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STEM profession guide for beginners: Physician Assistant in Brainerd, MN

Of the 6 counties in the Brainerd, MN labor market, 4 tourism and recreation counties and 4 counties that are retirement destinations — the hospital district is often the county's largest payroll, and retirement and visitor populations raise clinical demand. That is where a physician assistant is hired here.

HomeSTEM CompassSTEM profession guide for beginnersPhysician Assistant › Brainerd, MN
+20%Growth 2024–34
7Traits it runs on
Healthcare & Life SciencesFamily
EmpathyComposureDetailCommunicationAdaptabilityCollaborationSkepticismHealth & HealingCommunity & Education

What the work is worth. Physician assistants are how rural clinics and overloaded emergency rooms keep seeing patients. The role expands who gets care.

An ordinary day. Examine and diagnose patients, order and read tests, prescribe treatment, and assist in procedures in collaboration with physicians.

The path in. Master's from an accredited PA program plus national certification; patient-care hours required to apply.

From zero. The STEM Farm Healthcare / Clinical Support / Medical Technology track starts at zero-STEM intake and ends in this kind of work, with verified proof at every gate.

Take the STEM Compass assessmentZero to Physician Assistant →

STEM profession guide for beginners. A guide grounded in measurement instead of opinion: forty careers with the traits each runs on, what the work is worth to the world, the education path, and a way to find out which are yours. A profession is a career you stay in. The assessment measures the traits that make the daily work sustainable — not whether you can pass the first class, but whether you will still want the work at year ten. A beginner needs a direction before a curriculum. The assessment is the direction; the track is the curriculum.

Where in Brainerd, MN this work lives

Counties in this zone ordered by how closely their ERS economy type matches what physician assistant roles are hired into.

Aitkin County, MNCass County, MNCrow Wing County, MNHubbard County, MNBeltrami County, MNClearwater County, MN

The personality behind the work

Physician Assistant in the metros around Brainerd, MN

Minneapolis, MN13 countiesSioux Falls, SD9 countiesDuluth, MN–WI5 countiesFargo, ND–MN7 countiesRochester, MN5 countiesSt. Cloud, MN5 countiesEau Claire, WI8 countiesLa Crosse, WI–MN5 countiesGrand Forks, ND–MN7 countiesMankato, MN8 countiesMason City, IA9 countiesWillmar, MN9 counties

Other careers in Brainerd, MN

Biomedical Engineer+6%Registered Nurse+5%Physician & Surgeon+4%Clinical Laboratory Technologist+4%Medical Scientist+9%Epidemiologist+16%Microbiologist+5%

STEM profession guide for beginners: Physician Assistant everywhere → · Physician Assistant in Brainerd, MN →

Sources. Career traits, education paths and value lines are the STEM Compass assessment library. Employment growth is U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2024–2034. County economic types are USDA Economic Research Service County Typology Codes (2025); labor markets are Census commuting zones (2020). Salary is not shown anywhere in this campaign on purpose: the assessment measures fit and what the work is worth to the world.