Commentary: New Findings Substantiate the Successful Use of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants in Collaborative Practice Models

New directions for nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the era of physician shortages.

During the past 35 years, the roles for nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) have evolved in parallel with the roles that physicians have come to play. Shifting needs in primary care and expanding opportunities in specialty medicine have been the dominant trends. Future directions will be influenced additionally by the deepening physician shortage. NPs are preparing for this...

Practice variation and practice guidelines: Attitudes of generalist and specialist physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants

OBJECTIVE To understand clinicians' beliefs about practice variation and how variation might be reduced. METHODS We surveyed board-certified physicians (N = 178), nurse practitioners (N = 60), and physician assistants (N = 12) at an academic medical center and two community clinics, representing family medicine, general internal medicine, and cardiology, from February-April 2016. The Internet...

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants: do you know the difference?

W I was a new graduate nurse working on a medicalsurgical unit, I assumed that Karen was a physician as she rounded and wrote patient care orders. Another nurse identified Karen as a nurse practitioner (NP) and opened my eyes to a whole new world of advanced nursing practice. I was curious to know more about NPs and physician assistants (PAs), whom I also saw in patient care. Was it legal for t...

Expanding Roles of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants

Nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants in physician offices.

The expansion of health insurance coverage through health care reform, along with the aging of the population, are expected to strain the capacity for providing health care. Projections of the future physician workforce predict declines in the supply of physicians and decreasing physician work hours for primary care. An expansion of care delivered by nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse m...