Postgraduate education for physician assistants (PAs) first developed in the early 1970’s.
Over the past four decades the PA postgraduate training movement has slowly expanded, and in 2017 there are 70 programs listed on the Association of Postgraduate PA Programs programs (APPAP) website.
All of these post graduate training programs, also referred to as residencies or fellowships, provide some form of advanced learning in various medical and surgical specialties.
- Those who attend residency programs claim that PA residencies offer hands on practical experience that will prepare you to be better perform at your job.
- PAs who jump into specialty without residencies claim you can get paid 2-3x as much, work less, and learn just as much while getting your training on the job.
Who is right? I am not here to debate this, but I think it depends on the person and your individual needs.
By far the most comprehensive PA residency program is hosted by the Carolinas Healthcare system which offers eight PA fellowships in Acute Care, Critical Care/Trauma, Family Medicine, Hospitalist, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Urgent Care and Urology!
PA program residency quick facts:
- Program certification: There is no official certification process for post graduate residency programs.
- ARC-PA: There are currently only 8 accredited clinical residencies for PAs in the US, listed on ARC-PAs website here. Accreditation is voluntary through ARC-PA and does ensure a certain level of educational standards, but it is not required and offers no current benefit. Since 2014 The ARC-PA has placed the accreditation process for clinical postgraduate PA programs in abeyance while it studies a different type of process to recognize program educational quality.
- Association of Postgraduate PA Programs (APPAP): At the American Academy of Physician Assistants Convention in Los Angeles in May 1988 a group of postgraduate PA programs met to formalize a national postgraduate PA program organization. Bylaws were written and approved by the eight founding programs and the Association of Postgraduate Physician Assistant Programs (APPAP) was formed to further specialty education for PA’s. Programs are not required to be registered with APPAP and certain membership criteria must be met to be eligible. While there are benefits to being registered with APPAP, there are also very expensive membership fees that programs may not wish to spend their money on. Do not be hesitant if the program you find interesting is not on APPA’s website.
- What about my loans? You can defer student loans during your residency and some programs offer loan repayment
- Do I get paid during my residency? Most residencies provide stipends of 40 – 75 k and require 40-80 hours per week up to 6 days per week
- How many hours will I be required to work? The average program length is 12 months but some programs are up to 24 months long
- How competitive is the process? 10-30 people interview at each program annually and accept on average 1-4 residents
PA Postgraduate Residency and Fellowship Programs by Specialty (Updated January 2017)
Yellow: ARC-PA Accreditation
Name of Program | Location | Duration | Class Size | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Acute Care Medicine PA Residency |
||||
University of Missouri | Columbia, MO | 15 months | 2 | |
Carolinas Healthcare System Center | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 | |
Cardiology PA Residency |
||||
Mercer-Piedmont Heart | Atlanta, GA | 12 months | 2 | |
Cardiothoracic PA Residency |
||||
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital | Ypsilanti, MI | 12 months | 1 | |
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center | Lebanon, NH | 12 months | 2 | |
Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center | Houston, TX | 12 months | 2 to 3 | |
Critical Care/Trauma PA Residency |
||||
Carolinas Healthcare System Center | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 | |
Intermountain Medical Center | Murray, UT | 12 months | 1 | |
Einstein/Montefiore Division of Critical Care Medicine | Bronx, NY | 12 months | ||
Emory Critical Care | Atlanta, GA | 12 months | 2 | |
Johns Hopkins Hospital | Baltimore, MD | 12 months | 6 | |
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital | Ypsilanti, MI | 12 months | 1 | |
St. Luke’s Hospital | Bethlehem, PA | 12 months | 4 | |
Mayo Clinic Arizona | Phoenix, AZ | 12 months | 1 | |
WakeMed Health and Hospitals | Raleigh, NC | 12 months | 3 | |
Winthrop University Hospital | Mineola, NY | 12 months | 1 | |
Dermatology PA Residency |
||||
The Dermatology Physician Assistant Fellowship Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin | Milwaukee, WI | 12 months | ||
Emergency Medicine PA Residency |
||||
Albany Medical Center | Albany, NY | 12 months | 5 | |
Albert Einstein Medical Center | Philadelphia, PA | 18 months | 2 or 3 | |
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center | Colton, CA | 14 months | 15 | |
Baylor College of Medicine | Houston, TX | 12 months | 4 to 6 | |
Brown Alpert Medical School | Providence, RI | 12 months | ||
Carilion Clinic | Roanoke, VA | 12 months | 3 | |
Eastern Virginia Medical School | Norfolk, VA | 12 months | 2 to 4 | |
