“All three documents are looking to achieve the same thing: enable PAs to deliver quality, patient-centered care from career start to career finish. “Core Competencies for New Physician Assistant Graduates” wants to make sure that upon graduation, new PA graduates are prepared to deliver that same quality patient-centered care. “Competencies for the PA Profession” seeks to delineate the knowledge and skills PAs should be able to maintain throughout their careers, regardless of speciality or setting. And the “Content Blueprint for the (PANCE)” seeks to provide PA students with information about what (and how much of what) medical content and tasks are important to know for entry-level practice, and subsequently, important to know for the exam. I appreciate the extensive use of resources used to create these documents (e.g. health professional leaders, literature across health professions, works in the humanities, workforce trends, profession-wide practice analysis). And I also like that all three documents are clear about what is expected from their target demographic (e.g. student, institution, professional). I think that together, these documents are really great resources for York’s PA program and for us as its students.

The new graduate competencies emphasize that essential medical knowledge is more important than exhaustive medical knowledge, and York can use this emphasis to make sure that their curriculum is geared towards the essentials. And as students, we can continuously refer to these competencies to make sure that while we are learning, we are also applying what we are learning within the context of those core domains. As students, we can also use the PANCE blueprint to focus on content that will be presented on the exam and (based on the blueprint’s analysis) in practice. York’s program can also use the blueprint to further streamline what knowledge is essential for their curriculum. The program can also use the PA profession competencies to ensure that all of their courses force students to continuously critically analyze the content they are learning, their learning styles, and their personal progression towards clinical practice. And as students, we use these competencies to do the same throughout the program and throughout future practice.”