St. Ambrose University's College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) graduates highly-qualified and caring healthcare professionals, as reflected in first-time pass rates on national licensure.
The 2019 Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) cohorts each achieved 100 percent first-time pass rates on their respective national licensure exams. In addition, the 2019 pass rate for the Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) program was also 100 percent.
The three graduate programs provide students with a quality, evidence-based education and a mix of clinical experiences that lead to solid outcomes from acing board exams to pre-graduation employment offers.
"Each program has outstanding faculty and staff who support the program and very capable instructors who are not only excellent at what they do, but also have a wide range of clinical and practice backgrounds. The students have terrific role models and instructors to learn from," said Sandra Cassady, PhD, PT, Dean of the College of Health and Human Services.
"These programs have a reputation for being rigorous, collectively. The faculty hold students to high standards and at the same time, support them extremely well," she added. "The bar is high, and we support our students in reaching it."
Each of the three programs receives hundreds of applications each year. A selective admissions process considers past academic achievement and fit with the program's mission. "We have very high retention and graduation rates," Cassady said. "Many variables are used to select students who the program believes will finish and be successful the first time in passing the licensure or certification exam for the field. Usually, within a short period of time following graduation, 100 percent of graduates from each program are employed."
Licensure and board exams also are a benchmark of how well St. Ambrose is educating healthcare professionals versus other universities, a data point each program uses for quality improvement.
"Our faculty are never satisfied with the status quo. They are driven for continual excellence and preparing our graduates to go out into the world and care for others. We work with clinical partners to educate future healthcare professionals who will enrich lives. The best way the College of Health and Human Services can do that is to provide students with the skills and opportunities to translate what they've learned into high-quality practice," Cassady said.
"These programs have a reputation for being rigorous, collectively. The faculty hold students to high standards and at the same time, support them extremely well. The bar is high, and we support our students in reaching it."
Master of Physician Studies
The 2019 cohort achieved a 100 percent first-time pass rate on the National Commission on Certification for Physician Assistants (NCCPA) exam.
In addition, the 30-member cohort scored at or above the national average in all eight tasks areas, and 13 of the 14 content areas, in which they were tested. Kerry Humes, MD, Associate Professor and Director of the MPAS program, said the achievement is significant because they were the first class to take the newly-revised, and harder, exam.
"This illustrates the program's didactic year is providing students with a good base of knowledge and as they do their clinical rotations with providers in our community and other communities in the Midwest, they are gaining strong clinical experience. It also shows how highly motivated our students are to do well," Dr. Humes said.
"It is a combination of caring faculty and students helping one another that makes this program a success. We can provide our students with all of the tools, but they have to study and be motivated because it is an intense 29 months," she added. "They knocked it out of the park."
This is the fourth MPAS cohort to graduate from St. Ambrose, and the second to achieve a 100 percent first-time pass rate on the NCCPA exam. The first class to achieve that milestone graduated in 2017.
St. Ambrose launched the only MPAS program in the Quad Cities and Western Illinois region in 2014 and annually receives about 600 applicants for each cohort of 30 students. The 29-month program begins with 14 months of didactic classroom and laboratory studies, followed by 15 months of supervised clinical rotations.
More than 50 percent of the 2019 cohort had accepted PA positions or were negotiating offers - some negotiating multiple offers - before graduation, Dr. Humes said.
The 2019 cohort of Doctor of Physical Therapy graduates achieved a 100 percent first-time pass rate on the National Physical Therapy Exam, something Program Director Priscilla Weaver, PhD, DPT, said is remarkable as well as common at St. Ambrose.
The DPT cohorts of 2016 and 2017 also passed the exam on the first try.
"Certainly, it speaks to how our students are prepared by expert faculty from a variety of practice areas. We don't teach to the test, but teach to prepare our students for clinical practice," she said. "It also speaks to the dedication our students have to their coursework and gaining the skills to practice. It is a combination of those two things that help us achieve these outcomes."
The program is offered in an accelerated format. Students can earn their degree in 2.5 years or less if they are accepted into one of two admission tracks for high school and college students. The program includes 35 weeks of hands-on clinical experience. "Students go to several clinical sites and provide care in a variety of settings. They learn across the continuum of care," Weaver said.
"Faculty are always keeping up with best practices, and internally, we are continually making sure the curriculum is high-quality and evidence-based. Our class size is 36 students which allow for more hands-on learning and interaction between students and faculty," she said.
Students are successful, in part, because faculty support their educational and professional goals every step of the way, as do cohort peers and the university. "From start to finish - and even after graduation - we remain supportive of our alumni," said Weaver.
One hundred percent of SAU DPT graduates who seek employment are employed in the field. Some choose to gain advanced knowledge and clinical practice skills in a specialty area in SAU's one-year Orthopaedic Residency Program. It also boasts high certification pass rates: of the 48 students who have taken the orthopaedics specialist certification examination since the residency program was launched in 2006, 46 have passed.
The residency program is accredited through the American Board of Physical Therapy Residency and Fellowship Education. The Doctor of Physical Therapy Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education.
“Faculty are always keeping up with best practices, and internally, we are continually making sure the curriculum is high-quality and evidence-based. Our class size is 36 students which allows for more hands-on learning and interaction between students and faculty."
DPT Program Director Priscilla Weaver PT, DPT, PhD
Doctor of Occupational Therapy
St. Ambrose transitioned its long-standing Master of Occupational Therapy program to a doctoral program in 2016. The first Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) cohort graduated in 2019 and the students who took the National Board for Certification of Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) exam achieved a 100 percent 2019 certification exam pass rate.
"This tells me that our program continues to prepare entry-level students to meet the practice demands of today. To me, that is an important distinction," said Professor and Program Director Lynn Kilburg, DHSc, MBA, OTR/L.
"This was our first assessment measure of the doctoral program and we now know our graduates meet the standard for practice and are ready to address today's healthcare needs."
The NBCOT exam is continually updated for current healthcare practices. Kilburg said faculty are successfully creating course content that is relevant and timely to the healthcare clients of today, she said.
"Our first cohort was filled with people who were driven to make a community, regional, and national impact," Kilburg said, adding that nearly half of the 32-member cohort presented research nationally, internationally, or both. "These students assisted and advanced healthcare in communities here and across the world. They've had a significant impact," she added.
Over the past three years, an average of 85 percent of SAU's Occupational Therapy graduates accepted a position from their first choice in practice and geographic region within four weeks of graduation. Ultimately 100% of our graduates are employed as an OT.
St. Ambrose's OTD program is the first doctoral program in Iowa accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education. The three-year program includes 24 weeks of fieldwork plus a 14-week experiential component, and a focus on occupation-based, person-centered, inter-professional client care.
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