NP Boards & PAs

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i have to post this to your group.....

a recent post on pa forum said that on the np boards the student "was asked to supply a reason for why an employer should employ a np instead of a pa".

is this true?

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Specializes in FNP.

I suspect there is some context missing with regard to the professional role or something. Since all the board questions are multiple choice, I'd like to hear the possible answers. They do test questions that don't count toward the score, so it is possible that some variant of that question was asked. I seriously doubt it was as pejorative as you were led to believe. The professional NP orgnizations are pretty pro NP, lol.

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There is no free response portion of your boards?

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Specializes in FNP.

nope.

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Well it is interesting either way. The PA initial boards and all recert boards ll focus on clinical medicine. There is no coverage of these Professional Topics (not sure if that's a good or bad thing).

If it is true that the NP boards pose this in a question some how, as a PA it is disturbing.

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Specializes in FNP.

As I said, I think it is probably half right and out of context, lol. As such, no conclusions can be made. I would caution people not to look for offense when we don't even have any facts. I suspect whatever the Q&As really were, they were innocuous and aimed merely at defining/evaulating the professional NP role, not "dissing" the PA's.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Hmm - I work with PA's and one did her recert this week and never heard of such thing.

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Hmm - I work with PA's and one did her recert this week and never heard of such thing.

There no such thing on PANCE or PANRE. It doesn't surprise me that the PA hadn't heard of it.

There are plenty of NPs here, so I would imagine that if it were true in any context, someone could verify/admit it.

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See, to me it sounds like someone is trying to get people riled up. I haven't taken boards yet, but I can't imagine a question like that would be on it. The whole NP/PA riff is silly IMO; although the educational backgrounds may be different the goals are the same. :)

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I'm taking boards in a few weeks...I'll let y'all know if I get any goofy questions like this.

The only reason I can think of that the question would be posed by anyone is to get the NP thinking about possible job interview questions. We are frequently "up" for the same jobs and it might not be a bad idea for either the PA or NP to think about why they feel their training/education makes them a strong candidate for a given position.

Still doesn't sound like a reasonable certification question to me, though.

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See, to me it sounds like someone is trying to get people riled up. I haven't taken boards yet, but I can't imagine a question like that would be on it. The whole NP/PA riff is silly IMO; although the educational backgrounds may be different the goals are the same. :)

1. If it's true than it is worth getting riled up, on both sides

2. It may seem silly but for some specialties it is a strong turf war in which there are no real winners. If each profession could practice with equal freedom then there would be no issue. Professional societies and influence in state and local matters usually seems to force the issue in one way or the other.

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Specializes in ED/Psych.

Hi all:

Just took the NP exam at the end of July, and there was no question like that on it! I'm sure we don't all have the same exact exam, but this is the first I have heard of any type of nursing board question asking something like that.

Carla

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