injections, specimen collection and patient preparation under s. 458.3485. 38 Florida public institutions. ⚠⚠ Note its occupational completion points: the phlebotomy exit comes first at 75 hours, so the two routes are the same programme at different lengths.

Respiratory Therapy 18 Florida schools

⚠ A slower route to the hours — an associate degree or baccalaureate — but a licensed clinical one, so the hours are unambiguous and the pay while accumulating them is considerably better than an entry certificate. ⚠⚠ Named because applicants underestimate how much the QUALITY of the hours matters alongside the count.

Surgical Technology 25 Florida schools

⚠ Named specifically for applicants aiming at surgical PA practice, which is a large share of the profession and the part autonomous APRN practice does not reach. Scrubbing cases is hands-on hours and it is directly relevant experience for a surgical programme.

Medicine 6 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The comparison most pre-medical students eventually make, and it should be made on structure rather than prestige. Two to three years against four plus a residency of three to seven, and a PA can change specialty without retraining where a physician cannot. ⚠ Six Florida public PA programmes against six medical schools — the same number, very different lengths.

Advanced Practice Nursing 9 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ The genuine alternative, and the comparison should be made on the STATUTES. An APRN registered under s. 464.0123 may practise autonomously in Florida PRIMARY CARE; a PA under s. 458.347 always needs a supervising physician, who may supervise at most ten. ⚠ But the PA's scope reaches surgery, emergency medicine and every specialty, and autonomous APRN practice does not. ⚠⚠ Six Florida public PA programmes against nine here.

Athletic Training 8 Florida schools

⚠⚠ A genuine onward route rather than a neighbour. Athletic training is hands-on clinical work that counts as patient care experience, and PA admission turns on roughly 3,200 hours of it. ⚠ An athletic trainer who wants broader scope and roughly double the median has a strong application; six Florida public PA programmes.

Florida public institutions offering this program

6 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Master's. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida Gulf Coast University

Master's

Florida International University

Master's

Florida State University

Master's

Miami Dade College

Associate

University of Florida

Master's

University of South Florida

Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 22 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.