INTERSERVICE PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT PROGRAM (IPAP) IPAPHEADER

Welcome to the Interservice Physician Assistant Program Webpage

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Mission Statement

To provide the uniformed services with highly competent, compassionate physician assistants who model integrity, strive for leadership excellence, and are committed to lifelong learning.

Vision Statement

To be recognized as the world-class leader in physician assistant education.

Core Values

Integrity, Persistence, Attitude, Professionalism

Guiding Principles

To provide leadership and education of the highest quality and greatest value to our students, thereby instilling a lifelong desire for growth and learning
To immerse faculty and students in an environment that fosters a sense of academic and professional excellence
To educate the future leaders of military medicine to become the most dynamic and highest quality physician assistants possible
To demonstrate personal integrity and ethical conduct

Student Handbook

PANCE Five Year First Time Exam Taker Report

*In order to attend the Interservice Physician Assistant Program, you MUST be actively serving in the United States military*

PA PROGRAM ACCREDITATION

The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc (ARC-PA) has granted Accreditation-Continued status to the Interservice Physician Assistant Program sponsored by Army Medical Center of Excellence. Accreditation-Continued represents an accreditation status granted when a currently accredited program remains in compliance with the ARC-PA Standards.

Accreditation remains in effect until the program closes or withdraws from the accreditation process or until accreditation is withdrawn for failure to comply with the Standards. The approximate date for the next validation review of the program by the ARC-PA will be September 2025. The review date is contingent upon continued compliance with the Accreditation Standards and ARC-PA policy.

The program’s accreditation history can be viewed on the ARC-PA website at:

**http://www.arc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Accreditation-History-Interservice-68.pdf

**- denotes non-governmental website

Program Goals

Provide a quality curriculum by teaching basic sciences and a conceptual framework in the applied sciences to enable students to assimilate information and develop problem solving skills. Prepare students for primary care practice with an emphasis on the evaluation and treatment of mental and physical disorders.
Prepare students for their uniformed services role as primary care providers in peacetime and in conflict.

Prepare students to successfully complete requirements for certification as physician assistants.
Prepare students to contribute to the physician assistant profession in clinical practice, research, teaching, service, and community activity.
Provide a professional and educational foundation which graduates will use to develop a personal professional development plan while in the military, or as a civilian.
Develop and support academic and clinical faculty as role models, educators, clinicians, and scholars.
Support academic faculty members in their contributions to the PA profession.
Support the development of IPAP graduates as clinicians, leaders, and scholars.
Develop the future officers within the Uniformed Services.
Prepare graduates to provide medical care to patients from diverse populations.
Graduates of the IPAP will possess the knowledge and skills to accomplish the following minimum critical functions in the family practice setting:

Given a patient with any disease, disorder, or injury: Accurately assess and record a comprehensive history to include a chief complaint, history of present illness, past medical history, past surgical history, family history, social history, and an appropriate review of systems for any contributing symptoms to the chief complaint.
Given a patient with any disease, disorder, or injury: Perform both a comprehensive and problem oriented physical examination, recording both positive and negative findings appropriately, organize written notes in a standard and legible format for presentation to the supervising physician.
Given a history and the results of a physical examination: State the most probable diagnoses and describe the pathophysiologic process associated with each diagnosis.
Order, interpret, and report appropriate laboratory and radiographic findings that are necessary to present to the supervising physician for possible therapy.
Identify pertinent data obtained from the patient and the examination and incorporate into a problem focused plan.
Plan and implement appropriate primary care treatment plans and medical education, such as applicable life style changes, within the time, equipment and supply limitations of the medical facility to which assigned. Discuss and instruct patient on a treatment plan.
Given the results of a history, a physical examination, and appropriate laboratory and radiographic findings, for a wide variety of disease processes and injuries, determine which clinical cases may require further medical or surgical specialty consultation for diagnosis and/or treatment.
Formulate treatment plans that are relevant to the patient in resolution of his/her medical problem.
Perform patient education and counseling for patient compliance, family planning, wellness, and health maintenance.
Given environmental conditions or clinical cases: Identify clinical or social situations which may have public health significance and ultimately recommend and implement preventive measures.
Given a medical or surgical emergency: Perform an appropriate initial evaluation to stabilize and manage the patient until transferred to the care of a physician.
Apply clinical knowledge obtained in behavioral concepts related to health care in interpersonal relationships with patients.
Given raw medical data (including history and physical examination), communicate this information both orally and in writing to another health care provider, in a clear, concise, and well organized manner.
Demonstrate personal conduct, behavior and the professional qualities required of an officer and a health care professional. Continually evaluate one`s own performance as a physician assistant.
Become involved in the professional organizations that represent physician assistants on the local, state, and national level.
Participate in an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach in providing high quality, efficient and effective healthcare to our beneficiaries.

All Students will be evaluated on these program-defined learning outcomes (1-16)

How do we know we are meeting our goals?

Preceptor Feedback – The IPAP Phase 2 Clinical Coordinator and Phase 2 Committee conduct ongoing Phase 2 site visits and evaluation to ensure a high quality clinical experience and standards are met. The vast majority of clinical preceptors participating in IPAP clinical education continue to provide significant praise regarding the high level of clinical phase level of preparedness – reflecting well on the pre-clinical phase and reemphasizing that program goals are indeed being met. This is captured in the annual site visit reports as well in the Phase 2 student tracking database (MyEvals).

Graduate Feedback – IPAP Alumni continue to praise the program faculty & staff for setting them up well for clinical success. Feedback is received via face-to-face informal discussions with IPAP graduates during BOLC and Captain’s Career Course, as well as via Graduate Surveys.

