Who makes more? A nurse practicioner or a physicians asistant?

The Dept of Labor produces a document called the Occupational Outlook Handbook that compares projections of salaries, the types of training required, anticipated markets for various services etc.

Check out: http://www.bls.gov/OCO/

You make good money doing either of those jobs but I’m going to guess a physicians assistant makes more. It seems like more training and education would be envolved compared to a nurse practioner.

PA is three years and nurse practitioner involves undergraduate RN (4 years) and at least a masters degree (2 more years).

In some states, PA is as few as 2 years.

RN is just 2 years in my state, you can be an RN with an associates. You could also do a 4 year program.
A PA in my area, you need a bachelors, then you get your masters which takes 2 or 3 years.
I would assume you make more money as a PA.

@casheroo

You can’t be a nurse practitioner with a 2-year associates degree. You have to have a 4-year bachelors AND a masters. It is possible that some states are now requiring PAs to get more education as that is a very good idea.

How much money you make has everything to do with which state you choose for your practice. There are different services each profession is able to provide and licensure varies from state to state. This is why I recommended the above book, so that EvanDiamond1 could find the appropriate state for which to make his/her comparison.

Kayak8 is right. You cannot be a nurse practitioner with a 2-year associates degree. You must have a bachelors (in nursing) to even apply for acceptance into a NP program. NP’s typically have a broader scope of practice than a PA. NPs can run their own clinic. I might be wrong but I don’t believe that PA’s can do this. Salary depends on the area in which you choose to specialize and how many hours you work as not all NPs are salaried. There are too many variable to this question to generalize about who makes more. BUT I can tell you which I’d rather be….LOL

@Kayak8 Oh I know, read your first post, you said RN is 4 years, plus a masters, which is ridiculous. You must have meant an NP. I was only correcting that.

@casheroo The question as asked was about NP. I was trying to explain the steps to get there and that you don’t just got to school and come out an NP, so the TOTAL number of years would be 4 plus 2 etc.

I have no idea if the questioner is in high school or has a post-doc in physics so I was covering all the bases.

What I said was “nurse practitioner involves undergraduate RN (4 years) and at least a masters degree (2 more years).” 4+2

@Kayak8 Ah, I missed that part. Hm, it takes two years to be an RN where I’m going. I never even thought about the NP part, but I did look into becoming a PA so thats all I knew about. My bad.

@casheroo
If you have any desire to become a NP later, you will likely need to go back and get the bachelors degree to be able to pursue the masters degree to get the NP. You can become an RN in two, but you can’t build on that degree the same way as if it was a 4 year degree.

@Kayak8 I know, but I need the degree asap. I’ll be going back for the bachelors, hopefully accelerated since I’ll already be an RN, once the kid(s) are in school. That’ll be some time away.

@casheroo Best wishes to you on getting the RN, it is a great step in a terrific career! You sure don’t have to be a NP to make a significant contribution!

@casheroo Congratulations! It’s hard work becoming an RN and even harder working as one. I started my medical career as a Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant (2 yrs degree), returned to school to get my 4 year nursing degree (BSN) and am now in graduate school working on my NP. Lots of years of hard work but its paying off! There is ALWAYS plenty of work! Keep on working toward that goal! You’ll never regret it.