PA-C vs Nurse Practitioner

A nurse practitioner often provides specialized care to groups of people with specific medical needs and their duties are similar to a PA-C. A nurse practitioner also emphasizes health promotion and preventive care for their patients. There are a lot of areas a nurse practitioner can pursue, including family care, pediatrics, women's health, mental health, as well as many others.

Here are the key differences between a PA-C and a nurse practitioner:

• A PA-C is educated at a masters degree level

• A nurse practitioner also needs a master degree, but also needs to have an active registered nurse license

• Nurse practitioners take a nursing approach to patient care

• PA-Cs are trained using a medical model, and take a physician's approach to care

• Nurse practitioners focus on certain patient populations (women, children, geriatrics, etc.) rather than focusing on a specific type of medicine

• PA-Cs specialize in specific fields of medicine, such as orthopedics or dermatology