Lemon Bars Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Assuming you had the pre-requisites for both and already had an RN license, would you pursue an NP program or a PA program and why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 UC Davis PA/NP program Sent from my S5 Active...Like you care... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggySRNA Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 UC Davis PA/NP program Sent from my S5 Active...Like you care... I vote that too. Reason? Best of both worlds. Get trained in medicine (have you not seen the PA curriculum? It's amazing compared to those I will not name. The political clout and aggressiveness that NPs have. Give that to PAs and they are unstoppable. That's about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted April 18, 2015 Moderator Share Posted April 18, 2015 davis is a good option. if not in CA, consider what field you see yourself working in. if it's em or surgery or almost anything hospital based, go PA. If it's psych, nicu, women's health go np. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moy505 Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 davis is a good option. if not in CA, consider what field you see yourself working in. if it's em or surgery or almost anything hospital based, go PA. If it's psych, nicu, women's health go np. Can PAs work in psych? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted April 18, 2015 Moderator Share Posted April 18, 2015 PAs can work in any field but there are 10x as many psych np jobs as psych pa jobs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator LT_Oneal_PAC Posted April 18, 2015 Moderator Share Posted April 18, 2015 Already chose PA LTJG O'neal PA-C, RN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacher2PAC Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 This is an interesting post, and today I got an surprising question. An MD who I worked with asked why I am not doing NP instead of PA. I told him my reasons, and asked him why he thought NP was "better". He indicated that NPs can do more with their degree like gain administrative positions and some other things. I was shocked by this advice because it is the first time I have heard it since I have started working toward wanting to be a PA. If other commenters can provide some insight as to why someone would want to be a NP instead of a PA that would be great. Also, personally, I have never wanted to be a nurse (I am not grounded in that school of thought), this is why I have not moved in the NP direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 The only thing they have on us is a better lobby (200k NPs and kabillion Nurses who support them). Our training is more in depth IMHO, and with 180 programs with more on the way and thousands of grads a year, we may make up the gap in numbers and increase our political clout. At least I hope so. Sent from my S5 Active...Like you care... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacher2PAC Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Thanks I appreciate it. In my heart, all I want to do is PA, and contribute to the profession in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iskendar Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 I've been an RN for three years in the emergency department. I went for PA school. I valued the in person, in depth, seemingly more rigorous curriculum and education that PA school offered over my NP school attending coworkers. I subscribe to that model of learning more than the mostly distance learning with cold-calling of preceptors for extremely variable clinical rotations that my colleagues have to go through. That is personal choice. Some may like that more or relish the idea of being able to work during their graduate education. PA school isn't without it's drawbacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
db_pavnp Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 davis is a good option. if not in CA, consider what field you see yourself working in. if it's em or surgery or almost anything hospital based, go PA. If it's psych, nicu, women's health go np. I would beg to differ on the 'hospital based' suggestion. I feel that hospital systems with 'magnet' nursing status utilize NPs very heavily. I also feel like when applying for a hospitalist job, if you can say you've spent two years as a medsurg or ICU RN, you have a huge foothold that is unlikely to be superseded by a paramedic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted April 19, 2015 Moderator Share Posted April 19, 2015 I would beg to differ on the 'hospital based' suggestion. I feel that hospital systems with 'magnet' nursing status utilize NPs very heavily. I also feel like when applying for a hospitalist job, if you can say you've spent two years as a medsurg or ICU RN, you have a huge foothold that is unlikely to be superseded by a paramedic. what if that medic did rotations in ICU, FP, hospitalist, infectious dz, and pulmonology and the np was an fnp who had never been inside a hospital during their fnp training... acnps and the like do better when applying to hospital positions, but the fnp folks really have the vast majority of their training in outpt settings with some never entering a hospital at all during their clinician level training. time as a floor nurse is very different than time as a provider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
db_pavnp Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I agree with your FNP comment. They are unlikely to be the strongest candidate for a hospitalist position. They should also largely be aware that they aren't training as a critical care generalist. I feel like disagreeing with you on the medic + rotations bit, though. Those rotations are unpaid and untested. Just as you preferentially hire ex-paramedics and whatnot for your ER, every unit / clinic / specialty has the option of doing the same. I think you want to compare a paramedic turned PA vs an icu RN turned ACNP and, realistically, the organization you apply to probably has an internal bias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted April 20, 2015 Moderator Share Posted April 20, 2015 I agree with your FNP comment. They are unlikely to be the strongest candidate for a hospitalist position. They should also largely be aware that they aren't training as a critical care generalist. I feel like disagreeing with you on the medic + rotations bit, though. Those rotations are unpaid and untested. I think you want to compare a paramedic turned PA vs an icu RN turned ACNP and, realistically, the organization you apply to probably has an internal bias. fair enough. I think your comment about untested rotations is a bit off the mark though for most rotations. PA school rotations as a rule are of high quality and have to reach benchmarks for hours, procedures, etc. substandard rotation sites and preceptors don't last long. if students complain about a site and their complaints have merit, the site is dropped. the older the program, the better the rotation sites because they have already weeded out the loser sites and preceptors. also, I think a Resp. therapist turned PA could give most ICU RNs turned NP a run for their money. RTs are all over the ICU and understand vent management, acid base, etc better than almost anyone. I know several ICU PAs who were former RTs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAGuy55 Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 My friend who is in NP school says she wishes she had gone to PA school instead. She told me the PAs are so much more knowledgable. She didn't like the fact that she was enrolled in a bunch of bs research classes and crap like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm7sus4 Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 davis is a good option. if not in CA, consider what field you see yourself working in. if it's em or surgery or almost anything hospital based, go PA. If it's psych, nicu, women's health go np. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemon Bars Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Thanks for all the replies, folks! Good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timon Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 I'm currently in a FM rotation with an NP. She won't see anyone under 18 and has commented numerous times that the PA curriculum seems more in depth and comprehensive. I've been told the reason is that she is specializing in adult medicine. I found that narrowedness to be a little excessive given the fact she will never see a patient under the age of 18 once practicing and very limiting to a potential future. She is in a 3 year program where they do rotations and didactic education simultaneously and had mentioned she wished her program would follow the PA school model. Her university she attends has a very prestigious medical school and PA program as well. She also is working part time as an ICU RN the entire time. While at my pediatrics rotation, the NP student that was with me was an ER RN who was in a 2 year NP program. He worked full-time and only attended the clinic on monday mornings for 4 hours as the extent of his clinical rotations. The clinic maybe only saw 20 patients a day if that so his exposure was very low. Having once considered the NP pathway myself, especially with my MBA degree / business background and the potential of working in an admin role, I had to be honest with myself and came to the conclusion that I'd rather be a PA vs an NP strictly based off the different in education models and job roles. My rational is that I want to go to school to be a clinician, I've already had my fair share of customer service and bedside manner type of roles through my previous experience. I don't need any leadership experience, I figured I've had enough education and real life experience to cover that. And I have no desire to work as an admin since my passion is in diagnosing and treatment of patients. I was also told by numerous physicians while shadowing that the PA trained students right out of school perform better than NPs right out of NP school and not to mention the variance in training standards between programs. My backup plan was to be an RN had I not gotten into PA school, but my end goal was always PA and not NP. That's even after being harassed by the RNs I worked with while an ER Tech who till this day still give me lip about going PA over NP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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