what's the deal with physician assistants

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I took a break from nursing for a couple of years to get my BSN. When I left I had never heard of a physicians assistant and now, a couple of years later, they seem to be everywhere. The NP I see was complaining that insurance companies won't pay for the tests she orders but have no problem with PA ordering tests. She was quite upset about this. I discussed the PA situation with my co-workers and expressed my concern that Physicians seem to be using PAs instead of NPs. My co-workers then looked at me like I was crazy and said they thought physicians preference for a PA was completely understandable. I eventually want to go to graduale school but worry about the future of advanced practice nursing. Can't wait to hear your opinions about this.

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

Hello, emmycRN,

PAs have been around for years. As for the future of the APN, I see no problems at all. There is room for the two specialties. In my area, the demand is for APN. Demands will be different in different areas of the U.S.

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I took a break from nursing for a couple of years to get my BSN. When I left I had never heard of a physicians assistant and now, a couple of years later, they seem to be everywhere. The NP I see was complaining that insurance companies won't pay for the tests she orders but have no problem with PA ordering tests. She was quite upset about this. I discussed the PA situation with my co-workers and expressed my concern that Physicians seem to be using PAs instead of NPs. My co-workers then looked at me like I was crazy and said they thought physicians preference for a PA was completely understandable. I eventually want to go to graduale school but worry about the future of advanced practice nursing. Can't wait to hear your opinions about this.

Please look at 2 of the 5 stickies at the top of this forum. Insurance billing can be a problem for NP practices depending on how the insurance company credentials providers. In our market they only credential physcians so you would have a similar problem. There is room for both professions, but there is wide geographical variation. I would also invite you to look at:

http://www.aapa.org/ to find out more about PA's and

http://www.aanp.org/default.asp to find out more about NP's. There is a similar discussion board for PA's at:

http://www.physicianassistantforum.com/forum353/

Wow the link thingy actyally works.

David Carpenter, PA-C

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