About Us: Purpose and Mission

Not sure who the NCCPA is and what we do? What does the NCCPA credential mean? Check out the following engaging, educational video on NCCPA! It goes through the nuts and bolts of how and why NCCPA was established and the purpose of the credential. After watching the video, read more on the history of NCCPA below.

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NCCPA's Purpose and Mission

NCCPA is the only credentialing organization for physician assistants in the United States. Established as a not-for-profit organization in 1975, NCCPA is dedicated to assuring the public that certified physician assistants meet established standards of knowledge and clinical skills upon entry into practice and throughout their careers. Every U.S. state, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories have decided to rely on NCCPA certification as one of the criteria for licensure or regulation of physician assistants. Approximately 86,000 physician assistants have been certified by NCCPA.

Our Mission Statement

NCCPA assures that certified physician assistants meet professional standards of knowledge and skills.

A Brief History

In the 1960s, during the wake of a large number of military corpsmen re-entering the civilian population, Eugene Stead, then chairman of the Department of Medicine at Duke University, recognized the need for a midlevel health practitioner, whose function would be of a generalist, primary care nature. He intended this midlevel health practitioner to complement the services and skills of physicians, often times in more remote areas and areas of high need. Collaboration was taking place among organized physician groups, educators, the United States government, and medical regulatory bodies in establishing a foundation for the components of the needed physician assistant profession.

In 1965, four ex-Navy corpsmen were enrolled in the first physician assistant program - a two-year, intensive, generalist-model program at Duke University. Following this lead, training programs began to proliferate in the United States - many supported by grants from federal and private foundations.

With the increase in the number of PA training programs came a need to develop a program evaluation mechanism. In 1971, the American Medical Association (AMA) Committee on Allied Health Education and Accreditation (CAHEA) developed training program guidelines and implemented a program accreditation mechanism, in an effort to maintain consistency throughout PA programs. Simultaneously, the recognition of a need for an agency to represent the professional interests evolved, and the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) was established. Soon after, the Association of Physician Assistant Programs, APAP, (now the Physician Assistant Education Association) was formed to provide a forum for the exchange of information between educators.

In 1972, the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) and the AMA convened representatives from fourteen different organizations, including the AAPA and PAEA, to discuss the need for establishing an independent certifying authority for the physician assistant profession. Three years later, the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) was formed to fulfill that role.

NCCPA is the only nationally recognized certifying body for physician assistants in the United States. Established as a not-for-profit organization in 1975, NCCPA is dedicated to assuring the public that certified physician assistants meet professional standards of knowledge and clinical skills. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories have decided to rely on NCCPA certification criteria for initial licensure or regulation of physician assistants. More than 65,000 physician assistants have been certified by NCCPA.

To attain certification, PAs must graduate from an accredited PA program and pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE). PANCE is a multiple-choice test that comprises 360 questions that assess basic medical and surgical knowledge.

After passing PANCE, PAs become NCCPA-certified, which entitles them to use the Physician Assistant-Certified® (PA-C®) designation until the expiration of their first cycle (approximately two years). To maintain NCCPA certification and retain the right to use the PA-C designation beyond the expiration of their initial certification, they must follow a multifaceted process, involving documentation of continuing medical education (CME) hours every two years and successful completion of a recertification exam in the fifth or sixth year of a six-year certification maintenance cycle.

As the physician assistant profession continues to evolve and grow, so does NCCPA and the certification process. In recent years, NCCPA has taken several steps to shore up the integrity of the certification process, including the institution of random CME audits, assumption of all CME logging duties for PAs maintaining certification, streamlining the CME deadlines and logging process in the certification expiration year, requiring new graduates to become certified within six years or six attempts at PANCE and enacting a more comprehensive disciplinary policy, including the establishment of a Code of Conduct for Certified and Certifying PAs. Simultaneously, NCCPA has become a more service-driven organization that now boasts a fully interactive Web site, high satisfaction ratings among PAs and quick response times for those using NCCPA services.

One of NCCPA's ongoing projects was initiated in 2003 and is now part of a collaborative effort jointly undertaken by four national PA organizations (NCCPA, AAPA, PAEA, and the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA)) to establish a profession-wide definition of PA competencies that can be used as a map for further developing and evaluating those competencies throughout a PA's career.

In 2007, NCCPA received the Georgia Oglethorpe Award for performance excellence and was the first non-profit organization and the first organization with a health care focus to receive this distinguished recognition. The Georgia Oglethorpe Board of Examiners said of NCCPA, "Commitment to customer satisfaction is pervasive and systematic through the organizational processes. In this manner, the organization can meet and exceed its goal of being responsive, innovative and effective in addressing the interest of the public and other stakeholders."

Also, NCCPA has earned accreditation from the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). The NCCA is the accrediting arm of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE). Established in 1977 as a nonprofit organization, ICE is a leader in setting quality standards for certifying organizations.

Imbued with a strong sense of responsibility to assure that PAs meet professional standards of knowledge and skills, NCCPA will continue to strive to meet the needs of its stakeholders efficiently, effectively and honorably.