ACNP rather than PA question

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Specializes in FNP-C.

just to let you know that I'm 22 year old a male who lived in hawaii his whole life :). I'm in my last year of nursing school here in Hawaii and I graduate May 2009. Though I am very interested in the ACNP route, I am just curious about some things.

1) Does the ACNP practice some medicine as well as nursing? I am sort of confused of the ACNP/PA(physician assistant) role. I know that PA's have their own license and indeed practice medicine under physician supervision. I know the ACNP has their own independant license, but can the ACNP practice medicine such as diagnosising health conditions with medical terms? For example, a patient after many tests and cultures, shows symptoms of pneumonia, and then make a diagnosis in their chart as "Pneumonia" and order treatments for pneumonia?

2) What are all the possible settings/departments the ACNP will be able to work in?

3) I don't really mind about the difference in salary between the ACNP and PA(couple thousand dollars), but what does the future job market seem like for employment of ACNP's compared to PA's? I plan to stay in california or hawaii.

Sorry for the many questions. thank you!

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