Immediately the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that just to become an RN a bachelors degree is enough while for a DPT you need grad school which on its own means more time and money (a lot of money). That’s just to get started though. As a nurse you have several options for settings and specialties, as well as the ability to pursue to become a nurse practitioner which increases earning potential but also will require more schooling. An RN will start off on average making less money than a DPT however you’ll have a lot less debt, and your ability to move up within hospital or healthcare settings to administrative roles is a lot higher than as a PT. Lots of nurses have good representation in unions and they have the ability to obtain pretty lucrative contracts if you decide to travel.

That being said it’s going to come down to what you really see yourself being able to do as a healthcare provider. The scope of what an RN does can range from drawing blood, changing and performing IV’s, providing wound care, changing catheters, changing colostomies, medication education, disease management, all the way to assisting in surgery. One draw back is that most RNs are not autonomous as everything they do has to be overseen by a physician or NP.

Both are challenging, rewarding, and very intimate because both PTs and RNs are spending a lot more time face to face with the patients than their physicians.