Competencies for the PA Profession

The public demand for higher quality and greater accountability in health care has been growing steadily over the last several years, and various health care professions are responding in different ways. To address that issue within the PA profession, NCCPA initiated an effort in 2003 to define PA competencies, a critical starting point to identify opportunities for improvement in the development and assessment of those competencies.

In 2004, representatives from three other national PA organizations--ARC-PA, APAP and AAPA--joined the task, creating an inter-organizational workgroup whose goal was to draft a profession-wide definition of PA competence that could be used as a map for further developing and evaluating PA competencies throughout a PA’s career.

In 2005, all four national PA organizations reviewed and endorsed the document. Looking forward, the organizations will continue their efforts by reviewing the six different areas of PA competence to determine how each is currently being fostered, which ones are currently and adequately being assessed and – among the rest – whether, how, how often and by whom they should be assessed.

Download Competencies for the PA Profession (pdf file) by clicking here.

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