NP or PA with eventual non-clinical interests?

[coconut122]

Hi everyone! I am currently in the midst of a (common) dilemma in trying to decide whether I should pursue an NP or PA degree. My background is: 4.5 years as a medical secretary and EKG tech (while in college), 3 years as an elementary school teacher, and 2 years as a health coach working in conjunction with hospitals, insurance companies, and private clients on reversing pre-diabetes and obesity through lifestyle modifications.

Right now I am taking pre-nursing courses at a community college. I graduated with a 3.2 liberal arts BA and NO science courses over 5 years ago. I now have a pre-nursing gpa of 4.0 over 4 courses (A&P 1, A&P 2, Math for Healthcare, and General Chemistry for Nursing Students). I've realized that with so many years of experience in calling the shots (as a teacher and health coach), I really DON'T want to take a step back and work in bedside nursing. I'm pretty sure I'd be miserable in that role specializing in converting g to mg and fulfilling someone else's orders; however, a degree as an RN would offer me some additional job security as a health coach if I do choose to circumvent nursing experience. Either way, I know that I eventually want to be a provider, with the ability to make diagnoses, prescribe medication, help solve health problems, and make a much a larger salary than I am making now (~55k).

Since someone will probably bring it up: I thought about medical school, but decided against it because I would be over 37 by the time that I was out of residency and I would have little choice in where in the country I ended up as a student or resident. I'd prefer to use those years to build a family, continue travelling the globe, etc. Additionally, I have varied medical interests and wouldn't want to be tied to one specialty forever.

Specialties I am interested in include: primary care and corporate health & wellness programs (especially in the areas of preventative health care and diabetes), emergency care and disaster relief, dermatology, psychiatry, pediatrics, cardiology, and surgery/procedures. I would love the complete lateral mobility as a PA and am worried that as an FNP I would have to go around collecting post-grad certificates in Acute Care, Psychiatry, and god only knows what else as programs increasingly specialize if I wanted to change specialties.

On the other hand, I know that NPs have more opportunity if I eventually want to end up in public health or research, which I have a huge interest in. I plan on getting a dual degree as a provider and MPH. I love statistics and data analysis, health communication, and policy.

For someone with my background and interests, who has zero desire to be a nurse, which degree would you think is more suitable?

Thank you for your thoughts and help!

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[deleted6669]

if you have zero desire to be a nurse look into dual PA/MPH programs. there are many good ones out there. lots of PAs work in non-clinical roles in public health for the cdc, dea, fda, nih, natl cancer institute, natl sci foundation, etc.
you may find that you need to get a DHSc (like I did) or a DrPH to be competitive for these types of jobs.

 

[pamac]

PA would get you where you want to go very quickly compared to a typical FNP program. You actually might be one of the few folks that really would want to take the time and effort to pursue an mph/pa program. I got an interview to such a program and didn't bother to go because the MPH didn't do anything for me in terms of my interests and goals, but for you it sounds like you'd enjoy it. I don't think that FNPs have a tremendous edge in public health, especially if you plan to get an MPH. You'd probably also appreciate the generalist aspect of a PA degree, although jumping around a ton is becoming a thing of the past. However, as a PA you really could do all those things you described... Seeing all sorts of patients and ages. A PA degree would allow you to be very broad in your ability to walk into almost any primary care type of environment and treat. I wouldn't hesitate to go PA if I were you. Nursing would just take you longer to get where you want to go. However, I make over $85k as a nurse, have no debt, and work full time while going to school. You'll pay probably $120k minimum for your PA/MPH, miss out on any income for 2 years (could be 3 years for the dual PA/MPH program), and have to come up with living expenses. That's why I didn't bother interviewing at the PA/MPH program.... 3 years of school @ $140k total in one of the most expensive regions of the country. That was going to be too expensive for me to do, only to land a job in government (the only employer that cares about the MPH) that pays $85k. No deal.

Definately consider the financial angle or you'll be paying out the nose for years or decades to come.

 

[762513]

You already said you have zero desire to be a nurse. Looks like you made up your mind before you even posted.