Physician Assistants & Nurse Practitioners: Understanding Their Role in Your Care

For many patients at the Mt. Airy Health and Wellness Pavilion, going to a doctor’s appointment doesn’t require a doctor. Instead, they’re part of growing trend of patients who choose to receive care from a physician assistant (PA) or nurse practitioner (NP).

The trend is easy to understand. As our population has rapidly grown—and baby boomers have hit their peak health care years—health care systems have turned to PAs and NPs to help them meet the explosive demand.

In the state of Maryland, NPs and PAs are authorized to provide most of the same services as a physician. They can diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret lab tests, write prescriptions and more. The difference is in the course of training they opt to take.

Physician Assistants

The PA course of study follows the medical school model—a rigorous combination of classroom and clinical instruction—at the master’s degree level. During their program, PAs get in-depth training in a number of specialty rotations, giving them a broad range of skills to tap in to when treating patients.

In order to practice, PAs must sit for a certification exam with the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants once every six years. A properly certified PA should have the Certified Physician Assistant credential (P.A.-C.) after his or her name.

Nurse Practitioners

NPs must have at least two years of experience as a registered nurse and four years of clinical-based education before they can even be considered for a spot in a master’s or doctoral level NP program. Once enrolled, NP students learn a nursing-model approach to delivering physician-quality care. That means learning to see the whole patient—not just medically, but also what might be going on with the patient’s family or home life.

All NPs must be licensed by the Maryland State Board of Nurses to practice in this state. (Look for the C.R.N.P. or F.N.P. credential after his or her name for validation.) In addition to their state certification, NPs must undergo a board exam and certification in their area of specialty by a national credentialing organization. F.N.P.-B.C. for example, stands for Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner. NPs with this credential are board certified in the areas of primary care and family medicine.

Final Analysis

Regardless of the type of provider you see, the experience and quality of care should be virtually identical. A qualified NP or PA should have much of same hands-on experience, read the same research and use the same treatment tools as a physician. In the end, it’s about finding a provider who makes you feel confident in your plan of care.

Located at 504 East Ridgeville Boulevard, the Mt. Airy Health & Wellness Pavilion makes it easy for your family to get convenient appointments with qualified providers. Choose from nearly 50 providers in 15 specialties, including primary care, endocrinology, general surgery, neurology, and orthopaedics. Meet all of the pavilion’s providers—and explore the location’s other on-site support services—at MtAiryHealth.org now.