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Your Input Wanted: Possible Changes to the Recertification Process


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Don't wait until it's too late to let them know how you feel. Every opinion count!

 

 

 

"PA Colleagues: 
  
I am writing today to ask for your feedback on a new re-certification exam model being considered by the NCCPA Board of Directors. 
  
We developed this model in answer to the question: How can we maintain the generalist nature of the PA-C credential through a re-certification exam model that better reflects the current state of PA practice in which almost 75% of PAs are practicing outside of primary care? 
  
The model is explained within the survey we are now asking you to complete. (You can also read about it online at www.nccpa.net/panre-model.) 
  
As a profession, we are at a critical juncture in our history – an opportunity to position ourselves for the future.  We ask that you carefully consider how the profession and our patients would benefit from a more meaningful, relevant recertification process. In the end, the credibility of each of us stands on the reputation and shoulders of the PA profession at large.  
  
Near the end, this survey asks whether you prefer the proposed model over the current one. Like the survey we conducted about PANRE last fall, it also elicits your views on the individual elements of this model and underlying issues and concerns – all feedback that will inform our discussion of this model as well as broader discussion about what matters most to certified PAs. 
  
We want to get this right. Our profession and patients deserve just that. Please complete this survey as soon as you can and no later than March 10:

Click here to take the survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://nccpa.co1.qualtrics.com/SE?Q_DL=1BaqxMmjoSUflyd_ahpVTyCMypBfMPj_MLRP_1CcsbhLbSIGBpxb&Q_CHL=email

 
With thanks,

Dawn Morton-Rias, Ed.D, PA-C
NCCPA President/CEO
 
PS - As a PA myself who has been certified for decades, who has worked in multiple specialties, who has faced the challenge of taking PANRE after several years out of clinical practice, who still has to take and pass PANRE just like you do... I ask you to give this its due consideration. I truly believe it represents a better way for certified PAs and for those who rely on the PA-C credential."
 

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Don't wait until it's too late to let them know how you feel. Every opinion count!

 

 

 

"PA Colleagues: 

  

I am writing today to ask for your feedback on a new re-certification exam model being considered by the NCCPA Board of Directors. 

  

We developed this model in answer to the question: How can we maintain the generalist nature of the PA-C credential through a re-certification exam model that better reflects the current state of PA practice in which almost 75% of PAs are practicing outside of primary care? 

  

The model is explained within the survey we are now asking you to complete. (You can also read about it online at www.nccpa.net/panre-model.) 

  

As a profession, we are at a critical juncture in our history – an opportunity to position ourselves for the future.  We ask that you carefully consider how the profession and our patients would benefit from a more meaningful, relevant recertification process. In the end, the credibility of each of us stands on the reputation and shoulders of the PA profession at large.  

  

Near the end, this survey asks whether you prefer the proposed model over the current one. Like the survey we conducted about PANRE last fall, it also elicits your views on the individual elements of this model and underlying issues and concerns – all feedback that will inform our discussion of this model as well as broader discussion about what matters most to certified PAs. 

  

We want to get this right. Our profession and patients deserve just that. Please complete this survey as soon as you can and no later than March 10:

Click here to take the survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:

https://nccpa.co1.qualtrics.com/SE?Q_DL=1BaqxMmjoSUflyd_ahpVTyCMypBfMPj_MLRP_1CcsbhLbSIGBpxb&Q_CHL=email

 

 

With thanks,

 

Dawn Morton-Rias, Ed.D, PA-C

NCCPA President/CEO

 

PS - As a PA myself who has been certified for decades, who has worked in multiple specialties, who has faced the challenge of taking PANRE after several years out of clinical practice, who still has to take and pass PANRE just like you do... I ask you to give this its due consideration. I truly believe it represents a better way for certified PAs and for those who rely on the PA-C credential."

 

our panre should be equivalent to MD recertification, not more tedious, not more often, not more expensive, not more time consuming,  but rather designed for the working PA in mind. I would like to see proof/studies that reflect that a re-examination actually improves patient outcomes/or the effect it takes on the clinician to prepare for those exams. lets see some statistics, have some more feedback before making such lifestyle influencing decisions

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Admittedly, I don't really understand the whole PA recertification process. Highly specialized PAs with multiple years working in a specialty should be expected to learn ever more in that specialty but may forget what they learned in other specialties. e.g. a derm or urology PA may not be able to answer many questions in psychiatry, or vice versa. Since so many PAs specialize, It would seem more rational to recertify in a specialty. PAs who want to change specialties after a long period of time would recertify in the new specialty. I realize, of course, that one of the so called advantages of being a PA is the easy of changing specialty without licencing complications. Nevertheless, it seems strange that a PA with 20 years experience in psychiatry could, theoretically, move into gynecology, though that may not happen in practice and I suspect that after ten years, most PAs settle into a specialty and remain there. Perhaps there could be a generalist PANRE for those who want to remain generalists and specialty PANREs for those who just want to qualify in a single specialty. Would that make any sense? Or where am I off base?

 

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The NCCPA survey is so biased, the AAPA has come out against it.  When was the last time you saw the AAPA take on another PA organization?

 

http://news-center.aapa.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/02/AAPA-Assessment-of-the-NCCPA-Survey-2.12.16.pdf

 

Interesting, thanks for posting that. I took the survey, and I can see (now that it's been pointed out) how they may be leading us a bit, even if unintentionally.

 

FWIW, I think their proposed model is vastly superior to the way we currently do it. But the survey itself is pretty binary. They basically say "here's 2 options, which one do you like best?"

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I answered the survey as best I could. I didn't feel that they were really soliciting input as much as they are trying to see which of the narrowly-cast options we like the best.

