Kettering College’s Physician Assistant Class of 2018 Achieve 100% Pass Rate

December 14, 2018, Kettering, Ohio–The Physician Assistant (PA) program at Kettering College announced the graduating class of 2018 completed taking their National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) boards with a first time 100% pass rate.

“Many thanks to the dedicated faculty and staff of the Physician Assistant program for the outstanding dedication they have for the success of their students,” said Ruth Abbott, Dean for Academic Affairs. “I can’t think of a better Christmas or retirement present than getting good news about our program’s pass rates!”

A first time pass rate, which means all graduates from the class of 2018 passed their boards on their first attempt. “The first time pass rate is monitored closely by the PA Accrediting body (ARC-PA) as an indicator of the quality of the PA program’s ability to prepare students during their education,” explained Fran Angerer, director of the Physician Assistant program. “This first time 100% pass rate is even more significant given that this is the first class to graduate since we increased our class enrollment from 45 to 60 students.”

A physician assistant (PA) is an advanced practitioner who acts as an extension of the physician in making diagnoses and treating patients. Working as part of a patient care team, a physician assistant works in all practice settings, performs comprehensive history and physicals, orders and interprets diagnostic tests, prescribes medication and performs procedures. PA’s practice in the areas of primary care medicine (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology) and in surgery and the surgical sub-specialties.

Kettering College is distinguished as one of the oldest PA programs in the nation and has been educating physician assistant’s since 1973. For the last six years, Kettering College has had a first time NCCPA pass rate of 98% or better.

The program takes 27 months to complete. Where the first 15 months are spent on didactic and laboratory coursework and the following 12 months are spent in clinical rotations. The clinical phase of the physician assistant program is 40 weeks. Each student is required to progress through seven required rotations: Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Surgery, Behavioral Medicine, Pediatrics, Women’s Health, and Emergency Medicine. Each of these rotations is approximately five weeks long. Additionally, each student must complete one elective rotation.

For more information about the PA program, visit www.kc.edu/academics/physician-assistant.

About Kettering College
Kettering College is a fully accredited, coeducational college that specializes in health science education.  A division of Kettering Medical Center, the College is located on the KMC campus in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, and is chartered by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.  Kettering College offers an Occupational Therapy Doctoral program, a Master of Physician Assistant program, Bachelor and Associate of Science degrees, and certificate programs.

Update: This article was updated on December 17, 2018.

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