Service PA Consultant Feedback – Each Service Branch has a PA Consultant, who among other duties is a leader in the PA community and advisor to the Service Surgeon General. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard PA Consultants have expressed their continued support of the IPAP and are satisfied that their Service PAs have been well-educated and prepared for clinical success. This feedback has been received via face-to-face discussions, email correspondence, and via PA Consultant Surveys.

Institutional/Stakeholder Feedback – The Academy of Health Sciences Dean has been most impressed with the sustained superior performance of IPAP, as noted in face-to-face discussions with the IPAP Program Director, Graduate School Dean, and via email traffic with above and IPAP faculty & staff. Additionally, the Interservice Training Advisory Board Service Voting Members have expressed their gratitude and congratulations for a job very well done at the ITAB meetings and via email traffic with the IPAP Program Director.

PANCE Performance – IPAP Graduates have a long history of performing very well on the national certification exam (NCCPA PANCE). Please see our 5-year pass rate on other page.

PA Program Ranking – The U.S. News & World Report 2015 issue on Graduate Schools listed IPAP as the #11 ranked PA program in the United States. For perspective, there are 196 accredited PA programs in the United States. The DOD and DHS benefit by having the largest PA program and also one that has earned a top-tier ranking.

Job Placement – Our students are fully employed by the Department of Defense or Department of Homeland Security throughout their 29-month educational journey at IPAP, and enjoy guaranteed PA positions within the same organizations upon successful program completion and NCCPA PANCE certification.

Leadership Positions – In addition to serving the healthcare needs of the greatest patient community (Active, Reserves, Guard, Retired, Veterans, and their family members), our graduates also have truly outstanding leadership opportunities around the world. Some examples are as follows:

Squadron PA
Carrier Strike Group PA
Battalion Surgeon
Brigade Surgeon
Deputy Commander for Clinical Operations
Clinic Officer in Charge
Public Health Commanders
Brigade Commander @ MTF
Company Commander
Flight Surgeon
Surgeon General Consultant
Research & Development
White House Medical Unit
Clinic Chief
Dept. Head, MTF
Director, Surgical Fellowship
Director, Emergency Medicine Fellowship
Faculty, IPAP
Director, PA constituent organizations

Physician Assistant Education Technical Standards

This program is dedicated to the education of students who strive to become competent and caring providers of primary health care services under the supervision of a licensed physician. The student must be able to achieve certain technical standards of knowledge and skill in order to successfully complete the Program. The technical standards stated in this document apply to satisfactory performance in all academic and clinical course work, as well as fulfillment of "non-academic" essential functions of the curriculum involving physical, cognitive, and behavior factors that are essential to a professional clinical practitioner.

Students must have adequate abilities and skills in the following five areas: 1) Observation; 2) Communication; 3) Sensory and Motor Function; 4) Conceptual, Integrative and Quantitative Ability; and, 5) Behavioral and Social Attributes.

Observation: The student must be able to observe demonstrations and conduct experiments in the basic sciences. A student must be able to observe a patient accurately at a distance and close at hand. Observation necessitates the functional use of the sense of vision and other sensory modalities. A student must be able to integrate all information visually and through the other senses.

Communication: A student must be able to communicate effectively, sensitively, and rapidly in English with patients and members of the health care team. A student must be able to elicit information from patients, perceive nonverbal communications, and describe changes in mood, activity and posture. Communication includes not only speech, but writing, reading, interpreting tables, figures, graphs and computer literacy.

Sensory and Motor Function: The student must have sufficient sensory and motor function to elicit information from patients by palpation, auscultation, percussion, and other diagnostic maneuvers. The student will be required to coordinate both gross and fine muscular movements, equilibrium, and functional use of the senses of hearing, touch and vision. More specifically, the student must be able to exercise such fine motor skills as to adequately perform laboratory tests, including but not limited to, wet mount, urinalysis and gram stain. The student must exercise such level of dexterity, sensation and visual acuity as to accurately complete such processes as administering intravenous medication, making fine measurements of angles and size, measuring blood pressure, respiration and pulse, performing physical examinations, and performing therapeutic procedures such as suturing and casting. The student must be able to hear sufficiently to accurately differentiate percussive notes and auscultatory findings, including but not limited to, heart, lung, and abdominal sounds, as well as discern normal and abnormal findings using instruments such as tuning forks, stethoscopes, sphygmomanometers, and Doppler devices. A student must be able to transport him or herself in a manner which provides timely response in both general and emergency care situations. Moving patients and engaging in some procedures such as CPR will require a necessary level of strength.

Intellectual, Conceptual, Integrative and Quantitative Abilities: A student must have the intellect necessary to quickly analyze and resolve problems. These intellectual abilities include numerical recognition, measurement, calculations, reasoning, analysis judgment and synthesis. The student must be able to identify significant findings from the patient`s history, the physical examination and laboratory data, provide a reasoned explanation for likely diagnoses, and choose appropriate medications and therapy. The ability to incorporate new information from many sources in formulating diagnoses and plans is essential. Good judgment in patient assessment, diagnostic and therapeutic planning is primary. When appropriate, students must be able to identify and communicate the limits of their knowledge to others.

Behavioral and Social Attributes: A student must possess the emotional health required for full use of his or her intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment and the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to the diagnosis and care of patients. The development of mature, sensitive effective and professional relationships with patients and members of the health care team is essential. Students must be able to tolerate physically taxing workloads and to function effectively under stress. They must be able to adapt to changing environments, to display flexibility and learn to function in the face of uncertainties inherent in the clinical problems of many patients. Compassion, integrity, interpersonal skills, interest and motivation are all personal qualities that are desired in a health professional and assessed during the admissions and education processes.