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Summer 2001
Volume 2, Number 3
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Contents:
- NCCPA to Offer Three PANCE Testing Windows in 2002
- AAPA Removes NCCPA Directors
- Verdict In: PA Online is a Huge Success
- The Road Less Traveled: Pathway II
- NCCPA and APAP Award Three Grants
- Q&A Corner
- Short Takes
- Dates and Deadlines
NCCPA To Offer Three PANCE Testing Windows in 2002
Beginning in 2002, NCCPA will offer the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) during three extended testing windows, increasing the total testing time from 9 weeks to 34 weeks. Concurrently, NCCPA will begin requiring students to graduate or complete all requirements for graduation before taking the exam.
The three extended testing windows in 2002 will be:
- Window # 1: January 14 – March 15
- Window #2: May 15 – August 15
- Window #3: September 3 – November 30
December 2001 and 2002’s January and February graduates will be eligible for the first, second and third windows; March, April, May, June and July graduates will be eligible for the second and third testing windows; and August, September and October graduates will be eligible for the third testing window.
These changes are a result of recommendations from PA program directors who urged NCCPA to require their students to graduate before becoming eligible for PANCE. However, before making that change, NCCPA wanted to make sure that the vast majority of students could become certified within eight weeks of graduation.
Commends Paul F. Jacques, Ed.M., PA-C, director of the Daemen College PA program writes, "Accommodation of both the educators and the student/graduate is very evident with the testing calendar developed by the NCCPA. I applaud the NCCPA for finding an amicable solution."
Registration for the 2002 PANCE administrations will begin in August with the introduction of a Web-based PANCE application at NCCPA Connect.
AAPA Removes NCCPA Directors
Within two weeks of the Anaheim conference closing, the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) announced via letters to members of NCCPA’s Board of Directors that AAPA’s appointees to the NCCPA Board were being replaced. The action comes on the heels of recent tensions between the two organizations on issues ranging from CME logging to the respective roles and responsibilities of the two organizations.
The sudden removal of AAPA’s four sitting appointees left several critical vacancies on NCCPA’s committees. Most notably, the positions of president elect and treasurer were left vacant, previously held by former directors Katherine Adamson, MMS, PA-C and Disty Pearson, PA-C, respectively. Also, three AAPA appointees were chairing NCCPA committees: the Eligibility Committee (Adamson), Finance Committee (Pearson) and Review Panel (Randy Danielsen, MPAS, PA-C). The fourth appointee, Jane Cassel, PA-C, was serving on NCCPA’s Eligibility Committee, Test Development Committee and on a joint APAP/NCCPA committee that administers the two organizations’ grants program.
"Kathy, Disty, Randy and Jane have unfailingly fulfilled their responsibilities to both organizations by bringing AAPA’s concerns, questions and ideas to the Board table, participating in Board deliberations and then exercising their fiduciary responsibility to NCCPA by voting their conscience," says NCCPA President Elaine E. Grant, MPH, PA-C. "The members of NCCPA’s Board,individually and collectively, have expressed our extreme disappointment and dismay to AAPA’s leaders concerning this recent action, which is especially troubling since it indicates a perpetuation of their lack of acknowledgement of NCCPA’s responsibility to act as an independent organization and the legal obligations of individual members of the NCCPA Board."
Adds NCCPA Immediate Past President Dewayne Andrews, MD, "The removal of those four outstanding PAs leaves a void of leadership that will not be filled easily. It takes years of service to reach the positions held by those appointees, and it’s unfortunate that so many of the PA leaders on our Board are no longer there to serve their profession."
AAPA’s letter to the NCCPA Board cited a desire to "start fresh" with "appointees who can assist [them] with the goal of strengthening the relationship" between the two organizations. But members of NCCPA’s Board don’t view this action as a step in that direction at all.
"I have come to know the [former] AAPA appointees to NCCPA’s Board as friends, colleagues and persons of high integrity and unquestioned dedication to their profession," says John P. Fogarty, MD, NCCPA Board member and appointee of the American Association of Family Physicians. "Given the hard work and multiple meetings between the NCCPA and AAPA during the past year, this was a great surprise. And I’m not sure it will help improve the relationship between AAPA and NCCPA."
In their written response to the AAPA Board of Directors, the four ousted PAs enumerated an impressive list of personal and collective accomplishments and questioned the reasons for their removal.
The remaining members of NCCPA’s Executive Committee are working with directors to fill the leadership positions vacated by the former AAPA appointees.
