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. Hatem Jaber is an Assistant Professor in the Flex DPT program at the University of St. Augustine. Prior to joining the university, he was an instructor at Loma Linda University with a teaching portfolio of Research and Statistics, Evidence Based Practice, and Orthopedic research lab. He earned his DSc in 2017 from Loma Linda University.
His dissertation focused on the role neuromuscular/motor control plays in sport-related injuries. His research was explicitly designed to examine differences in neuromuscular and postural control in individuals with and without chronic ankle instability, and how addressing these differences can lead to an improvement in patients’ outcomes. This work resulted in two publications in high peer reviewed journals. Dr. Jaber has a robust scholarship agenda in Orthopedic and Movement Science contributing to several disseminations through both peer reviewed publications and scientific and professional presentations. He serves as a manuscript reviewer for several sport and orthopedic rehabilitation journals. For the past couple of years, Dr. Jaber has been investigating several promising clinical topics with emphasis on sport-related injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, and biopsychological factors in spine rehabilitation. His mission is to bridge the gap between biomechanical and psychosocial dimensions of musculoskeletal disorders.
Dr. Jaber received Loma Linda University’s 2018 Doctoral Award for Outstanding Research. Dr. Jaber has been practicing primarily in an outpatient care setting for 5 years. He specializes in sport rehabilitation and rehabilitation of spine utilizing the movement science approach to assess improper movement patterns. He believes in a gentle approach to PT intervention with an emphasis on patient involvement at home to maximize their recovery. He also believes that health education is the most emphasized health promotion strategy in physical therapy and that both, health education and health promotion activities are a fundamental requirement for all health professionals. He believes that integrating and interpreting the elements of medical, biopsychosocial, and health promotion models in the patient care is an integral part to optimum health.
