Whats the difference between a Nurse Practitioner and a Physician Assistant?
Neither are better–they are just a bit different. Paramedics make good PAs–I have known several that went that route. For some reason their training works well in the PA model. It is also faster for you as you have the experience–if you already have a bachelors, you can apply to a masters PA program (which I strongly suggest: masters over a bachelors PA), rather then wait to get in to a nursing program, work as a nurse and then apply to NP school. There are actually quite a number of PAs in San francisco. Cal has the 2nd most # of PAs in the country, I believe. But to specifically answer the question, nurses are taught in the nursing model while PAs are taught strictly along the lines of the medical model with PA school like med school–didactics then clerk ships. PAs graduate as generalists but can specialize by a residency or going to work for a doc in that specialty. NPs are either trained in a dedicated specialty school (ie peds, or GYN etc) or a family NP but a peds NP would ha
