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. Janice Dunlap is nurse practitioner, academic nursing professor and researcher. She focuses on the holistic care of the adult gerontology population and began her career in 1995 in critical care in Joliet, IL. Next, she completed an advanced degree as a clinical nurse specialist in 2003 from Governors State University and was awarded the College of Health Professions Outstanding Graduate Student Award that same year.
Soon after she relocated to the Florida panhandle and implemented award-winning programs for Stroke and Cardiac care. During this time, she pursued a post-masters adult gerontology nurse practitioner certificate from the University of Massachusetts-Boston in 2009 and transitioned to clinic-based neurology care. Dr. Dunlap then obtained her Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2016 from Troy University completing her doctoral synthesis project pertaining to Parkinson’s disease. Her research awarded her the Troy University Outstanding Student Research Award in 2016.
Dr. Dunlap’s academic experience includes an adjunct position at the University of South Alabama working with both clinical nurse specialist doctoral students and family nurse practitioner students, teaching various courses. Additionally, she was a visiting professor for Chamberlain University in the family nurse practitioner program. She joined the nursing faculty at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in 2019.
In 2021, Dr. Dunlap was accepted in the Sigma Theta Tau New Academic Leadership Academy with a research topic of academic microaggressions. A pilot study is in progress, and she hopes to expand this research nationally. Professional activities include mentoring, reviewing scholarly journals and textbooks and volunteering for children’s sports activities.
