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
Kim Broussard, OTD, OTR, MOT, MSW is an occupational therapist, researcher and educator focused on improving the lives of older adults. She began her career in 1997 as an occupational therapist working with older adults in a skilled nursing facility in Mesquite, TX. She then worked with older adults in a variety of settings such as acute hospitals, hospice, long-term care, pain management clinics, outpatient, psychiatric and home health.
Dr. Broussard completed her Doctor of Occupational Therapy in 2016 at Texas Woman’s University, where she developed a low vision toolkit for adapting the environment for older adults.
Dr. Broussard’s clinical and research interests center on older adults with low vision, balance, pain and psychosocial difficulties. Dr. Broussard’s teaching experience includes past roles as instructor of the process of occupational therapy and clinical applications of geriatrics. Dr. Broussard joined the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences on the Dallas, TX campus as contributing faculty in 2021 and transitioned to core faculty in 2022.
