Hi! I’m going to be graduating in May and will become an RN and have my BSN. I was just wondering what would be more beneficial for me to do concerning my master’s. I want to get my master’s 2 years after I’ve worked as an RN in a hospital. I don’t know whether I should try to become a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant. I’ve done all the research about the difference between the two, but I would love to hear from someone who personally knows what each path would offer me. Or what the curriculum would be like for each one. I’ve been told it would be redundant for me to go to PA school because I would be going over a lot of the same material I learned in nursing school. I don’t know if that is true or not.
Congrats on graduating! Your plan is good–I would wait until you are working and you can see what both are doing. I would go more toward NP, as that would be less time (I think). Both NPs and PAs are being used more as primary care for stable, chronic diseases and for midwifery, so it’s an exciting time for both paths! The graduate program would not be redundant, and there might be some coursework you “sacrificed” in your BSN for the clinical hours of nursing.