 

1. Personally, I think most of us in specialties get most of our CME in those specialties already (I know I do). I prefer to keep a generalist PANRE so that I stay current across the broad front of medicine rather than have a non-cardiology organization test me in my specialty. In my specialty, I learn every day and keep up with new developments. If I choose to go for a CAQ, I would. Otherwise, leave my specialty knowledge the heck alone and let me do what I do.

 

2. I am also not interested in taking lots of tests every year or two, take-home or otherwise. Let me do my 5 day review course every x years to refresh my memory on general medicine and then take my test.

 

3. And finally, they should be aware of market pressures. If our chief "competitors" (NPs) don't have to EVER take another test after graduation and yet can apply for independent practice, why is it US who are getting new recertification requirements? This I do not understand at all, And I say that with all due respect to the many, many NPs I have worked with and admire as individuals.

 

Just one old guy's opinion (with only 10 years as a PA).

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I filled out plenty of comments boxes on that survey, that's for sure.

 

In principle, if we have to do a bunch of stuff we may as well combine MOC with CME, but in practice, a couple of take-home tests every year or two is just insulting. It's busywork, it doesn't help differentiate people who have a solid base of knowledge from people who are struggling, and it doesn't reflect so well on the profession, in my opinion.

 

Similarly, in principle it would be cool to have a way to earn a CAQ just by doing the testing I was going to do anyway (at least, the testing part of the CAQ). But in practice I have to wonder if fragmenting the tests into 12 or 20 different versions really helps. Imagine the potential for poorly-validated questions and constant fighting about results. Ugh.

The current system sucks, and needs to be fixed. But let's keep an open mind for a bit and not jump on the first okay-sounding new option.

 

Just another opinion, of course.

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I am against the new changes suggested for PANRE.   I believe we should have the PANCE or a National Licensing exam that is permanent.  Then CME focused on the PAs area of specialty.

 

My Motto:

 

Once and done (PANCE)

then CME for life.

 

No SA/PI.

 

Stop the madness, NCCPA. 

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I am against the new changes suggested for PANRE.   I believe we should have the PANCE or a National Licensing exam that is permanent.  Then CME focused on the PAs area of specialty.

 

My Motto:

 

Once and done (PANCE)

then CME for life.

 

No SA/PI.

 

Stop the madness, NCCPA. 

So beautifully stated. Thank you for so simply communicating my exact (and i'm sure the majorities) same feeling towards certification. NCCPA wake up and hear our voices.

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I have a few issues, now that I think on it:

 

1) Taking a test every 10 years isn't by itself egregious, I think -- the problem I have with it is mostly that others don't have to. Also, it's not such a great test if it doesn't reflect the latest and greatest evidence, guidelines, etc., and creating and curating a valid 300-question test is an insanely complex undertaking that is inherently prone to being slow and out of touch.  As the saying goes, if you want to know how things worked 20 years ago, talk with an experienced doc (or PA). If you want to know how things worked 10 years ago, read a printed textbook. If you want to know how things worked 2-5 years ago, study for a boards exam.

 

2) Philosophically, there should be standardization across professions (at least the ones that want to be taken seriously as professions). Once an attorney passes the bar, they've passed the bar. Sure they have CLE, but that's tied to the concept of staying current and effective, not the fundamental ability to practice their profession. CPAs don't have to keep re-boarding, do they? Tax code changes yearly, by quite a lot, but they handle it. Fundamentally, by making us do all these hours of stuff in different categories and sit for a big test every so many years, what's the point? What's the goal here? The NCCPA needs to take into account how all this planned stuff looks, to new PA school applicants, to health systems and practice managers looking to hire PAs, and to PAs who know better than anyone how to differentiate the good from the not-so-great among us.

 

3) The Internal Med MDs were famously up in arms just a year or two ago, when their MOC thing was made more like what we have to deal with. I think it's fairly obvious that we should take our cue from them. And especially in the "Midlevel" or "APP" or "non-physician provider" arena, it's a fact that NPs don't have to wrestle with this stuff... so if it supposedly makes us better in some way, I'd like for the NCCPA to show their work and prove it. And then I'd like the AAPA to use that information for something, and advance the profession.

 

CME for life is fine, I'm all about the idea of not just coasting, but it needs to be geared toward clinical relevance, improved evidence-based practice, and patient outcomes. CME should be viewed as the difference between an okay clinician, who was good enough and smart enough at one point to pass a major test, and an excellent clinician who you want your loved ones to see. Right now, it just isn't that. The proposed stuff gets a little closer in some ways, I think, but it's still terribly clumsy and the payoff is not clear at all.

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PANRE should be scrapped, cme should continue with it geared toward relative field of practice with the PA choosing what cme's they prefer. I'm ok with the cme's being through NCCPA. I fail to see how the board exam provides any greater advantage then continued cme.

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I think this should be looked at skeptically with the understanding that the NCCPA would much rather sell you 3 tests every 10 years instead of 1.  The other issue is they want to develop all of these specialty exams so they can start selling their CAQs which have NO value to a practicing PA.  Currently an employer could care less if you have a CAQ.  They either are willing to train a new grad or they want someone with experience.  I've worked for 4 private practices and currently work for a hospital.  None of them give a damn about some random certification and none would give me a raise if I earned one.  And you understand, nothing good could come of employers in the future adopting the CAQ as a desired certification.  It won't mean more money for you.  It will only mean less freedom to travel between specialties without said CAQ.  We need to shut this down.  

 

I also wonder if an organization like AAPA doesn't need to take over this responsibility.  At least they are a non-profit and seem more responsive to actual PA needs.

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