NP or PA which is right for me?

Specialties NP

Published

I'm currently a BSN student and I will be graduating next year. Ever since I started nursing school, my goal has been to become a nurse practitioner. However, recently I've been wondering if Physician Assistant school would be a better fit for me.

I've been looking at the curriculum for lots of different programs and, in general, PA curriculum seems more substantive. I'm wondering if the PA training would better prepare me to be a mid-level provider than the NP training. Here are my questions:

It seems like PA training is more science-oriented than NP training and goes further in-depth on the biology behind clinical practice. Is this perception accurate? I know NP students are supposed to already know a lot from having gone through nursing school, but I feel like the training I'm receiving in pathophysiology, pharmacology, microbiology, etc... is very superficial.

I've heard that NPs are more "autonomous" than PAs (depending on the state). What does this actually mean? Are NPs going to become even more autonomous in the future (ie. with the advent of the DNP)?

I'm interested in volunteering abroad. I've heard that PA's have a harder time doing that. Is this true?

I like the fact that PAs get training in both inpatient and outpatient medicine. As an NP, I would probably go the FNP route, but it sounds like it's becoming harder for primary care NPs to see patients in the hospital. Is that true?

Thanks to all for reading my long post!

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Anyone? :nuke:

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The reason that you are not getting much reply is that this has been done to death. Most of the discussion is merged into the the thread at the top of the page, Here is the link starting at page 28

https://allnurses.com/forums/f34/differences-educative-clinical-between-np-pa-164046-28.html

(the last 8 pages or so probably encapsulate most of the discussion of education and clinical differences between NPs and PAs). Here you will find RNs that have become NPs for the most part. They will be able to give you the opinion on that. If you want opinions of RNs that have become NPs you will be more likely to find an answer on the PA forum:

http://www.physicianassistantforum.com/forums/index.php

Hint read the stickies and try the search function. A similar question was asked recently. If you search with "nurse PA" its about 3/4 of the way down the page.

David Carpenter, PA-C

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Thanks. May I PM you if I still have questions?

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Thanks. May I PM you if I still have questions?

Sure, thats what the sig says.

David Carpenter, PA-C

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

As David pointed out, the AN thread above is filled with excellent discussion on this topic. You may find that your questions/concerns are already addressed there.

Will close this thread as OP can post here: https://allnurses.com/forums/f34/diff...164046-28.html and try to keep all discussion under one thread.

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