The Accreditation Review Commission placed the Marquette University Physician Assistant program under Accreditation-Probation in September. The program will not be reviewed by the Accreditation Review Commission again until fall of 2025.
“The College of Health Sciences and Marquette University fully support the Physician Assistant Studies Program and are actively addressing the concerns raised by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). We remain committed to student success and delivering a high-quality nationally ranked program,” Kevin Conway, university spokesperson, said in a statement.
Other PA programs such as University of Dayton, University of South Carolina, Yale School of Medicine PA program and Wichita State’s programs are all under probationary accreditation.
Why were they placed under probation?
Mary Jo Wiemiller, director of the PA program, said they were placed under probation because of two categories.
Wiemiller said the first reason was their clinical rotations in pediatrics, women’s health and behavioral health. She said the accreditors are looking for the program to have more dedicated set up of those rotations in those areas.
“The other one was about our internal assessment that we do of our program. Our curriculum, our outcomes, our administrative processes, things like that. They wanted more in-depth analysis and correlational trend analysis that we did not necessarily provide,” Wiemiller said.
What does this mean for the program?
The classes of 2024 and 2025 will still graduate from an accredited institution since they were accepted into the school when it was accredited. They will also still be able to sit for the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination.
The Class of 2026 and 2027 will graduate from an accredited institution as long as the program gains accreditation upon their next review.
“Students still getting a high-quality education. They’re still getting the full year of rotations … we are actually looking to add some of those specialty rotations in a separate setting that would actually enhance some of the clinical year curriculum,” Wiemiller said.
As for job placement, Wiemiller said the status of the school’s accreditation will not impact graduates’ ability to get hired. She said employers just look to see if the student is certified, and if they have references from faculty.
Wiemiller said the program anticipates upholding their 100% job placement six months after graduation.
“We’ve gotten great feedback from our preceptors already saying that they love our students. They’re continuing to hire our students, [because] they know there’s a high-quality education provided here at Marquette,” Wiemiller said.
What do they need to do to gain accreditation?
The program will need to construct three reports due every six months detailing their progress. Then there will be a focused site visit from the Accreditation Review Commission in May or June of 2025. This visit will look at all of the improvements made.
In September of 2025, the Accreditation Review Commission will have a final meeting to decide if the program will be taken off probation. Wiemiller said they fully expect to gain accreditation by this point.
“We’ve already been working on some of these changes and have full commitment of College of Health Sciences and Marquette University to put these in place,” Wiemiller said. “We’re working with a consultant for the assessment process, and we are working to establish new rotations both locally and across the nation that are needed.”
This story was written by Sophia Tiedge. She can be reached at [email protected].
