Information on Ortho NP and PA Please

Specialties NP

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Ok, I havent visited this site in a while. As of right now I am a RN in an SICU and I do really enjoy my job but I'm looking to go back to school. What I really want to do is to be Orthopedic NP but my concern is how many Ortho NP positions are there out there and how is the pay. I have also thrown around the idea of going back to school to be PA. I guess my question is which of the two degrees would I be more likely to work in the Orthopedic field with and what would the pay difference be? Can I really expect to find a job in the Orthopedic fiel straight out of NP school with decent pay? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

http://www.med.unc.edu/ortho/np/npinfo.html

Here's a paid 12 month ortho residency for NP's. Good Luck.

Does anyone know how competitive a program like this is to get in, and if there are any more in the country? Thanks.

http://www.appap.org/prog_specialty.html

for PA residencies in ortho. I have to say, that PAs are much more widely used in ortho. Jobs exist for both but surgical specialties such as ortho still tend to be more PA friendly mostly because PAs have required surgical training in school (required for accreditation) and NPs don't. This combined with the fact most ortho doctors did their residencies with PAs around so that they feel more comfortable with PA skills. As a PA in ortho you can expect to make between 75k-100k+ depending on whether you have more OR time or more clinic time or more inpatient time. The jobs in ortho are as varied as you could want and you can try and find a position with the right mix of OR time and clinic time you want. good luck.

This is an interesting find...

http://www.stoneclinic.com/np2.htm

That's a pretty sweet find by MacD for an NP ortho fellowship. I'd guess there aren't too many of those in ortho for NPs.

Keep also in mind: if it's ortho you want, you should try to get into something like that Fellowship or something b/c most times, the generic training for NP does't otherwise offer training in surgery, perisurgical skills, injections, aspirations, surgical skills, like suturing, and procedures, etc... I've a friend, who entered into a job in plastic surgery to be just clinic. It was very overwhelming, even in the clinic and then they wanted her to start doing first assist but she can't. To do first assist, she now has to go and get extra formal training. Just something to think about. I know of an ortho practice that has 2 PAs and one NP. The 2 PAs do everything, surgical assist, rounding, autonomousely see all kinds of patients in clinic and the NP does nothing but pre-op H&Ps, and that's it.

Just be careful when making your choice. If you go NP, make sure your big picture plan includes training that would allow you to do all of ortho, which includes surgery, etc... like that Fellowship. Or, PA would be an other option. In PA school, you get surgical rotations and training and could likely do an ortho elective rotation as well. Coming out of a 2-year PA program, you'd have everything you'd need to find a job in ortho, with little restrictions--if any. (There are some PA residencies, but it wouldn't be needed).

Oh, in case somebody brings up the ol' independence thing... don't worry about that in ortho. NPs and PAs are extremely likely to be hired by the surgeons to work pretty much the same way in a given office. ...meaning, indipendence isn't really an issue in a subspecialty like this, and if the NP has proper cert. in surgical first assist. Either one would work with the same expected amount of autonomy in a given practice. Some ortho surgeons don't have mid-levels work with much autonomy in a clinic setting, while some ortho offices allow the mid-levels to work with a lot of autonomy. It depends on the given office and the desire of the surgon(s) and not if one is NP vs. PA.

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