Verdict In: PA Online is a Huge Success!
More than 10,000 PAs have visited the password-protected PA Online section of NCCPA’s Web site since its October 2000 launch, and they are giving it rave reviews.
After signing in to PA Online, PAs can log CME as they earn it, complete the reregistration application, apply for exams, find out if they passed an exam, update their mailing address and even find out if NCCPA has processed applications or payments - all without picking up a telephone or pencil!
How well is it working? Ken Whittenburg, PA-C of Rome, Ga. writes, "The NCCPA site is one of the all time best [Web sites] I have ever visited. It is fast, straightforward and apparently bug-free. Your site has just enough window dressing without exhausting every cool graphic out there AND it is totally functional. This site and the fast response is what electronic transactions should be."
Thanks to the efficiencies of the online system, PAs can now complete the certification maintenance process more quickly and easily, often receiving their certificates within days instead of a month or longer. NCCPA’s CME specialists are now able to review and approve online submissions within 48 hours, a significant improvement over the three to four weeks needed for paper forms. This streamlined process was especially valuable during the last few days leading up to the June 1 certificate expiration date, saving many PAs from lapsed certificates even during NCCPA’s busiest two weeks of the year.
To date, PAs have logged more than 100,000 CME hours at NCCPA’s Web site - but that’s not all they’re doing. Over half of the PAs who were due to reregister this year completed the reregistration application online. And many PAs have commented on how user-friendly the site is.
The Road Less Traveled: Pathway II
Though the number of PAs pursuing the Pathway II recertification option is steadily rising, many misconceptions about the take-at-home exam still abound. Read on to see if Pathway II might just be the way for you to go.
Like PANRE, Pathway II has 300 multiple-choice questions designed to assess general medical and surgical knowledge. But that’s where the similarities end.
The take-at-home Pathway II exam is a written examination - a nice alternative for PAs who’d like to avoid the computer-based PANRE exam or those who are living abroad when it’s time to recertify.
Also, Pathway II examinees may use reference materials to complete the exam and have six weeks to do so, making it an attractive option for PAs who practice in a specialty area and may not have the instant recall of the broad array of knowledge areas needed to excel at the computer-based exam.
That convenience isn’t without a price, however. The passing standard is higher; examinees must answer 75-80 percent of the questions correctly to pass the Pathway II exam, versus 50-60 percent for PANRE.
Also, to recertify via the Pathway II exam, PAs must earn 100 points to fulfill the elective component requirement and establish eligibility for the take-at-home exam. However, many PAs find that they’ve earned those points over the six-year certification maintenance cycle without making a special effort to do so.
Want more information on the Pathway II exam? You can also request document #109 from NCCPA’s fax-on-demand system by calling 770.734.4500 and pressing option "6" when prompted. Hint: Add a "1" before your area code if calling from outside the Atlanta area.
NCCPA and APAP Award Three Grants
NCCPA and the Association of Physician Assistant Programs (APAP) awarded three research grants on May 26 in Anaheim, Calif.
The joint NCCPA-APAP grants program received 18 applications from individuals and institutions interested in the pursuit of research related to the PA profession. After careful review, the three recipients were selected as follows:
- University of Iowa - $8,797 for "Do PAs Practicing in Non-Primary Care Specialities Participate in Primary Care Clinical Activities?"
- University of Iowa - $2,580 for "Which Factors Influence Individual Performance on the PANCE?"
- Massachusetts College of Pharmacy - $8,623 for "Advice Seeking Practices for PAs: A Prospective Study of Methods to Assess Consultation and Referral Behavior."
Congratulations to all the grant recipients!
Q&A Corner
Q. Is there a way for me to check my status without calling the NCCPA?
A. Yes! You can check your status 24 hours a day at PA Online. You will need your social security and NCCPA certificate number the first time you log in. Once you have logged in, you will have access to your personal checklist. This will show you what you need to do to maintain certification and what steps you have completed.
Short Takes
- Correction: The May 30 issue of the AAPA News erroneously reported that the PANCE exam is being offered in August. The actual dates for the PANCE administration is Oct. 1 - Oct. 31.
- NCCPA’s director of strategic initiatives, Ricardo (Ric) Sanchez, Ph.D has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). Congratulations, Ric!
- Brian Hess, PhD, has joined the NCCPA staff as director of psychometrics. He will oversee the development of our exams, as well as NCCPA’s research efforts.
Dates and Deadlines
Click here for a current listing of dates and deadlines.
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