MANY Hired

Physician assistant resume keywords

We counted the skills in 104 open physician assistant job postings from 2 employers, including Lyra Health and Oscar Health. The ones employers ask for most are patient care (100% of postings), behavioral health (99%) and nurse practitioner (97%). 100% of the postings mention AI, though often in the company's description rather than as a skill the job needs.

Top skills and tools in physician assistant postings

#KeywordShare of postings
1patient care 100%
2behavioral health 99%
3nurse practitioner 97%
4billing 96%
5process improvement 63%
6RN 3%
7compliance 3%

Share of the 104 postings whose description names the skill (plurals and common spellings, such as “JS” and “JavaScript”, count as one).

Soft skills employers mention

coaching · 96%communication · 3%

Show these through results in your bullets (“led a team of six”) rather than listing them as adjectives.

Languages

bilingual · 3%Spanish · 3%

How to use these keywords on your physician assistant resume

  1. Start with the posting, not this list. These are averages across 104 jobs; the one you're applying for has its own priorities. Use this page to spot common gaps, then match the specific posting.
  2. Name skills the way employers do. If you use “patient care”, “behavioral health” and “nurse practitioner”, write those exact words. Applicant tracking systems and recruiters search for them, and a close synonym can be missed.
  3. Put each skill in a bullet that shows a result. Naming billing inside a bullet about what you achieved with it, with a number where you can, is stronger than listing it alone in a skills section.
  4. Add only what's true. If you've worked with “billing”, “process improvement” and “RN” but your resume doesn't say so, add it. If you haven't, leave it out: interviews expose padded resumes quickly.

More about physician assistant jobs

Resume keywords for other jobs

How these numbers are calculated

Every figure comes from open physician assistant job postings on MANY Hired, imported from employers' own career pages. For each posting we pick out the skills, tools, certifications and qualifications its description names, then count how many postings ask for each one. A job counts as physician assistant by its title. Updated November 8, 2026.