Nurse vs. Physician Assistant

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if you got accepted into both Bachelor in Nursing + Registered Nurse and Master in Physician Assistant programs, which one would you choose and why ? Thanks.

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I would like to add that which program you would choose in term of how easy it is to find a job after graduation, salary, how much responsibility you will have in your job, how much available time you will have for family. Thanks

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

You're asking this on a nursing student board, what do you think the answer you're going to get is?

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

PA without a seconds worth of hesitation. I get to make the rules, not follow them.

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Specializes in Emergency, Med/Surg, Vascular Access.

You might want to ask around in your area of the country how the job market is right now for PAs. If it's decent, I think I would personally probably go with that. You make more (~$20K) money, you are more autonomous (even if not completely independent), you can work in a lot of different facilities and fields of practice and specialize in anything (except anesthesia) that a physician can.

On the other hand, if you become a nurse, you could always become an NP (or PA, for that matter) down the road. Jobs are not easy to come by right now, though, evidently.

Good luck!

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If you want to do nursing but want to have autonomy, become a NP.

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Specializes in Cardiology.

I pondered this myself for some time (was taking pre-reqs for the local PA program) and then finally came to the realization that, at least in my state, NPs have far more autonomy than PAs. Hence me going to nursing school- can't be an NP without first being an RN.

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The two choices you present are RN vs PA. On that basis I would choose the PA because out of the gate you will have a higher pay and responsibility. If your choices are NP vs PA then it's a little more complicated. In most states NP's have more autonomy, and for example, could open their own clinic. If that's important to you, then get your NP. On the other hand, PA's are controlled by physicians and for that reason they are often preferred in hiring by physicians. Just look at the evolution of the anesthesiologist assistant (PA) vs CNA (NP) and you will see what I mean.

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