NP clinicals vs PA clinicals

OCRN3 · Jun 10, 2014

Go over to the NP forums. They have a lot of info on this topic!

happyinmyheart · Jun 10, 2014

I recently talked to an ER doc and he told me he would rather have an NP (with nursing experience) over a PA any day. He that it was a personal preference on their ER floor to hire NPs. Just his floor's opinion!!

happyinmyheart · Jun 10, 2014

Oops... Kinda off topic. Still some perspective!! (Sorry)

Dranger · Jun 10, 2014

I have had many attendings who prefer PAs. PA education is similar in set up to med school with many of the same rotations albeit in a smaller time frame. It's natural a doc would lean towards someone learning in the medical model.

The finding your own clinical or preceptor at many NP schools is kinda a joke.

Barnstormin' PMHNP · Jun 11, 2014

CINAHL, PUBMED would be where I would look for studies that have been done on the topic, plus just googling it.. As a FNP student I imagine you have already checked out those sources though. To add to the general topic though, the facilities I have worked in used both NP's and PA's. Both seemed well respected by the Physician's and were utilized in acute, med-surg and outpatient. I respected all of them, both the PA's and NP's seemed to have all their stuff in one sock and were a pleasure to work with. I think respect is earned whether you are a CNA, Nurse, NP, PA, or Physician. There are idiots at every level and no one wants to work with one. Actually the people I hear talked about the most in a derogatory way are the residents and some of the physicians.

core0 · Jun 11, 2014

For PAs the standards are found here:

http://www.arc-pa.org/documents/Standards4theditionwithclarifyingchanges9.2013%20FNL.pdf

Clinical rotations start on page 16.

MurseJJ · Jun 11, 2014

Perhaps you might be interested in looking at the curriculum of various PA and NP programs to compare. PA education is designed to create a generalist practitioner, in the medical model. Therefore, PA programs include clinical rotations in diverse fields (similar to what happens in medical school), generally including internal medicine, family medicine, OB-GYN, psychiatry, surgery, pediatrics, and sometimes emergency medicine. Oftentimes they will also include time for 1-2 elective rotations.

NP clinical rotations depend on the type of NP program (ANP vs FNP vs PNP vs ACNP vs NNP vs PMHNP). The clinical rotations will therefore be more targeted towards the area of practice that the student is studying. For example, ACNP programs generally will include rotations in internal medicine and critical care for all students, as well as rotations in specialty areas of interest to the student, such as transplant, cardiology, trauma, etc. A coworker of mine just completed his Adult NP program (at a traditional B&M school), and in addition to the required rotations in adult primary care (including some OB-GYN), he also did a 4 week rotation in the cardiac cath lab, since he's interested in cardiology.

Also, it isn't true for all NP programs that "NP's has to find clinicals, wherever they can find them". There are many NP programs that set up rotations for students, and there are many that require the student to find and set up their own clinicals (with varying degrees of oversight of that process). In contrast, all PA programs set up rotations for students (the only reason a student may have to set up their own clinical is for an elective not offered by the school).

Another difference is in the number of clinical hours required for programs. PA programs typically include around 2000+ hours, while NP programs include anywhere from 500-1000+ hours (from what I've seen, DNP programs are the ones that often are at the higher end).

As far as physician preference, that most likely depends on the physician. Physicians may be more familiar with PA education since it is in the same model as them. Some physicians may prefer NPs over PAs for supervisory reasons. It really depends, and I've heard both. In my hospital, you see NPs exclusively in cardiology (including working with the cardiac surgeons), while in ortho and EM you exclusively see PAs.

34years · Jun 12, 2014

The physicians that make these comments was in some of my clinical areas, worked also with both NPs and PAs in which they had great respect for them. The comments was made because they had interveiw some NP graduates and due to the increasing number of NP students in our area, was seeing clinials being done at Botox clinics etc..they felt this was taking away from the quality of education they had come to expect from the NPs programs in our area. Also in my opinion that if you where lucky enough to attend a program that provided you with preceptors you are very blessed