Careers · Guide

PA residencies and fellowships

By The Prereq Club, a pre-PA student and her mom (not PAs or admissions advisers). Every figure below names its source and the month we checked it: October 2026.

Short answer

PA residencies and fellowships are optional training programs for PAs who have graduated and are NCCPA-certified or eligible. Most last about 12 months and focus on one specialty, like emergency medicine or surgery. They aren't required to practice: in NCCPA's 2025 profile, 5.8% of board-certified PAs had completed one.

The basics

  • Who they're for: PAs who have finished PA school and are NCCPA-certified or eligible (APPAP).
  • Length: usually 12 months. In a 2021 survey of 34 programs, 79% were 12 months long.
  • What you get: a certificate (some programs offer a degree), structured teaching and supervised practice in one specialty. In the 2021 survey, 89% of programs that answered trained PAs alongside physician residents in the same specialty.
  • Pay: every program in the 2021 survey paid a stipend, $50,000 to $80,000 a year at the time. The authors estimated that's about half of usual PA pay, and postgraduate-trained PAs weren't paid more afterward than PAs who learned on the job.

How common they are

MeasureNumber
Board-certified PAs who completed a postgraduate program5.8% (NCCPA 2025)
Most common areasEmergency medicine, general surgery, surgical subspecialties
PAs who completed one and were satisfied at some level85.3%
Programs on ARC-PA's accredited list (October 2026)18: 13 continued, 4 provisional, and 1 on voluntary inactive status (not taking new trainees)

ARC-PA accreditation is optional for postgraduate programs, and many programs aren't accredited, so ARC-PA's list doesn't count every program. In 2020, APPAP listed about 72 programs (BMC Medical Education, 2021).

Is one worth it?

It depends on the specialty and your goals. A residency can speed up learning in a demanding field, but most PAs learn a specialty on the job: in NCCPA's 2025 profile, 94.2% of PAs hadn't done a postgraduate program. Among PAs who had changed specialties, the median self-reported time to feel proficient in the new one was six months, though many already had skills that carried over. Before you apply, ask a program how much time is protected for teaching, what its graduates go on to do, and what it pays.

What this means before PA school

You don't need to plan for a residency now. PA school prepares you as a generalist (see what PA school is like), and residencies are something to consider near graduation. See PA specialties and salary for where PAs work.

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Quick answers

Do PAs have to do a residency?

No. PA residencies and fellowships are optional. PAs can start working after graduating from an accredited PA program, passing the PANCE and getting a state license. Some states add steps, such as a jurisprudence exam or a supervision or collaboration agreement. In NCCPA's 2025 profile, 5.8% of board-certified PAs had completed a postgraduate program.

How long is a PA residency?

Usually about 12 months. In a 2021 survey of 34 postgraduate PA programs, 79% were 12 months long; a few ran 18 months or two years.

What specialties have PA residencies?

In NCCPA's 2025 profile, the most common areas for completed PA postgraduate programs were emergency medicine, general surgery and surgical subspecialties. Programs also exist in critical care, dermatology, family medicine, oncology, orthopaedics, pediatrics, psychiatry and other areas.

Sources (all opened October 2026)

Rules can change from one cycle to the next. Before you count on any of this, check each program's own admissions page or email the program. This guide is educational only and isn't admissions advice.