Is there an advantage working as a nurse practioner or physician assistant?
Asked by guedo
I am interested in working in either family medicine or orthopedics. Does it matter what direction I choose, physician assistant or nurse practioner??

Best Answer:
For family practice, there is not much difference. For orthopedics (and all of the surgical sub specialties); the vast majority are PAs; due to their medical & surgical focus & training in PA school as well as the available PA residencies in the surgical sub specialties. In FNP (family NP) school you just do not learn much that would help in a surgical practice & as of yet there are no NP surgical programs. In PA school, you have elective clinical clerkships & you could do it in ortho. There is also an OrthoPA society. If you do a FNP program you will be limited to that area more or less if you ever decide you want to do another specialty (keep that in mind, that's all). As a PA you come out a generalist & can change specialties pretty much at will; just depends on the doc you hook up with. So you need to decide your practice focus, what you hope to achieve, and wether the nursing (NP) or the medical (PA) model works for you. I advise talking to both, looking at their organization sites for ino (PA = aapa.org), maybe looking at some of the publications to see what's happening in the field etc. Since its a pretty big decision, you wnat to make a good one.
ER PA
Answered by Diane A

Yes. It can. Both are called 'mid level' practitioners, and their scope can be similar, but they use different models of care. If you prefer the medical model, choose PA. Prefer the nursing model of care? Chose NP. Most people tend to prefer one model of care over the other. It can make the difference between liking your career and wanting to jump ship and start over. If you are indifferent or don't know the difference between the two streams, I suggest you do some more research and job shadowing to decide which path fits you best. Good luck!
Answered by reginachick22