Difference Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant

Healthcare is an industry that is expected to grow up to 30% within the next decade and continue to grow. There are so many career opportunities within healthcare, some requiring a just a two-year degree while others require advanced medical degrees. Regardless of where you start there is no denying that an advanced degree will provide added autonomy, opportunity and income.

Two such careers that require an advanced degree but no doctorate degree are a nurse practitioner and physician assistant . Each of these positions plays a very key role within the healthcare system and requires an advanced degree but also offer greater opportunities for growth and increased income. Though these two roles within the healthcare system may seem to overlap and be similar there are some key differences between the two positions.

First, what are the similarities between an NP (nurse practitioner) and a PA (physician assistant) ? Both an NP and PA offer direct patient care. Under direct patient care, they are authorized to perform exams, diagnose illness, and prescribe treatment and prescriptions. This was typically done under the direct supervision of a certified physician but in recent years with a shortage of physicians and increased demand, NPs and PAs have been given more autonomy in such responsibilities.

Recently both NPs and PAs have been able to perform many of the routine exams and preventative exams for patients young and old. This shift in responsibility has opened the doors of healthcare to more rural and underserved areas than ever before. What does this mean? For NPs and PAs, there is a greater need and a higher demand—and when demands increase so does the opportunity.

Yet the necessary education has remained the same to be a PA or NP in the healthcare industry.

One might argue that they are one in the same, but at the core of each profession, there is a great deal that sets them apart as two distinct and different career choices.

When a student sets out to be an NP or a PA the very essence of what they are educated in is different. The medical model and focus used to educate each one is entirely different. A nurse practitioner is educated and trained under the nurse model of patient care—the same foundation used for RNs, NPs, and every other career under the umbrella of nursing.

The nurse model is a holistic method of patient care that takes into account the patient’s physical, mental, and emotional needs. Whereas a PA will be trained using a medical model to treat patients. Within the medical model, students use disease pathology and the anatomy and physiological systems to diagnose and treat patients. In a nutshell, a nurse practitioner will use a patient-centered model and a physician assistant will use a disease-centered model.

This might seem like a basic nuance, but each makes a very notable difference, especially when looking at the higher education specializations each model offers. The career opportunities take two very different paths based on the model and education. For instance, a nurse practitioner will choose to specialize in a specific patient population, such as pediatrics or geriatrics. A physician assistant, on the other hand, will not specialize in a patient population but rather a particular area of medicine such as emergency or internal medicine.

Below you will learn similarities and contrasts between a nurse practitioner and a physician assistant as we discuss the necessary education, certification and licensing, daily responsibilities and annual salary of each of these two healthcare careers.

PA:
Master of Science in Physician Studies. This is typically a three-year graduate program that requires clinical rotations.

NP:
Master of Science in Nursing (MSN ). This is typically a two-year graduate program specializing in becoming a nurse practitioner. The AACN has recommended that those requirements be changed to require a Doctorate of Nursing Practice to practice as a nurse practitioner but those changes have not been made as of yet, but in the future…