PA school vs Nursing School? Need advice!

[Medlover15]

I am just about to graduate with my Bachelor's in Public Health. I had to pick up this major since I didn't get into the BSN program. I didn't get in because I applied to a too school that had a 3.8 pre req gpa cut off and mine is a 3.5 and cumulative is about 3.2. Anyhow, I'm currently a CNA and have been for about 5 years. Nursing is my passion and I love the patient care experience ! I have always wanted to be a trauma nurse and assist in emergency surgery such as a surgical nurse. My plan was to apply to the MEPN program or Masters Entry to the Profession of Nursing Degree to obtain my RN in about 13 months. This was until a friend of mine brought up PA school. I don't know much about PA school or it's job comparison to an RN. I don't know what to do at this point ? I need to know pros and cons of both. My main concern is that I want to assist in Trauma, EM, or surgery! Can I do that as a PA? I don't want to work at a private medical office such as a doctors office ! I want to be mostly in an OR or something like that. I also have a toddler who I need to consider when making this choice. Which career is more family orientated? I already have all my pre reqs done for nursing school and from the looks of it they are similar to those for PA school. Please help me make my decision !

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[deleted6669]

Shadow a nurse and a PA. they are very different careers. PAs are medical clinicians like physicians or nurse practitioners and nurses are ancillary staff like resp. therapists or xray techs who follow orders written by providers. both are important, but they are very different experiences and school pathways.
PA and nursing school prereqs are very different. most nursing prereqs will not qualify for pa school unless they are of pre-med quality. no intro to life sciences or survey of general chem type courses. you need a full year of bio, a full year of chem, microbio, genetics, etc. The pa school preparation is very similar to prep for med school with the exception of the GRE instead of the mcat.
If you want to be a nurse, look at RN vs NP.

 

[NYCGuy86]

RNs and PAs have two different roles. PAs are advanced practice providers, and their most direct nursing role comparison is that of NP, or Nurse Practitioner. RNs, among many other things, implement the prescriptions or "orders" of providers, such as MDs, DOs, PAs, and NPs. Since you work as a CNA, I assume you have some understanding of what bedside RNs do.

If you would like to assist in surgery, PA may be the more straight forward option. All PA programs include a rotation in surgery, and most jobs advertising for an advanced practice provider including intraoperative surgical role will ask for a PA.

As for pre-reqs, it really depends on the school. A&P I and II, and Microbiology are probably the only pre-reqs that will be accepted at both nursing and PA programs (outside of the liberal arts requirements). You'll need to look at specific program requirements, as they can vary.

If you are still interesting in nursing, then the NP role that seems to fit your interests would be that of an acute care NP, though again, PAs are found much more consistently intraoperatively than any kind of NP. There are also Registered Nurse First Assistants (RNFAs), though I'm not really familiar with that role, nor how pervasive it is (something tells me less so than having PAs as first assists).

 

[deleted6669]

The advantage of the PA over the RNFA or surgical tech is that the PA can work outside the OR as well. They can do the initial consult in the ER, do the admission H+P, manage the pt during their periop and postop hospital stay, discharge them from the hospital, and see them in post-op clinic after d/c. They can also take call for issues occurring outside the OR and write rxs for pain meds, abx, etc if there is a postop issue. They can do everything an MD surgeon might do except act as primary surgeon....at less than 1/2 the cost of hiring another physician. Surgeons hire PAs so they can avoid doing almost everything except surgery.

 

[EatPrayDream]

They are vastly different careers. If you want to diagnose, prescribe, and/or engage in a myriad of procedures then choose PA. Really, nursing has been nothing but underwhelming for me. However, I only became a nurse to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. All of the other stuff was merely stuff. Nonetheless, the primary (medical) care training I've learned through NP school and some limited experiences as a RN have lent themselves well to dealing with issues in my own family life.

Hi! I am currently in my. Junior year for Psychology. Also decided to wait to apply to nursing after my Psych degree. Never thought of. Psychiatric Nursing but my cousin recently recommended it. Can you tell me about your job and how you like it ? 🙂 congrats btw!

 

[pamac]

I'm a resource pool nurse, which means I am trained to cover just about every nursing role in my hospital. Psyche is one of the areas I cover regularly as part of my job, and it's also one of the more distinct areas of nursing. In the inpatient environment, the work there generally functions as psyche NP guy says. As a practical matter, I spend most of my shift keeping patients safe (from themselves and from one another), medicated, and assessed. The people in those environments are generally really sick, and are there because there is a real danger in them being treated in an outside environment without frequent supervision. Medication adjustment is a big factor on a psyche unit as well. As I'm an interloper of sorts, I don't delve so much into the therapeutic groups, or counseling sessions. We do have meetings where we review the patients progress with the patient present, along with the treatment team. But nuts and bolts work on a unit like that involves de escalating patients, helping everyone cope with the circumstances, telling people "no you can't smoke", and no you can't do this or that". You often find people trying to test your patience or manipulate you. You get patients who try to turn staff against each other (which is mostly a fools errand), or are generally just bored and trying to make trouble for their own entertainment. You have to be very vigilant, and it helps to develop a critical eye for BS. You see BS all over the hospital environment, but in the psyche environment it can be front and center.