Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are advanced healthcare practitioners with similar responsibilities, such as diagnosing illnesses and prescribing medications. However, their training and paths toward certification differ in significant ways. This blog post unpacks the key differences between NPs and PAs to help you determine which career path best aligns with your goals. What Is a Nurse Practitioner? A nurse practitioner (NP) is a licensed clinician who provides comprehensive healthcare to patients of all ages. An NP can work in virtually any healthcare setting, diagnosing patient conditions and prescribing medications. As of October 2022, nurse practitioners have full practice authority in 27 states, meaning that they can practice Read more
Dr. Atkinson is a physical therapist, researcher, and educator focused on improving the lives of individuals with neurological injuries and their families. He began his career in 2005 as a physical therapist specializing in spinal cord injury rehabilitation at TIRR/Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas. In 2010, Dr. Atkinson joined the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, earning his PhD in anatomical sciences and neurobiology in 2016. He subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Kosair Charities Center for Pediatric Neurorecovery, also at the University of Louisville.
Dr. Atkinson’s clinical and research interests center on promoting neurologic recovery after adult and pediatric spinal cord injury through the development and refinement of neuromodulation strategies that can augment current activity-based therapies. Dr. Atkinson’s teaching experience includes two years as an instructor/course coordinator of the human biomechanics course at the University of Louisville. In addition, he is a consultant and senior instructor in post-professional courses and on the topics of recovery-based interventions for adult and pediatric neurological populations. Dr. Atkinson joined the core DPT program faculty at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences at the Austin, Texas Campus in 2019 and teaches within the neurological course components of the program.
