For the second year in a row, graduates of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Physician Assistant Program achieved a 100% first-time pass rate on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination.
The exam, commonly known as PANCE, is administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants and is required for physician assistant licensing. First-time performance on the exam is a key measure of students’ mastery of medical knowledge and readiness for clinical decision making.
With consecutive perfect pass rates, every student who graduated from the program over the past two cycles earned board certification on the first attempt.
Todd Wills, MD, associate dean and director of the PA program, said the results are a testament to the program’s quality of students, the strength of its educational model and the dedication of its faculty.
“These results reflect years of work on the part of our program faculty and staff,” Dr. Wills said. “These efforts include attentive pre-health student mentoring, a rigorous admissions process, a challenging curriculum and ongoing attention to program improvement. We all work every day toward making this the best PA program possible.”
The achievement comes during a period of significant momentum for the program, which was recently recognized as one of the top PA programs in the state and Southeast by U.S. News & World Report. Earlier this summer, the program also relocated to its new home in the USF Health Downtown building, joining the Morsani College of Medicine, Taneja College of Pharmacy and Heart Institute.
Larry Collins, MPAS, associate professor and associate program director of the PA program, said the move downtown gives students the opportunity to train in a facility designed to prepare the next generation of health care professionals. By co-locating PA, pharmacy and medical students in one building, the new space helps students learn to collaborate across disciplines and practice as part of a larger health care team.
“Our students learn all the fundamentals of the profession, yet how they learn those things and how they apply them in patient care is constantly evolving,” Collins said. “Having our PA students train in this building alongside other health professions and work with cutting-edge technology gives them a leg up when they transition out of school and enter the workforce.”