July 2010
PAEA Networker

25th Annual Report Published, New Survey Cycle Started

By Mei Liang and Steven Lane

All faculty at PAEA member programs will soon receive a copy of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Report on Physician Assistant Educational Programs in the United States, 2008-2009. Again this year, the PAEA Board of Directors approved funds to provide a copy to each faculty member; in the past, the practice has been to mail two copies of the report to all programs that responded to the survey. The report can also be downloaded from the Data and Research section of the PAEA website. Previous editions of the annual report going back to 1998 are also available, along with other data resources.

Enforcement of Survey Completion Requirement
This will be the last year that copies of the report will be mailed to all faculty regardless of whether or not the program responded to the survey. It has long been a requirement of the PAEA bylaws that all member programs must provide data for the annual report survey. The PAEA board has made the decision to begin more rigorous enforcement of this requirement, including revoking memberships for those programs that fail to respond. Almost all national associations of health professions education programs have achieved a 100% response rate to their annual surveys, and it is essential for PAEA to achieve this as well. In order for the Association to effectively advocate for the profession in national workforce dialogues and to compete effectively for federal resources, we must develop and communicate high-quality information about our programs and profession.

Programs will have ample time to respond to the survey and will receive prior notice of noncompliance, according to procedures recently adopted in the PAEA Policies and Procedures Manual and also spelled out in the cover letter to program directors that accompanies the 25th Annual Report. As always, programs are welcome to contact PAEA staff for assistance with completing the survey.

2010 Survey Cycle Opens
The new cycle of the PAEA Annual Program Survey began last week and will run through September 30. Program directors will receive a message this week notifying them of the beginning of the new cycle. The survey portal is located at http://paea.surveydomain.org/. Please contact Mei Liang at mliang@paeaonline.org; (703) 548-5538, ext. 313, with any questions. Preliminary data will be reported during the PAEA Annual Education Forum in October.

Highlights from the 25th Annual Report
The survey was sent to 142 programs in June 2009 and 93 percent of programs responded to some or all sections of the survey. The survey closed in December 2009. Some highlights from the report follow:

  • Carnegie classification of PA programs’ sponsoring institutions was introduced in the 25th Annual Report. The largest percentage of institutions were research universities (33%), followed by master’s level institutions (30%) and medical schools or schools of other health professions (22%).
  • The percentage of programs that awarded a master’s degree as their highest credential was 87%, up from 82% for the 2007–2008 academic year.
  • Average program length was 26.9 months.
  • Average program budget was $1,276,432, and median budget was $979,198. Mean budget was down 2.9% from the previous year.
  • Average resident tuition for the professional phase of the program was $50,567, 4% higher than the previous year.
  • A background check was required by 73% of programs upon matriculation (up from 69% in the previous report), while 35% of programs mandated drug testing (26% in previous report).
  • About 40% of the programs offered international rotations, none of which were required.
  • Only 7% of programs paid clinical sites to precept their students.
  • Average student/faculty ratio was 15:1, median ratio was 14:1.
  • Average faculty salary was $84,876; average staff salary was $39,536.
  • About two-thirds of faculty did clinical work, with an average of 14 hours per week.
  • The average first-year class enrollment was 46, while average total enrollment was 106.
  • Total first-year enrollment for all PA programs in the 2008–2009 academic year was 6,312.
  • A total of 5,375 PA students graduated across the country in 2009.
  • The average reported salary for 2008 graduates was $76,066 across PA programs, with a median of $75,000.

It has been brought to PAEA’s attention that two programs were inadvertently left off the list of programs in Appendix 1 of the report — Yale University and York College of the City University of New York. PAEA deeply regrets the error.