Physician Assistant Graduates Achieve Overall Perfect Pass Rate on National Certifying Exam, Exceeding National Average

Marywood University’s Physician Assistant Program was recently notified that it has achieved an overall perfect pass rate on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE), the national certifying examination given to graduating physician assistants. This exam must be passed to be eligible for licensure in all 50 states.

The program’s overall pass rate of 100 percent, which it has held for five consecutive years, includes a first-time pass rate of 98 percent for its most recent graduating class. The national mean pass rate is 92 percent. The overall PANCE pass rate includes all exam attempts, while the first-time pass rate only counts the successful attempts by candidates who took the exam for the first time. The overall pass rate is typically higher than the first-time pass rate, because this statistic accounts for all testing attempts, including retakes.

“This overall perfect pass rate on the PANCE for our physician assistants, coupled with the 100 percent pass rate on NCLEX for our nurses, demonstrates that Marywood University consistently produces top graduates in health sciences, who score well above the national average,” said Shelby Yeager, Dean of the College of Health Sciences. “We’re tremendously proud of our graduates and continuously strive to maintain that standard of excellence through the academic and clinical rigor of our health sciences programs.”

Marywood University further expanded its deep commitment to health sciences, including physician assistants, when it opened the Pascucci Family Health Sciences Pavilion last year.

Physician Assistants are licensed medical professionals who work under the supervision of licensed physicians. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the demand for physician assistants is projected to grow 20 percent by 2034, much faster than the average for all occupations. As demand for healthcare services grows, physician assistants will be needed to provide care to patients.

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Physician Assistant Program