What's the difference between a nurse practitioner and a physician assistant?

Question

I know both can be licensed to prescribe medicine ,but what are the other differences in their roles?

Mind you, I'm referring to nurse practitioners and physician assistants with Master's degrees.

Answer 1

I can't tell you exactly what the differences are, but as far as I know, they have completely different schooling.  Nurses have to go to school for nursing; nothing else will do.  I'm not sure what Physicians Assistants go to school for.  Generally, nurses are geared a lot more towards patient interaction.  For example, the physician or physicians assistant is more focused on treating whatever disease ails the patient.  The nurse (whether an LVN, RN, BSN, or MSN) will be concerned with the physical well being of the patient and doing whatever they can to comfort the patient as well.  The nurse is concerned about every aspect of the patient's well being, including physical, mental, spiritual, sexual, cognitive, psychological, etc.

Answer 2

In terms of knowledge & "end results", relatively little.

In terms of training, a great deal. As the first person said, NP's are trained from a nursing perspective. PAs,  from a medical perspective.

As far as I know, most NPs & PAs work in primary care. While many NPs work in a more specialized field, PAs generally   are in a wider number of specialties.