ARC-PA Begins Five-Year Standards Revision Process

The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) has begun a new cycle of review and revision of the Standards of Accreditation for Physician Assistant Education. The ARC-PA is seeking comments from its collaborating organizations, accredited PA programs, other professional organizations, and the public. As the first step in the process, the ARC-PA is soliciting individual comments through an online survey available through its Web site at http://www.arc-pa.org/Standards/standardscomments.htm.

In addition to these comments, PAEA and other collaborating organizations may contribute comments from the organization. As indicated in an e-mail to all members on October 7, PAEA will be soliciting input from its membership during the Open Forum session at the Annual Education Forum in Savannah, 1:45-3:00 p.m., Thursday, October 30, and also through a more formal written process to be implemented immediately following the Education Forum. The Association’s goal is to facilitate a dialogue among its member programs that results in a set of consensus points being delivered to the ARC. These points will be delivered as the aggregate representative of all responding PA programs, so that feedback cannot be attributed to any one program.

ARC-PA has indicated that the complete review and revision process will take place over 18 months and that they anticipate much of the dialogue taking place at the 2009 PAEA Annual Education Forum, November 4-8, in Portland, Oregon.