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
Robyn Martin, M.S., CCC-SLP, BCS-F is the Director of SLP Clinical Education for the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences MS-SLP program, Dallas, Texas. Mrs. Martin earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in speech-language pathology from Texas Christian University. Mrs. Martin has practiced as a speech-language pathologist in public schools, the hospital setting, a pediatric outpatient clinic and in the university setting where she supervised graduate students in clinical practicum and taught fluency disorders and clinical graduate courses.
Mrs. Martin is currently the President for the Texas Speech-Language Hearing Association and is a past Vice-President of Educational and Scientific Affairs, past chair of the Leadership Academy and was a member of the Texas Speech-Language Foundation board. She also served on ASHA’s Committee on Nominations and Elections and is currently on ASHA’s Committee on Leadership Cultivation. Mrs. Martin is one of eight speech-language pathologists in the state of Texas who has their board certification as a fluency specialist.
