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. McIntyre is an Assistant Professor of occupational therapy at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, San Marcos, CA campus. Dr. McIntyre completed her BS, MA and post-professional OTD degrees in occupational therapy at the University of Southern California. Dr. McIntyre’s career has focused on working with adults labelled with serious mental illness in a range of service settings, both inpatient and community based, nationally and in the United Kingdom, where she spent six years working in London.
Dr. McIntyre’s primary practice interest is working with adults experiencing psychosis in community-based mental health settings. Her scholarly work has focused on occupational therapy’s role in trauma-informed education, secondary trauma, the experience of hoarding disorder, psychosis as a human experience, and the inclusion of experts by experience in academic settings. She is the author or co-author of several book chapters related to mental health occupational therapy practice, including the recent update of Bruce & Borg’s Psychosocial Frames of Reference (2015).
She has served as a fieldwork educator in various mental health emerging practice settings, including a variety of services for individuals experiencing homelessness, as well as substance use and recovery settings. Dr. McIntyre co-facilitates the AOTA Psychosis Community of Practice, and also serves as the OTAC representative for the California Coalition for Mental Health.
