Physician's assistant or nurse practitioner?
Since I decided to become a physician's assistant, a number of people have asked me what the difference between a PA and a nurse practitioner is. I didn't have a good answer at first, but it's becoming more clear.
PA schools are generally associated with medical schools, and the training has an advanced science focus much like that of MDs. PA programs generally award Master's degrees. The focus is on the disease model, i.e. the biological and pathologic aspects of health, diagnosis, and treatment.
Nurse practitioners get their Master's degree from schools that are associated with nursing schools. The focus is more on disease adaptation, health promotion, wellness, and prevention.
Having said that, the roles are fairly similar, and an invidual NP or PA's duties are largely determined by their particular clinical setting and supervising medical practitioner.
An article at Berkeley's website had this to say:
PA schools are generally associated with medical schools, and the training has an advanced science focus much like that of MDs. PA programs generally award Master's degrees. The focus is on the disease model, i.e. the biological and pathologic aspects of health, diagnosis, and treatment.
Nurse practitioners get their Master's degree from schools that are associated with nursing schools. The focus is more on disease adaptation, health promotion, wellness, and prevention.
Having said that, the roles are fairly similar, and an invidual NP or PA's duties are largely determined by their particular clinical setting and supervising medical practitioner.
An article at Berkeley's website had this to say:
This table from the University of Wisconsin-Madison also provides a comparison of the two roles.A Nurse Practitioner (NP) is a registered nurse with advanced academic (having a masters degree) and clinical experience, which enables him or her to diagnose and manage most common illness, including chronic ones, either independently or as part of a health care team. NPs largely focus on health maintenance, disease prevention, counseling and patient education in a wide variety of settings.
Specialty Areas: Family NPs, Pediatric NPs, Adult NPs, Geriatric NPs, Women's Health Care NPs, Neonatal NPs, Acute Care NPs, Occupational Health NPs, Certified Nurse Midwives, and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists.A Physician Assistant (PA) is formally trained to provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive health care services, as delegated by a physician. Working as members of the health care team, they take medical histories, examine and treat patients, order and interpret laboratory tests and X rays, make diagnoses and treat minor injuries. PAs record progress notes, instruct and counsel patients, and order or carry out therapy. PAs also may have managerial duties and some supervise technicians and assistants.Specialty Areas: General internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, general and thoracic surgery, emergency medicine, orthopedics, and geriatrics. PAs specializing in surgery provide preoperative and postoperative care, and may work as first or second assistants during major surgery.
Labels: healthcare, physician assistant
posted by michael at 4:56 PM
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1 Comments:
Nice comparison. I am a FNP and in the state of Florida, there are some differences between NP and PAs. I can order and interpret tests, diagnosis and treat disease processes and counsel/educate on those processes. I have to have a collaborating agreement with a MD but they don't have to cosign my charts. PAs can do the same but until their collaborating MD signs their charts, the findings are "unofficial". I don't agree with this distinction. I think PAs should not have to have every chart co-signed. It makes it seem as though the PAs findings are not good enough and that they don't know how to interpret results and such.
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