Nurse practitioners and physician assistants
Abstract
Medical professions are similar and different in certain aspects of education and practice. Professions such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants are similar and offer the same experience for people who do not want to take physician and surgical courses but still want to be medics. The two professions differ in terms of specialty focus because nurse practitioner is patient-centered while physician assistant is disease-centered in terms of specialization. Nurses have different areas of specialization as compared to physician assistants who mostly undertake general practice. In terms of education, a nurse practitioner requires a bachelor’s degree in a medical course. On the other hand, a practitioner assistant program requires a bachelor’s degree or a two-year course on biology, biochemistry or anatomy. The two professions have different types of supervision in terms of decision making. The nurse practitioners have more autonomy in terms of clinical decision as compared to physician assistants. This paper takes a look at the difference between the NPs and PAs.
Key Words: Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Specialization
Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are both well-paying and challenging professions and, at the same time, comparable disciplines. Most people would find themselves torn between the two professions. Both nurse practitioners and physician assistants fall into the category of licensed service providers. These two professions have ventured into traditional roles offered by doctors, such as prescription and diagnosis. The two professions provide more cost-effective and much-needed services as compared to the doctors. It is important to note that both NPs and PAs do compete for the same roles in a hospital set up. However, the NPs and PAs originate from different aspects and traditions in terms of education and scope of practice. The physician assistants mostly learn the terms of practice from a medical model. On the other hand, the nurse practitioners draw their experience and knowledge from nursing traditions. The NPs studies entail the wellness approach and holistic services to patients. It is crucial to note that these two professions are also school-specific, and students must make choices based on where they want to study the causes. Both nurse practitioners and assistant physicians are competitive professions that have certain differences in terms of scope of practice and education.
In terms of education, a nurse practitioner is required to hold a master’s degree. The master’s degree can only be attained after the student has initially been a registered nurse (RN), which is obtained through a bachelor’s degree in nursing. The degree can also be obtained through any other medical-related course. The nurse practitioner profession demands that an individual has amassed at least five years of field experience in a medical-related field. There are diverse fields for specializations in terms of master’s degrees in nursing. One can choose to concentrate on family care, pediatrics, health management, women’s health, or adult care. On the other hand, educational requirements for physician assistants include a bachelor’s degree in any medical-related field. The experience is not so much of a necessity in terms of the role of a physician assistant program. However, if an individual has not attained a bachelor’s degree in any medical cause, he or she would be required to undertake two years minimum studying coursework in biology, anatomy, chemistry, and microbiology. The physician assistant program would take three years to complete, and students are taken through laboratory and theoretical instructions. The emphasis is placed on medical ethics, pharmacology, behavioral science physiology, pathophysiology, and biochemistry.
Regarding supervisions, both professions have a considerable amount of supervision from the doctors in charge of various stations. However, nurse practitioners have more independence when it comes to making clinical decisions. The nurse practitioners can autonomously make clinical decisions based on their diagnosis and also research concerning a patient. On the other hand, physician assistants do not have the level of independence and autonomy afforded to the nursing practitioners. For the physician assistants, they cannot make clinical decisions on their own and must have physicians or surgeons present if they are to make any decisions. In most cases, the decisions have to be run through the surgeons and physicians first. The educational course undertaken by nurse practitioners allows them to engage in research and come up with informed decisions on how to proceed with the patient.
Based on clinical hours, an individual studying for a physician assistant undergoes over two thousand hours of clinical training. The hours are cumulative but are spent on diverse units that are included in the whole program. The two thousand hours spent in clinical training ensures that individuals come out of the program well trained in medical fields that ensure they offer better support to physicians and surgeons. Contrastingly, a person studying for the nurse practitioner profession undergoes different stages of clinical training. The first part is when pursuing a bachelor’s degree for registered nurses. The second part is in the pursuit of an advanced license. After the completion of the bachelor’s degree, a student seeking to obtain an advanced license would only be required to undergo six hundred hours of clinical training. The training should be varied to ensure that a student is a complete professional at the end of the whole program.
The specialty focus is different for physician assistants and nurse practitioners. A nurse practitioner specializes in patient-oriented care. Among the many things that nurses undertake include health education and disease prevention to patients. Nurses further focus on the diagnosis of patients and coming up with treatment regimes that correspond to the diagnosis. Nurses can also prescribe drugs to patients based on research and their clinical diagnosis. On the other hand, a physician assistant specializes in a disease-model. Most of the researches conducted by a PA is based on drugs. The line of specialization of a physician assistant takes the form of pathologic health. Moreover, physician assistants can also focus on biological components of health, which include diagnosis of diseases and offering advice on treatment regimes. The physician assistants have a general type of practice and mostly deal with all the areas undertaken by surgeons and physicians.
Full practice authority is the independence of NPs to evaluate, analyze, and diagnose patients. Subsequently, nurse practitioners also have the authority to analyze the diagnosis results and make clinical decisions based on the results. Full practice authority is necessary for nurses, especially because of the educational course they undertake, which prepares them to carry out the tasks. Most NPs specialize in areas of medical practice and spend time studying up to the master’s level. The experience gained is necessary to have practice authority. Secondly, the number of available physicians does not meet the required federal standards that are needed for the adequate provision of health care to families. The increasing population of Americans and families needs enough medical care, especially with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, there is a need for nurses to have full practice authority. Thirdly, most of the doctors are retiring in the next decade, which means there would be a shortage of health care providers to the American citizens. Such situations necessitate the need for NPs to have full authority.
In conclusion, both physician assistants and nurse practitioners are lucrative medical professions. However, the two professions differ in terms of scope and education process. The nurse practitioner has specializations in various aspects of patient care. The physician assistants are more into general practice as they study disease-oriented courses. In terms of education, the nurse practitioner requires a master’s degree after a bachelor’s degree course. On the other hand, a physician assistant would need either a bachelor’s degree or a two-year course on either biology or a chemistry course. The two professions have averagely similar requirements and pay.