St. Luke’s Hospital | Bethlehem, PA | 12 months | 4 | |
Jane R. Perlman / NorthShore University Health System | Evanston, IL | 12 months | 2 | |
Johns Hopkins – Bayview Hospital | Baltimore, MD | 18 months | 1 every 6 months | |
Lakeland Regional Health | Lakeland, FL | 12 months | 4 | |
Marquette University – Aurora Health | Milwaukee, WI | 12 months | ||
University of Missouri | Columbia, MO | 13 months | 2 | |
New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center | New York, NY | 12 months | 4 | |
Regions Hospital | St. Paul, MN | 18 months | 2 | |
Staten Island University Hospital | Staten Island, NY | 24 months | 4 | |
Team Health EMAPC Fellowship | Oklahoma City, OK | 12 months | 2 to 3 every 6 months | |
University of Iowa | Iowa City, IA | 18 months | ||
University of New Mexico School of Medicine | Albuquerque, NM | 18 months | 2 | |
UCSF Fresno | Fresno, CA | 18 months | 2 | |
The US Army/ Air Force-Baylor Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Residency
|
JBSA Fort Sam Houston, TX | 18 months | ||
Yale New Haven Hospital | New Haven, CT | 18 months | 2 | |
Family Medicine PA Residency |
||||
Carolinas Healthcare System | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 per cohort, variable | |
Carilion Clinic Urgent Care and Rural Health | Daleville, VA | 12 months | 2 | |
Geriatric Medicine PA Residency |
||||
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center – Houston, Texas – Physician Assistant Post-Graduate Residency in Geriatric Medicine |
Houston, TX | 12 months | ||
Hematology/Oncology |
||||
Mayo Clinic Arizona | Phoenix, AZ | 12 months | 1 | |
MD Anderson Cancer Center – The University of Texas | Houston, TX | 12 months | 2-Jan | |
Hospitalist PA Residency |
||||
Carolinas Healthcare System | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 per cohort, variable | |
Mayo Clinic Arizona | Phoenix, AZ | 12 months | 1 | |
Regions Hospital | St. Paul, MN | 12 months | 1 | |
Internal Medicine PA Residency |
||||
Carolinas Healthcare System | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 per cohort, variable | |
Neonatology PA Residency |
||||
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia | Philadelphia, PA | 12 months | 2 | |
University of Kentucky | Lexington, KY | 12 months | 2 to 3 | |
OB-GYN PA Residency |
||||
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center | Colton, CA | 12 months | 6 | |
Montefiore Medical Center | Bronx, NY | 12 months | 2 | |
Orthopedic Surgery PA Residency |
||||
Arrowhead Orthopedics | Redlands, CA | 12 months | 4 to 6 | |
Carilion Clinic | Roanoke, VA | 12 months | 2 | |
Illinois Bone and Joint Institute | Park Ridge, IL | 12 months | 5 to 7 | |
DMC Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine | Warren, MI | 12 months | 2 | |
UCSF Fresno | Fresno, CA | 13 months | 2 | |
Riverside University Health System | Moreno Valley, CA | 12 months | ||
Navy PA Graduate Training: Orthopedics – Career military physician assistants | Portsmouth, VA | 12 months | 2-4 | |
Otolaryngology PA Residency |
||||
Mayo Clinic Arizona | Phoenix, AZ | 12 months | 2 | |
Pediatrics PA Residency |
||||
Carolinas Healthcare System | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 per cohort, variable | |
Primary Care PA Residency |
||||
Shasta Community Health Center | Redding, CA | 12 months | 2-3 | |
North Florida-South Georgia Veterans Health System – University of Florida Physician Assistant Residency in Primary Care | Gainesville, FL | 12 months | ||
The Emory Physician Assistant Program and The Veterans Atlanta Medical Center (VAMC) | Atlanta, GA | 12 months | ||
Psychiatry PA Residency |
||||
Nationwide Children’s Hospital Child and Adolescent Psychiatry PA Program | Columbus, OH | 12 | 2 | |
University of Iowa | Iowa City, IA | 12 | 2 | |
The Cherokee Mental Health Institute (CMHI) | Cherokee, IA | 12 | ||
Surgery PA Residency |
||||
Bassett Healthcare | Cooperstown, NY | 12 months | 2 | |
Duke University Medical Center | Durham, NC | 12 months | Varies | |
Hartford Healthcare | Hartford, CT | 12 months | 2 to 4 | |
Johns Hopkins Hospital | Baltimore, MD | 12 months | Up to 11 | |
Montefiore Medical Center – Albert Einstein College of Medicine | Bronx, NY | 14.5 months | 5 | |
Norwalk Hospital/Yale | Norwalk, CT | 12 months | 12 | |
Texas Children’s Hospital Pediatric Surgery | Houston, TX | 12 months | 6 | |
University of Florida | Gainesville, FL | 12 months | 4 | |
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center | Pittsburgh, PA | 12 months | 2 | |
Urgent Care PA Residency |
||||
Carolinas Healthcare System | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 per cohort, variable | |
Carilion Clinic Urgent Care and Rural Health | Daleville, VA | 12 months | ||
Urology PA Residency |
||||
Carolinas Healthcare System | Charlotte, NC | 12 months | 28 per cohort, variable | |
UT Southwestern Medical Center | Dallas, TX | 12 months | 1 | |
Other Fellowships |
||||
Hepatology Physician Assistant Fellowship – Alexandria, VA
|
||||
Hispanic Serving Health Professions Schools (HSHPS) Graduate Fellowship Training Program – Multiple Locations
|
||||
Public Health Physician Assistant Fellowship – Atlanta, GA
|
||||
Gastroenterology Fellowship – Phoenix, AZ
|