There are many different career opportunities available in health care and health care professions work closely with patients, and provide help and medical advice to the patient. Two of these professions are nurse practitioner and physician assistant.
Basically, it may seem as nurse practitioner and a physician assistant are same thing. However, both careers to work closely with patients, and both can include diagnosis and some treatment of disease and both assist the doctors in medical treatment at some or the other stage, there are some differences between the duties and qualifications required by by the individual profession.
Nurse Practitioner
A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse buthas an advanced academic achievement and additional experience in medical settings. be a nurse practitioner, it is necessary to have a master’s degree. This degree can be in field that is related to health care, having an advanced degree; a nurse practitioner should also have additional clinical experience. This clinical experience offers a basis of hands-on knowledge related to the treatment of disease, and diagnosis of the patients. The master’s degree provides education and experience that a nurse practitioner and they are able to diagnose and manage most illnesses that appear commonly. Nurse practitioners can provide general family health care in most cases or in the specialty areas associated with nurse practitioners like infant health care, Adult Health, Emergency Medicine, Family Nursing, Neonatal Care, Oncology, Paediatrics, Psychiatric & Mental Health, and Women’s Health.
Physical assistant
A physician assistant performs their duties under the supervision of a doctor and a physician assistant can also diagnose disease and write prescriptions. Everything that a physician assistant does is technically at the direction of a licensed physician and a physician assistant can also have a large degree of autonomy, depending on the willingness and individual ability and need of the doctor to delegate. Physician assistants also have specialties. Some areas where the physical assistant can specialise include General Internal Medicine, Orthopaedics, Geriatrics, Family Medicine, Paediatrics, Emergency Medicine, General Surgery.
Some physician assistants generally assist during surgeries and join themselves to doctors in their specialties of interest, and work in those practices. Physician assistants can also work at hospitals, under proper supervision.