School of Health Promotion & Human Performance

The EMU PA program is a 24-month, full-time, year-round graduate professional program leading to a master's of science in physician assistant studies. The EMU PA faculty and staff, with input from the PA Advisory Board, developed and continues to review/assess the following mission, vision and goals to serve as the basis for the program.

Mission

The Eastern Michigan University physician assistant program mission is to identify, train and support a diverse population of graduate students to become highly respected ambassadors of the profession and extraordinary health care providers with a strong foundation in primary care medicine and interdisciplinary practice.

Vision

Our physician assistant program is dedicated to teaching students the science and art of medicine. Our clinically-focused curriculum will promote critical thinking and patient-centered problem solving. We are committed to producing graduates who will master the skills required to competently and compassionately practice preventive and diagnostic medicine, and foster the interpersonal and collaborative attributes necessary to become exemplary medical providers.

Goals

The Eastern Michigan University physician assistant program embraces and supports the Competencies for the Physician Assistant Profession [PDF] as developed jointly by the National Commission on Accreditation of Physician Assistants, the Accreditation Review Commission for Education of the Physician Assistant, the Physician Assistant Education Association and the American Academy of Physician Assistants. The competency areas serve as headings throughout our PA Program course syllabi; however, we recognize that graduates of the program may not fully possess all of the competencies immediately upon graduation.

The EMU PA program has set forth additional goals aligning with the program mission and vision, along with those of our school, college and university. The goals and the methods used to evaluate our ability to meet them, are as follows:

• Faculty Clinical Practice

  Program faculty provide a wealth of relevant clinical practice experience across a variety of clinical specialty areas.

  • Measured by the majority of PA faculty continuing clinical practice with multiple different specialties being represented
  • Currently, program faculty practice clinically in general medicine and emergency medicine.

• Medical Knowledge and Application

  Program graduates demonstrate high levels of medical knowledge and effectively apply that knowledge to patient care.

  • Measured by first-time NCCPA PANCE pass rate and Clinical Preceptorship Student Evaluation
  • First-time PANCE pass rate of our first five cohorts is 98%.
  • During the final clinical preceptorship, the majority of our students were rated by their preceptors as "excellent" in the area of medical knowledge and its application. Additionally, the majority were also rated as "excellent" in their ability to use critical thinking to solve problems.

• Diversity in Clinical Practice

  Program graduates demonstrate diversity in practice and discipline.

  • Measured by graduates practicing in many different settings and specialties
  • Our graduates are currently practicing in a wide variety of fields: cardiac surgery, critical care medicine, dermatology, emergency medicine, endocrinology and infertility, family medicine, internal medicine, gynecologic oncology, intensive care, interventional radiology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, otolaryngology, pain management, physical medicine and rehabilitation, rheumatology, trauma surgery and urgent care.

• Healthcare Delivery in Michigan

  Program graduates provide healthcare to patients in Michigan.

  • Measured by the majority of PA Program graduates clinically practicing in our state
  • The majority of our graduates to date are practicing in the state of Michigan.

Student Performance

Below are data from EMU PA students' Physician Assistant National Certifying Exams (PANCE) and attrition.

• Certification and PANCE

  To become a certified physician assistant (PA-C), one must pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE), a computer-based, multiple-choice test comprising questions that assess basic medical and surgical knowledge. The PANCE is provided by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants and is the only certifying organization for PAs in the United States.

  To be eligible for the PANCE, one must graduate from a program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant. PA program graduates will be deemed to have graduated from an accredited program if their PA educational program was accredited at the time of their matriculation.

  The Eastern Michigan University PA Program has graduated five cohorts, with a combined first-time PANCE pass rate of 98%.

  View the PANCE results [PDF].

