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Job Outlook for PAs vs NPs in CA


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Roo, I have been trying to think of a good way to advise you regarding this dilemma.  I think it may be best said like this:

 

The more specific your intentions are, the more clearly one path vs the other may become with research.  If you want to work in a specific area of practice, it would be prudent to investigate that area for a preference.  Some of these are pretty blatant.  PAs have graduate anatomy built into their programs and this is surely a big advantage for surgery.  NPs have a psych / mental health route and this is surely a big advantage for psych.  And so on.  If you want to work in a specific geographic area, I would investigate the area.  If you want to work in a specific organization, the same advice.  This grows more important as you begin to compound such issues.

 

I feel most PAs and NPs are magnanimous enough to propose the above.

 

What is a little tougher and I feel a bit under recognized is that RNs can acquire experience with patient populations that are largely off limits to most other medical professionals.  That is to say it could be hard to get the cardiology job that NPs with 2-5 years of cardiology RN experience are applying for.  At the same time, acute care NPs without ER experience may very well struggle to get that ER job out from under the paramedic gone PA.

this is generally the same advice I give; psych/women's health/nicu, go NP. surgery/em/ortho/hospitalist, go PA

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Thanks for the advice EMEDPA and db_pavnp. I am still pretty lost on what to do as I want to do primary care but would like to have flexibility if I were to change my specialty later on. I feel like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I guess I just have to figure out which is the least of the evils as they say. 

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Hello all, I think I have decided to go the PA route, leaving me with a choice between two relatively newer programs. 
-UoP a relatively well known school for things like dentistry, law, and pharmacy (1st cohort, accreditation application filed-they won't find out if they received their provisional accreditation until Sept '16) 27 month program begins Jan. 2017
-promising but unproven school in Provo, UT that is not well known at this time (2nd cohort, currently has provisional accreditation) 28 month program begins very soon!

 

I do not have a spouse or children so that helps but I do have a sister that would probably move with me. She has a lot of medical issues and would probably be better off in CA where there is amazing tertiary care. The CA school seems promising but I was thinking that it would be quite the gamble to turn down the PA program in Utah for them to not receive their provisional accreditation. That program starts in Jan. and I wouldn't find out if they got their accreditation until months after the other two programs start.

 

Does anyone have any incite on whether going to school in Utah, especially at a relatively unknown school, would hurt my chance at being able to find a job in CA after graduation or if perhaps taking a chance on UoP would be a better choice in terms of employability. I have heard from different people that the school you go to does not matter, is this true? Does it actually make a difference which of the two of these schools I go to? 

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