Welcome to the Physician Assistant department of Red Rocks Community College. Our department offers courses leading to a Certificate in P.A. studies and prepares our students for the national certifying exam. Current pass rates on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) for students graduating from Red Rocks Community College Physician Assistant Program are 96%. This information is based on the average for first-time takers of graduates over the past five years. The national average for the same time frame is 92%.

Physician Assistants (PAs) are health professionals authorized by law to practice medicine under the supervision of a licensed physician. Physician assistants are qualified by graduation from an accredited physician assistant educational program and certification by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.

Within the physician/PA relationship, physician assistants often exercise delegated autonomy in decision-making and provide a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic services. The clinical role of physician assistants includes primary and specialty care in medical and surgical practice settings in rural and urban areas. Though physician assistant practice is primarily directed toward patient care, PAs also provide leadership in educational, research and administrative settings.

The Red Rocks Physician Assistant Program

The Red Rocks Physician Assistant Program is a rigorous, state-sponsored, nationally accredited curriculum that recruits adult learners who already have experience in health care and who wish to become PAs. Our mission is to train clinically competent and compassionate PAs who will provide care to medically undeserved communities and patient populations under the supervision of licensed physicians.

The Program was created in 1998 after several years of needs assessment and after community support was determined to be strong. The first class was admitted in January of 1999; subsequent classes were admitted in August of each year thereafter beginning in 1999.

Our students have already been successful in such careers as nursing, physical therapy, emergency services, exercise physiology, medical assisting, radiographic technology, respiratory therapy and audiology, among many others. Their average age is about 34 years. Though we are based at a community college, our entrance requirements are such that almost every incoming student already has a baccalaureate degree. Some of our present students hold a master's degree and several students have doctorates. Twenty-eight students are enrolled in each class. Admission to the Program is extremely competitive.

Our training partners include virtually every major health care system on the Front Range of Colorado. We have existing affiliation agreements with Centura, Exempla, Kaiser and HealthONE hospitals, among many other institutions, in metropolitan Denver and across Colorado.

At the conclusion of an intensive twenty-four month curriculum, graduates take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE). Upon passage of the PANCE, graduates are eligible for licensure in any state.

Students may elect to co-register at St. Francis University or Regis University to pursue a fully-accredited master's degree, to be awarded at the time of graduation from Red Rocks.