Different between Nurse Practitioner And Physician Assistant

Professionals who seek challenging and well-paying healthcare careers may find themselves torn between two comparable disciplines such as nurse practitioner and physician assistant. Both nurse practitioners and physician assistants are mid-level practitioners.

However; they are not doctors, but they take on some roles traditionally taken on by doctors, including making diagnoses and prescribing medication. They are valuable partly because of their role within an increasingly expensive medical system; their services are more cost-effective than those of physicians.

Academic Preparation Of Nurse Practitioner And Physician Assistant

Physician Assistants must attend a PA program following graduation with a Bachelor’s degree. These Master’s level programs are extremely rigorous and are modeled on the curriculum found in medical schools. In fact, many of the courses like dermatology, hematology and psychiatry are found in both medical schools and Physician Assistant programs. The PA programs, they are both focused on the medical science.

Nursing programs do provide a strong medical background for Nurse Practitioners, but they are more focused on natural, behavioral and humanistic sciences. This emphasis upon the state of the patient rather than the treatment of the underlying medical affliction reflects a historical origin in which Nurse Practitioners were utilized to ease the discomfort of the ill or injured. Nurse Practitioners do, however, complete a Master’s degree program like Physician Assistants.

Clinical Preparation

While Nurse Practitioners may obtain from 500 to 700 hours of experience in a clinic learning about diagnostic techniques, common medical procedures and case management, Physician Assistants are required to spend almost 2,000 hours in a clinical environment prior to licensing.
Nurse Practitioners are expected to choose a specialty like pediatrics, acute care or oncology in which they can devote their clinical preparation, Physician Assistants are expected to rotate through a wide variety of medical specialties.

Certifications

Physician Assistants must be nationally certified to practice and are nationally certified by a single authoritative body, the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. The NCCPA only certifies those who have taken the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam and passed. Nurses, on the other hand, are not required to pass a national certifying exam, although doing so will permit them advanced credentials.

The state licensing procedures for each profession are slightly different

Nurse Practitioners only need to provide proof that they graduated from a nursing program. Additionally, PAs must complete 100 hours of continuing medical education hours every 2 years an pass a recertification exam every 6 years, while NPs need only complete 75 continuing education units every 5- 6 years.