Course: PANRE Review Course
Price: $399.99
Access: 30 months
Deliverables: 100 Hours of Category 1 AAPA CME Credit, 1,672 Board-Style Questions
Course: Pharmacology CME Review Package
Price: $399.99
Access: 30 months
Deliverables: 12 Hours of Category 1 AAPA CME Credit
Physician assistants operating in clinical practice face a recurring administrative challenge: maintaining NCCPA certification while managing a full patient load. The NCCPA requires 100 CME credits every two years, with a minimum of 50 credits being Category 1. Efficiently managing these requirements prevents last-minute scrambles and ensures that educational efforts translate directly into improved patient outcomes.
By utilizing high-yield review packages designed by peer PAs, you can streamline your credit acquisition while reinforcing the core medical knowledge necessary for the PANRE and daily clinical decision-making.
1. Utilize a 100-Hour Comprehensive Review
The most efficient method to satisfy your entire two-year Category 1 requirement is to enroll in a comprehensive review course that offers exactly 100 hours of credit. The PANRE Review Course at CME Review Courses is specifically structured to meet the full NCCPA cycle requirement in one package.
Instead of piecing together disparate one-hour webinars or articles, a singular 100-hour course allows you to deep-dive into the clinical blueprints of Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and more. This approach ensures that your education covers the breadth of medical knowledge required for recertification while satisfying the logistical demands of your state board and the NCCPA simultaneously.
2. Target Specialty Requirements with Pharmacology Credits
Many states and specialty certifications have specific mandates for pharmacology education. For instance, PAs working in states with strict prescribing laws often require a set number of pharmacology-specific Category 1 credits for license renewal.
Our Pharmacology CME Review Package provides 12 hours of targeted Category 1 AAPA credit. This package is particularly valuable for PAs who have already satisfied their general clinical credits but need to fulfill pharmacotherapeutic requirements. Focusing on specific content areas like pharmacology ensures you are not just "counting hours" but are also meeting the granular legal requirements of your jurisdiction.
3. Maximize Your 2026 CME Budget with Gift Card Add-ons
Most employers provide a dedicated CME allowance that must be used within a fiscal year or it is forfeited. A major tip for boosting your credit count is to utilize your full allowance effectively. We offer an efficient way to use your CME money by allowing the purchaser to add a $100-$1500 Amazon or Apple Gift Card to their CME purchase.
This structure allows you to purchase the PANRE Review Course or Pharmacology Course and include an educational add-on that can be used to further enrich your medical library or clinical tools. This maximizes the value of your employer-provided benefits while ensuring you receive the high-quality Category 1 credits you need.
4. Leverage Peer-Designed Learning Formats
The efficiency of a CME program is largely determined by its relevance. Content written by physician assistants for physician assistants eliminates the fluff often found in generic medical reviews. Our packages, such as the Internal Medicine Hospitalist CME Package and the Emergency Medicine CME Package, focus on high-yield, blueprint-specific information.
When the material aligns with your clinical reality, retention is higher, and the time spent "earning credits" becomes a genuine investment in your clinical proficiency. Our content covers 14 core medical blueprints, ensuring that whether you are in Orthopedics, Dermatology, or OB/GYN, the credits you earn are applicable to your practice.
5. Utilize Self-Assessment Credit Bonuses
While the PANRE Review Course provides 100 standard Category 1 credits, it is important to remember how the NCCPA weighs different types of learning. Self-assessment activities are often awarded a 50% additional credit bonus by the NCCPA.
By engaging with our 1,672 board-style questions, you are participating in active recall: the most effective form of medical study. This high volume of questions allows you to identify knowledge gaps rapidly, making your study sessions more efficient. This is particularly useful for PAs preparing for the traditional PANRE or those participating in the PANRE-LA (Longitudinal Assessment).
Clinical Case Assessment
Your patient is a 64-year-old male with a history of COPD and hypertension who presents to the urgent care clinic with a three-day history of increased productive cough and progressive dyspnea. He denies fever or chills. His current medications include lisinopril and a tiotropium inhaler. On physical exam, his vitals are: HR 92, BP 138/88, Temp 98.4°F, and SaO2 91% on room air. Diffuse wheezing is noted bilaterally on auscultation. There is no peripheral edema or jugular venous distension. A chest X-ray shows hyperinflation but no acute infiltrates.
Which of the following is the most appropriate next step in the management of this patient’s acute exacerbation?
A. Initiate broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotics
B. Administer oral prednisone and a short-acting beta-agonist (SABA)
C. Start high-flow oxygen to maintain SaO2 at 100%
D. Prescribe a 14-day course of clarithromycin
Explanation
The correct answer is B. Administer oral prednisone and a short-acting beta-agonist (SABA).
B is correct because the patient is experiencing an acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) characterized by increased cough and dyspnea. Standard management for moderate exacerbations includes systemic corticosteroids (oral prednisone) to reduce inflammation and SABAs to address acute bronchospasm. This approach has been shown to improve FEV1 and reduce the duration of the exacerbation.
A is incorrect because the patient is hemodynamically stable and does not have systemic signs of infection such as fever. In the absence of purulent sputum or signs of pneumonia on X-ray, intravenous antibiotics are not the initial priority over bronchodilators and steroids.
C is incorrect because in patients with chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure (common in COPD), targeting an SaO2 of 100% can lead to oxygen-induced hypercapnia due to the ventilation-perfusion mismatch and the Haldane effect. The target SaO2 for COPD patients should typically be 88-92%.
D is incorrect because while antibiotics can be used in AECOPD if there is increased sputum purulence or volume, a 14-day course is unnecessarily long and not first-line compared to addressing the immediate airway inflammation and bronchoconstriction with steroids and SABAs.
CME Review Courses provides the most efficient path for physician assistants to satisfy their 100-hour AAPA Category 1 CME requirements. Our packages are designed to maximize your educational budget while providing the high-yield clinical content necessary for exam success and clinical excellence.
Visit CME Review Courses today to explore our PANRE Review and Pharmacology options.