The Didactic Education Director (DED) administers ongoing development, implementation, management, coordination, and evaluation of the didactic phase of the physician assistant curriculum. The Didactic Education Director manages the daily operations of the didactic phase of the curriculum, including course development, course delivery, course assessments, and adherence to accreditation standards relevant to the didactic phase.
Working with the principal and instructional faculty, the Didactic Education Director reports directly to the PA Program Chair/Director (PD). Developing and maintaining the educational quality of the didactic phase, the DED shares responsibility for compliance with guidelines and policies issued by the program, ARC-PA, State Medical Boards, NC-SARA, Higher Learning Commission, and other regulatory agencies, where applicable. The Didactic Education Director will function as the leader of the didactic phase of the program ensuring educational quality, student safety, and student competency achievements. The Didactic Education Director is responsible for participating in the program self-study process, particularly in identifying opportunities to improve deficiencies, developing and implementing pragmatic solutions for the didactic phase of curriculum and operations, program-specific policies and procedures that improve workflow, optimizing resources, and ensuring ARC-PA standards compliance to attain and maintain accreditation.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Essential Duties
Promote the mission of SNU to all faculty, staff, students, and the community.
Model the character and qualities of a Christian servant to faculty, staff, students, and the community.
Promote effective working relationships among faculty, staff, and students
Comply with faculty/staff policies and procedures
Administrative 50%
Accreditation
Monitors maintenance of program accreditation with ARC-PA.
Prepares and coordinates materials and resources for ARC-PA site visit reviews. Works with developing, implementing, and enforcing program-specific policies as required by the program and ARC-PA in conjunction with the Clinical Education Director.
Maintains and monitors information in PA Program software and other specialty-specific electronic databases, including but not limited to, student performance, competency measures, remediation results, summative exam results, graduation, and other milestone reports, end-of-course reports, and student survey results.
Collects various required and special evaluations and develops reports when specified per program assessment processes (i.e., evaluation of didactic year faculty/preceptors by students; specified interval evaluations of students, final written evaluations of graduating students, etc.) and all other evaluations as required by ARC-PA for provisional or continuing accreditation.
Self-Study
Monitors Physician Assistant National Certification Exam (PANCE) pass rates for graduates from the program and reports data as required by the program and ARC-PA
Monitors and assists with analyzing data to determine compliance with ARC-PA standards, and institutional requirements.
Organizes and gathers required documentation for completing ARC-PA self-study, and accreditation maintenance report data at biweekly meetings, and prior to ARC-PA site visits.
Monitors student compliance with the completion of surveys to ensure required assessments are obtained. Works with the PD and faculty in planning, developing, and implementing the programs quality improvement activities, policies, and reports.
Operational
Collaborates and participates with Curriculum Committee (CC) and programmatic committees to organize and prepare didactic year reports for scheduled meetings.
Participates in annual budget planning for the didactic year. Monitors and tracks the budget throughout the fiscal year of the didactic department.
Processes travel and business expense reimbursements; tracks expenses, and assists with preparation of didactic year budgets
Prepares, monitors, and maintains program student handbooks, and other official documentation to ensure students meet program graduation requirements and maintenance of program accreditation status.
Manages and maintains program schedule during the didactic phase.
Tracks and maps program didactic curriculum to ARC-PA standards, PANCE blueprint and program Goals and outcomes.
Collect and manage data to track student and program performance outcomes to ensure achieving PA programmatic mission and goals.
Coordinate, review and revise academic policies and procedures as needed.
Administer and assist in organizing and structuring the academic review policies and processes, assessment, planning, and analysis of the didactic curriculum in the PA program in accordance with the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) established educational standards and practices.
Assist the program director with the continuous development, review, planning, outcomes evaluation, and general effectiveness of the didactic curriculum of the PA
Academic 40
Serves as the academic oversight of the didactic phase
Reviews all course syllabi for each didactic course
Reports all final grades to the registrar
Records student performance data for 3 years
Develop a secure evaluation process for each didactic course
Mentor faculty in course delivery and evaluation
Serves as course director in didactic courses
Teaches in didactic curriculum as assigned
Recruits adjunct and guest faculty to teach in the didactic phase
Mentors and counsels students, as required by specific program requirements, policies, and regulations.
Develop and implement the didactic phase remediation process.
Provide student assessment review, analysis, and proctoring of assessments as needed by the PA program
Scholarly/Service 10%
Serves on the PA curriculum, admissions, and faculty committees.
Serves on University committees.
Assist in the search process for selecting PA program faculty.
Participates in the annual faculty retreat.
Pursues scholarly activities such as CME, higher education, professional leadership roles, research, faculty development, free clinic service, and certification maintenance.
Participates in Program and University events (graduations, faculty/staff meetings, white coat ceremonies, etc)
Environmental Conditions and Physical Demands
Usual office environment
Manual dexterity
Visual and auditory acuity
Able to sit, stand or walk for extended periods of time
Travel required
Required Qualifications:
University
Southern Nazarene University is an expression of the Church of the Nazarene. According to SNU policy, all faculty and staff must possess a strong personal Christian commitment and be committed to the SNU mission to make Christlike disciples through higher education in a Christ-centered community.
An understanding of the importance of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Background check
General
Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
Ability to maintain positive interpersonal relationships
Ability to work independently
Ability to operate office equipment
Ability to provide quality customer service
Ability to serve as a team member and assist in other areas as needed
Program
Capacity to learn or possess knowledge of current ARC-PA accreditation standards.
Capacity to learn or possess working knowledge of program policies, procedures, and systems related to clinical year and the ARC-PA.
Capacity to learn or possess working knowledge of all relevant online programs and application sites including learning management software and clinical placement software.
Possess the ability to interact with internal and external contacts in a respectful, professional manner.
Highly organized and detail-oriented
Possess good oral and written communication skills
Computer proficiency in Microsoft Word (Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint).
Possess the ability to work well under pressure while managing large volumes of work.
Compliant with maintaining the confidentiality of student, faculty, and clinical preceptor information.
Preferred
Experience as a Didactic Director in a PA program
Experience as a faculty member in an ARC-PA site visit
PA, Science, Health, or Education related doctoral degree
Supervision Received:
Receives supervision and work assignments from a designated supervisor, although other staff members in the unit may provide work direction.
Supervision Exercised:
May be responsible for the coordination of work assignments for student employees.
