Skip to main content
Elsevier

Ballweg’s Physician Associate

A Guide to Clinical Practice

  • 8th Edition - June 11, 2026
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Tamara S. Ritsema, Darwin L. Brown
  • Editors: Bettie Coplan, Michael J. MacLean, Joseph Zaweski
  • Language: English

Ideal for both students and practicing PAs, Ballweg’s Physician Associate: A Guide to Clinical Practice, 8th Edition, helps you master all the core competencies needed for physicia… Read more

Purchase options

Info / Buy

Description

Ideal for both students and practicing PAs, Ballweg’s Physician Associate: A Guide to Clinical Practice, 8th Edition, helps you master all the core competencies needed for physician associate (formerly physician assistant) certification, recertification, and clinical practice. This fully revised text is highly visual and practical, featuring a succinct, bulleted writing style, convenient tables, practical case studies, and real-world questions that enable you to master key concepts and clinical applications. It remains the only textbook that covers all aspects of the physician associate profession, the PA curriculum, and the PA’s role in clinical practice.

Key features

  • Defines the physician associate role, serves as a key resource throughout the PA education program and beyond, and is uniquely designed to be used across the spectrum of lifelong learning—now fully updated and reorganized to reflect the changing role and profession of physician associates
  • Addresses all six physician assistant competencies, as well as providing guidance for the newly graduated PA entering practice
  • Contains new chapters that address emerging and critical issues: Current Issues and Future Directions; International Development of the Physician Associate Profession; Student Mistreatment; and Academic Integrity
  • Features separate chapters for each of the 7 core clinical rotations and 6 common electives in the PA curriculum, with key guidance on how to prepare effectively and what to expect
  • Includes quick-reference resources such as Chapter Outlines; Key Points; Clinical Applications; abundant boxes, tables, and images; and a rich collection of Case Studies that provide practice in the advanced clinical reasoning required of PAs.
  • Provides updated health policy information, expanded information about international programs, cultural competencies, and pearls and pitfalls on working internationally as a PA
  • Outlines the basic principles of interprofessional education and interprofessional collaboration, a growing trend in health professional education and practice aimed at improved collaboration for optimal health outcomes
  • Provides access to essential online resources: A Primer on Item Writing; an appendix on Competencies for the Physician Assistant Profession; and A Primer on Learning Objectives
  • An eBook version included with purchase. The eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references, with the ability to search, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud

Readership

Physician Associates (formerly Physician Assistants) – students and practicing PAs

Product details

  • Edition: 8
  • Latest edition
  • Published: June 11, 2026
  • Language: English

About the editors

BC

Bettie Coplan

Affiliations and expertise
Associate Professor, Department of Physician Assistant Studies, Northern Arizona University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

MM

Michael J. MacLean

Affiliations and expertise
Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Education, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, IL, USA

JZ

Joseph Zaweski

Affiliations and expertise
Assistant Dean and Program Director, Physician Assistant Program, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN, USA

About the authors

TR

Tamara S. Ritsema

Affiliations and expertise
Associate Professor, Department of Physician Assistant Studies, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC, USA, Senior Lecturer, Physician Associate Programme, St. George's, University of London, London, UK

DB

Darwin L. Brown

Affiliations and expertise
Academic Director, School of Medicine, Physician Assistant Program, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA