IS A NURSE OR A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT BETTER?

A physician assistant is a person who is certified to provide medical services but is usually under the supervision and monitor of a licensed doctor. They are always referred to using the acronym PA.

The assistants mostly practice medicine under the doctors or surgeon’s direction. Most of their work involves examining patients, diagnosing injuries and illnesses and providing treatment to patients. They are mostly found at their offices, other healthcare facilities and even hospitals where they attend to their patients on a full-time basis. Physician assistants may write diagnostic tests, prescriptions, assist in medical surgeries and do research. In the past, many states countrywide offered a limit to what the assistants could perform. The practice today has significantly changed having PAs to start performing to whatever their superiors require them to do. Ultimately, the supervisor is responsible and liable to the health condition of the patient should anything wrong happen.

Today, physician assistants are increasingly hired to provide primary care to patients as most healthcare facilities hire them to cut costs and for the provision of care in most marginalized areas.

Is there any training required for one to become a physician assistant?

Training occurs through a Master’s degree program where the students are required to have a bachelor’s degree with high academic records as a prerequisite. He or she should have passed courses such as human anatomy, biology, chemistry, and mathematics. Some of the schools also require them to have many hours of volunteering and work.

The same structure used in medical schools is the same as that found in the PAs program. Half of the program is spent undertaking courses while the other half doing many rotations in clinical settings. Learning is usually most of the scientific foundations of the human anatomy, medicine, physiology, human health, and pharmacology. A lot of clinical skills is also learned during this period such as counseling and the diagnosis of patients. For one to qualify to be a physician assistant, he or she must pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination that is provided by the National Commission of Physician Assistants. One is expected to complete all the assignments to be able to pass.

The Differences

Both Nurses and physician assistants have advanced degrees and provide care to their patients whenever they are hospitalized. One of the key differences between the two professions is seen in the different ways they approach patient care. The training they receive around the different practice models used to prepare them for clinical practice. Nurse practitioners train in accordance with the nursing model, physician assistants attend programs that are more in-line with the medical model, so, therefore, they emerge with different lookouts and philosophies about patient care.

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The other difference is that nursing model taught in nursing schools emphasizes more holistically at patients and their outcomes, giving attention to a patient’s mental and emotional needs as much as their physical problem whereas the medical model places greater attention to disease and patient approach is by looking at the anatomy and physiological systems that comprise the human body. Whatever nurses do is totally different from what the physician attendants do. Their graduate program is totally different as nurses choose a specific patient population focus as a primary specialty. It might be pediatrics, women’s health, etc. Physician assistants more often specialize in an area of medicine, like internal medicine.

Nurse practitioners work in a wide variety of settings where direct physician oversight is rarely part of their routine. These settings include hospitals, private clinics, skilled nursing facilities, and even schools whereas physician assistants work in collaboration with a selected doctor, therefore, working under direct supervision. The better job is for you to choose and align them with your set goals.