How to Earn and Maintain a Physician"s Assistant Certification
After you have completed your physician assistant (PA) program which accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), you should sit for an exam which is Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) in order to be certified. A certified physician assistant (PA-C) will be more preferred by employees since it indicates that someone has met the standard to be a PA by passing the PANCE.
The PANCE consists of 360 multiple-choice questions that will test the basic medical and surgical knowledge of the PA graduates. After you have passed the PANCE, you will be issued the NCCPA certification. You will only be able to use the PA-C designation for approximately two years.
You will have to go through a six-year certification maintenance cycle before you can maintain your PA-C designation forever. It is divided into three two-year periods. You can maintain your certification to use the PA-C designation within the six-year period; however, PAs must go through the processes of continuing medical education (CME) documentation and attend for a recertification exam after the six-year certification maintenance cycle.
PA-C designees are to earn and record 100 hours (minimum) of CME and submit the record to NCCPA with the certification maintenance fee by June 30 of their certification expiration year. It can avoid you from being charged additional fees. The 100 hours of CME must be earned within 2 years where their certification was issued.
When you have reached the sixth year of certification maintenance cycle, PA-C designees will need to sit and pass the recertification exam. Again, the Physician Assistant National Recertifying Exam (PANRE) has multiple-choice questions to assess the general medical and surgical knowledge of the PA-C designees.
If you have failed to maintain your certification because you failed to submit the CME or failed the PANRE, you must retake and pass the PANCE and PANRE to regain your certification.
The PANCE consists of 360 multiple-choice questions that will test the basic medical and surgical knowledge of the PA graduates. After you have passed the PANCE, you will be issued the NCCPA certification. You will only be able to use the PA-C designation for approximately two years.
You will have to go through a six-year certification maintenance cycle before you can maintain your PA-C designation forever. It is divided into three two-year periods. You can maintain your certification to use the PA-C designation within the six-year period; however, PAs must go through the processes of continuing medical education (CME) documentation and attend for a recertification exam after the six-year certification maintenance cycle.
PA-C designees are to earn and record 100 hours (minimum) of CME and submit the record to NCCPA with the certification maintenance fee by June 30 of their certification expiration year. It can avoid you from being charged additional fees. The 100 hours of CME must be earned within 2 years where their certification was issued.
When you have reached the sixth year of certification maintenance cycle, PA-C designees will need to sit and pass the recertification exam. Again, the Physician Assistant National Recertifying Exam (PANRE) has multiple-choice questions to assess the general medical and surgical knowledge of the PA-C designees.
If you have failed to maintain your certification because you failed to submit the CME or failed the PANRE, you must retake and pass the PANCE and PANRE to regain your certification.
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