Do physician assistants have to work in surgery or not?

Why be a PA after becoming a nurse? Why not become an Advanced Practice nurse -- a nurse practitioner in any area from gerontology to pediatrics, oncology to gynecology; OR another specialty such as midwifery, research, education, administration, nurse-anesthetist, informatics (computers), etc. Once you have the excellent grounding in the holistic world of nursing, why leave all that behind? Nurses can set up independent practices (and set their own hours) in many states. Nurses can potentially bill Medicare directly (not sure if that law has passed yet.) a Nurse Practitioner is an advanced degree -- a Master's Degree. One must have a Bachelor's degree first. It is VERY helpful to have some years as a regular nurse, to learn from all sorts of situations, before going on to become an NP. The more previous experience, the better an NP a person will be. The typical Master's program is two years of full-time course work, or the equivalent spread out over a longer time. Some jobs/corporations will actually pay you to work towards your Master's degree. You do this while still working full time, so it is a heavy load. However, it is worth checking out, since getting a Master's is expensive. In the Nursing Master's program, all students take core courses in theory, research, the role of the Advanced Practice Nurse, etc. You also decide on, and then research and write a thesis. For the clinically-based nurse, this will typically be written on a clinical issue. Then, you take courses specific to your area of study. For NPs, these include Physical Assessment and Health Promotion, Pharmacology, managing your practice, etc. The majority of the remainder of the time is spent in actual clinical practice, doing assessments, diagnosing, prescribing, and doing followup work. All while writing your thesis! :) hope this helps! We NEED more advance practice nurses!