NP & Physician Comparison (Table) |

Nurse Practitioners and physician both diagnose, treat, and manage acute and chronic diseases; order and interpret lab and diagnostic tests; and prescribe medications.

The care and knowledge each profession uses overlaps and is complementary. Yes, sometimes there appears to be a competition or rivalry between physicians and NPs but this shouldn’t be the case. Both roles offer much to healthcare and not only does each profession benefit from collaborating, but the health of patients benefit, too (Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare).

Yet, “each [role] has a core expertise that is distinct and unique. Physicians are in school longer and their focus is on the study of disease. Many if not most NPs are already skilled and experienced RN’s before going on for advanced education and training in advanced practice” (Maverick Health).

Take a look at the following comparison/contrast table (and links after the table) and discover more about the similarities and differences between NPs and physicians.

Compare/Contrast	Nurse Practitioners	Physicians (MD, DO)
Number in U.S.	205,000+¹	904,000+²
Male/Female	Male 9% / Female 91%³	Male 65% / Female 35%⁴
Usual Minimum Education	4yr Baccalaureate Nursing Degree, 2yr Master’s Degree, optional 1 ½ – 4yr Doctoral Degree	4yr Baccalaureate Degree, 4yr Medical School, 3-6yr Residency
Average Cost of Education	$25,000⁵	$176,000⁶
Patient Satisfaction	NPs have a relational approach, based on patient-centeredness & resultant significantly high patient satisfaction⁷	Improves with training in empathy, collaboration, and partnership.⁸
Communication with Patients	NPs use partnership-building communication when time allows.⁹	Improvement needed in partnership-building during communication with patients.¹⁰ More likely to prescribe medications without first seeking a relevant history.¹¹
Patient Health Outcomes	States allowing full NP practice authority have improved health outcomes for Medicare & Medicaid patients.¹² Outcomes equivalent to physicians.¹³	Empathetic & humanistic physicians associated with multiple improved patient outcomes.¹⁴
Patient Safety	Care by NPs is at least as safe as physician care.¹¹	Decreases if poor communication between physicians and nurses.¹⁵
Percentage Choosing Primary Care Specialty	84% of all NPs¹⁶	14.6% (number includes international medical students)¹⁶
Health Education/Promotion	Rates of health education/counseling higher for NPs¹⁷	Lower rates of health counseling may be due to different training, time constraints, or increased demands on physicians.¹⁷
Cost-Effectiveness	Less cost to educate, compensate & other factors means NP care cost-effective & could save upwards of $16 billion in overall healthcare dollars.^{18, 19}	High cost to educate, compensate, & other factors decreases cost-effectiveness of physician care.^{6, 18}
Diagnostic Reasoning Ability	In complex cases, compare favorably with physicians in primary care.²⁰	Statistically similar to NPs in complex cases in primary care.²⁰
Length of Consultation with Patient	NP’s tend to spend more time with patients.¹³	Generally shorter than NP’s.¹³
Emergency Room (ER) Visits	NPs in primary care can reduce unnecessary ER visits.²¹	When primary care physicians are available, communicate with patients, & collaborate with ER’s, unnecessary ER visits can be reduced.²²
Preventable Hospitalizations	Primary care by NPs associated with decrease in preventable hospitalizations.²³	Primary care by physicians similar to that of NPs in decreasing preventable hospitalizations.²³

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