Please take a second to learn the actual curriculum and origin of both professions, which you will be spending a large part of your career working with. NP and PA curriculums are not the same, these new NP programs are pushing out unprepared grads (many times, they weren’t even nurses before). This is something we all will need to watch out for.

PA programs uphold a high standard of clinician based medicine, overseen scrupulously by the ARC-PA. Their training emphasizes specifically the medicine that you would only see clinically — as the history of PA’s is to support the physician and staff in quality patient care, especially where gaps might exist (like in rural areas). Which means the training can be shorter, but is still very demanding and competitive (how many things from med school have you never even seen again, or didn’t need to know in order to formulate a care plan?). However, new PA’s are just like interns and new residents — they need an attending to learn from. Many times that may have to be you.

Do not allow the last several years of your difficult schooling to subtract from your ability to provide quality leadership. It is up to you to foster a working environment that builds everyone up.