Program Goals & Results

Admissions

Matriculate a diverse student body with a commitment to professional involvement and service to all members of the community.

OVERALL COHORTS OF WSU PA STUDENTS SELF-REPORT IN THEIR CASPA APPLICATION AN AVERAGE OF 46% DIVERSITY, INCLUDING HRSA INDICATORS. THEY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THEIR COMMUNITIES WITH A COMBINED 692,756 PATIENT CARE HOURS.

Measure	Cohort 2021	Cohort 2022	Cohort 2023	Cohort 2024	Cohort 2025
CASPA Diversity %	27%	63%	47%	60%	53%
Average Amount of Direct Patient Care Hours	3,469	4,234	4,377	2,682	2,905

Academics

Provide Physician Assistant students with superior knowledge and skills for the evaluation, monitoring, diagnosis, treatment, and counseling of patients across their lifespan.

THE CURRENT PA COHORTS WERE RECRUITED WITH AN AVERAGE GPA OF 3.54 FOR CLASS OF 2019 AND 3.57 FOR CLASS OF 2020. THE EVALUATION FROM PRECEPTORS IS VERY POSITIVE, ON A LIKERT SCALE OF 1 TO 5 (5 BEING THE HIGHEST).

Measure	Cohort 2019	Cohort 2020	Cohort 2021	Cohort 2022
Preceptor Evaluation of Student (Patient Evaluation)	4.3	4.1	4.3	4.3
Graduate Exit Survey (Patient Evaluation)	4.5	4.5	4.3	3.5

Measure	Cohort 2019	Cohort 2020	Cohort 2021	Cohort 2022
Preceptor Evaluation of Student (Patient Diagnosis)	4.1	4.0	4.1	4.3
Graduate Exit Survey (Patient Diagnosis)	4.1	4.4	4.3	4

Measure	Cohort 2019	Cohort 2020	Cohort 2021	Cohort 2022
Preceptor Evaluation of Student (Patient Treatment)	4.2	4.0	4.1	4.5
Graduate Exit Survey (Patient Treatment)	4.2	4.0	4.0	3.7

Measure	Cohort 2019	Cohort 2020	Cohort 2021	Cohort 2022
Preceptor Evaluation of Student (Patient Education)	4.2	4.0	4.1	4.3
Graduate Exit Survey (Patient Education)	4.2	4.0	4.0	4.0

Interprofessional Education

Educate the Physician Assistant student to function effectively within a health care team.

THE WESTFIELD PA STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN INTERPROFESSIONAL GRAND ROUNDS AND SIMULATIONS THROUGHOUT THE CURRICULUM. CURRENTLY, THE PA PROGRAM IS PARTICIPATING IN A HRSA IPE GRANT WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK AND NURSING REGARDING PATIENT CARE IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE DISORDERS.

Measure	Cohort 2019	Cohort 2020	Cohort 2021	Cohort 2022
Graduate Exit Survey (Interprofessional Team Care)	-	4.1	4.2	4.5
Faculty Eval of Curriculum (Interprofessional Team Care)	4.0	4.4	4.4	-

Service

Encourage all students and graduates to engage in the overall well-being of the community.

THE STUDENTS PERFORM SERVICE IN THE COMMUNITY TO REINFORCE THEIR NEW SKILLS AND LEARNING. THIS YEAR, STUDENTS PARTICIPATED IN BP350, TAKING BLOOD PRESSURES THROUGHOUT WESTFIELD TO CELEBRATE THE 350TH BIRTHDAY OF THE CITY.

Measure	Cohort 2019	Cohort 2020	Cohort 2021	Cohort 2022
Student Community Service Hours in the Program	50	50	120	200

PANCE

Achieve a 100% first-time pass rate on the NCCPA PANCE examination

THE WSU PA PROGRAM ASPIRES TO ACHIEVE A 100% FIRST-TIME PASS RATE ON THE NCCPA PANCE EXAM.

Criteria	Cohort 2019	Nat'l Ave 2019	Cohort 2020	Nat'l Ave 2020	Cohort 2021	Nat'l Ave 2021	Cohort 2022	Nat'l Ave 2022	Cohort 2023	Nat'l Avg 2023
PANCE Performance 1st-time test takers	91%	93%	90%	95%	93%	93%	96%	92%	87%	92%
PANCE Performance all test takers	92%	91%	91%	93%	94%	91%	93%	89%	88%	89%
Overall PANCE Pass Rate	100%	-	100%	-	100%	-	100%	-	97%	-

NCCPA PROGRAM REPORT

ENROLLMENT DATA & ARC-PA ATTRITION TABLE

	Graduated Class	Graduated Class	Graduated Class
	Class of 2021	Class of 2022	Class of 2023
Maximum entering class size (as approved by ARC-PA)	30	30	30
Number joining class cohort who began with different cohort (most recent graduating class):	1	0	2
Total attrition:	1	3	2
Graduates	30	27	30
*Attrition rate	3%	10%	6.25%
**Graduation rate	97%	90%	93.75%

*Attrition rate calculations: Number of students who attritted from cohort divided by the entering class size.

**Graduation rate: Number of cohort graduates divided by the entering class size.

Comments: Updated 8/15/2024

Employment

Accomplish a pathway for a rewarding career through an affordable public PA program offering. Graduates will serve the medically underserved communities of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond.