National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants
Contact: Andrzej Kozikowski, PhD, Director of Research, andrzejk@nccpa.net.
Poster Authors
Andrzej Kozikowski, PhD; Sheila Mauldin, MNM; Colette
Jeffery, MA; Grady Barnhill, MEd; Greg Thomas, MPH, PA-C Emeritus; and Dawn
Morton-Rias, EdD, PA-C.
Abstract
Purpose:The National Commission on Certification of Physician
Assistants (NCCPA) is dedicated to assuring the public that certified physician
assistants (PAs) meet standards of clinical knowledge and skills. PAs need to
pass a certification exam to become licensed, and to remain certified must earn
continuing medical education credits as well as pass an assessment every ten
years. All US states rely on NCCPA certification as one of the criteria for
licensure or regulation of PAs. The objective of our study was to explore public
knowledge and beliefs regarding licensure and certification of PAs and assess differences
based on demographics.
Methods: After
IRB approval, we conducted an online survey in late 2018 using quota sampling
to approximate the proportions in demographics (N=1,388) of the U.S. population. The
survey assessed whether the public knew that PAs must pass a national
certifying exam as one requirement for obtaining an initial license to practice
medicine and beliefs related to whether PAs are well educated in medicine and should
be licensed by state medical boards, continually learn about new medical
information, be assessed regularly on their medical knowledge, and be held to
the same standards of care as physicians. A number of demographic/background
variables were collected, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, education,
urban-suburban-rural home setting, number of visits to provider in the last year,
health status, and health insurance type. Chi-square tests for independence and
post-hoc z-tests for column proportions were used
with a Bonferroni correction to analyze the association between demographic/background
variables and knowledge and beliefs.
Results: The
majority (75.9%) correctly indicated "true" to the statement that PAs must pass a
national certifying exam as one requirement for obtaining an initial license to
practice medicine. Respondents 65+ compared to 18-34 (p=0.010; 80.2% vs. 70.8%),
those with a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to less education
(p<0.001; 81.5% vs. 73.0%) and those with private health insurance compared
to none and Medicaid only (p<0.001; 82.2% vs. 69.3% vs. 65.9%) were more
likely to answer correctly. Regarding beliefs, most indicated "strongly
agree/agree" that PAs should: be licensed by state medical boards (87.6%), continually
learn about new medical information (91.7%), be assessed regularly on their
medical knowledge (82.0%), be held to the same standards of care as physicians
(78.6%), and are well educated in medicine (77.7%). However, beliefs
significantly differed by age and education, with participants that were older
and with more education being more likely to believe PAs should be licensed, continually
learn about new medical information, and be held to the same standards of care
as physicians. Public members with more education were also more likely to
believe that PAs are well educated in medicine and that they should be assessed
regularly on their medical knowledge.
Conclusion: NCCPA
strives to meet the needs of the public by ensuring that only qualified PAs
practice medicine with a high standard of care. The majority of the public knew
that PAs must pass a national certifying exam and had favorable beliefs
regarding licensure and certification. Evaluation of public knowledge and
beliefs regarding licensure and certification of PAs is important, as it informs
decision making about healthcare and provides insight for policymakers and
medical regulators in developing appropriate measures to meet patient
expectations regarding high quality and safe medical care.
Additional Information
- Physician Assistants Certified by NCCPA: all U.S. states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories rely on NCCPA certification as one of the criteria for initial licensure or regulation of physician assistants. As of Dec. 31, 2019, there were more than 139,000 certified PAs.
- NCCPA Website
- NCCPA Fact Sheet
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