• Attrition

  Graduated Classes

  	Class of 2021	Class of 2020	Class of 2019
  Maximum Entering Class Size (as approved by ARC-PA)	30	30	30
  Entering class size	30	30	30
  Graduates	28	30	30
  * Attrition rate	0.07	0	0
  ** Graduation rate	0.93	1.00	1.00

  * Attrition rate calculation: Number of students who attritted from cohort divided by the entering class size.

  ** Graduation rate: Number of cohort graduates divided by the entering class size.

Student Profiles

Below are highlights from the CASPA applications of each cohort of EMU PA students.

• 2020–2021 

  Number of applicants: 774
  Number of matriculated students: 30
  Speaks more than one language: Seven students
  Highest degree completed: Two master's, 20 bachelor's, eight bachelor's in progress (at time of application)
  Overall GPA (mean): 3.7
  GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.8
  GRE General Test score: 315 (mean), 302–341 (range)
  Received a degree from EMU: Four students
  Gender: 22 female, eight male
  Age (mean): 25.2 years

• 2019–2020

  • Number of applicants: 901
  • Number of matriculated students: 30
  • Speaks more than one language: Four students
  • Highest degree completed: Three master's, 21 bachelor's, six bachelor's in progress (at time of application)
  • Overall GPA (mean): 3.8
  • GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.9
  • GRE General Test score: 312 (mean), 298–323 (range)
  • Received a degree from EMU: Three students
  • Gender: 24 female, six male
  • Age (mean): 24.2 years

• 2018–2019

  • Number of applicants: 844
  • Number of matriculated students: 30
  • Speaks more than one language: Six students
  • Highest degree completed: Two master's, 18 bachelor's, 10 bachelor's in progress (at time of application)
  • Overall GPA (mean): 3.8
  • GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.9
  • GRE General Test score: 315 (mean), 299–331 (range)
  • Received a degree from EMU: Three students
  • Gender: 21 female, nine male
  • Age (mean): 24.7 years

• 2017–2018

  • Number of applicants: 861
  • Number of matriculated students: 30
  • Speaks more than one language: Six students
  • Highest degree completed: Three master's, 27 bachelor's
  • Overall GPA (mean): 3.7
  • GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.9
  • GRE General Test score: 316 (mean), 305–330 (range)
  • Received a degree from EMU: Four students
  • Gender: 23 female, seven male
  • Age (mean): 26.1 years

• 2016–2017

  • Number of applicants: 998
  • Number of matriculated students: 30
  • Speaks more than one language: Seven students
  • Highest degree completed: Two master's, 23 bachelor's, five bachelor's in-progress (at time of application)
  • Overall GPA (mean): 3.8
  • GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.9
  • Received a degree from EMU: Two students
  • Gender: 24 female, six male
  • Age (mean): 25.9 years

• 2015–2016

  • Number of applicants: 762
  • Number of matriculated students: 30
  • Speaks more than one language: Seven students
  • Highest degree completed: Five master's, 18 bachelor's, seven bachelor's in-progress (at time of application)
  • Overall GPA (mean): 3.8
  • GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.9
  • Received a degree from EMU: Nine students
  • Gender: 21 female, nine male
  • Age (mean): 27.5 years

• 2014–2015

  • Number of applicants: 621
  • Number of matriculated students: 30
  • Speaks more than one language: Five students
  • Highest degree completed: Four master's, 21 bachelor's, five bachelor's in-progress (at time of application)
  • Overall GPA (mean): 3.7
  • GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.8
  • GRE General Test score: 301 (mean), 286–319 (range)
  • Received a degree from EMU: Three students
  • Gender: 25 female, five male
  • Age (mean): 25.7 years

• 2013–2014

  • Number of applicants: 605
  • Number of matriculated students: 20
  • Speaks more than one language: Eight students
  • Highest degree completed: Two doctorate, four master's, eight bachelor's and six bachelor's in-progress (at time of application)
  • Overall GPA (mean): 3.7
  • GPA of last 60 credit hours (mean): 3.8
  • Received a degree from EMU: Six students
  • Gender: 16 female, four male
  • Age (mean): 28 years