3 answers
Zahra
Student
Dublin, California
3
Questions
Asked
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What is the day-to-day work actually like for nurses, CRNAs, NPs, and PAs, and what are some things you wish you knew before choosing your career?
I'm a junior in high school and I've already narrowed down my career/major options but I'm still undecided and am in need of advice.
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3 answers
Johnson Tran
Tutor
73
Answers
Houston, Texas
Updated
Johnson’s Answer
You're a high school junior trying to decide between nursing, med school, or something similar. Here’s a straightforward look at these careers beyond the brochures, focusing on what you might wish you knew before choosing.
Registered Nurses (RNs)
You're on the front lines, handling meds, IVs, wound care, and monitoring patients closely. You’ll talk a lot with families, work with doctors, and do more paperwork than expected. Shifts are usually 12 hours and can be exhausting. It's emotionally tough work, and your job satisfaction often depends on supportive coworkers.
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs)
CRNAs manage anesthesia during surgeries, preparing patients and ensuring they wake up safely. It’s a high-pressure job working closely with surgeons. The training is long and intense. The pay is good, but the job comes with a lot of stress.
Nurse Practitioners (NPs)
NPs diagnose patients, order tests, and prescribe meds, often managing long-term health issues in clinics or hospitals. Independence varies by state, and dealing with insurance can be frustrating.
Physician Assistants (PAs)
PAs diagnose, treat, and perform procedures under a supervising doctor. They can sometimes change specialties more easily than doctors. Training is broad, but switching specialties later can be challenging. Job satisfaction often depends on your boss and workplace.
How to choose?
Consider these questions:
- Do you want to be hands-on at the bedside? → RN
- Do you like the intensity of the OR and anesthesia? → CRNA
- Do you want to diagnose and treat with a nursing approach? → NP
- Do you prefer a medical-model education with flexibility? → PA
Registered Nurses (RNs)
You're on the front lines, handling meds, IVs, wound care, and monitoring patients closely. You’ll talk a lot with families, work with doctors, and do more paperwork than expected. Shifts are usually 12 hours and can be exhausting. It's emotionally tough work, and your job satisfaction often depends on supportive coworkers.
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs)
CRNAs manage anesthesia during surgeries, preparing patients and ensuring they wake up safely. It’s a high-pressure job working closely with surgeons. The training is long and intense. The pay is good, but the job comes with a lot of stress.
Nurse Practitioners (NPs)
NPs diagnose patients, order tests, and prescribe meds, often managing long-term health issues in clinics or hospitals. Independence varies by state, and dealing with insurance can be frustrating.
Physician Assistants (PAs)
PAs diagnose, treat, and perform procedures under a supervising doctor. They can sometimes change specialties more easily than doctors. Training is broad, but switching specialties later can be challenging. Job satisfaction often depends on your boss and workplace.
How to choose?
Consider these questions:
- Do you want to be hands-on at the bedside? → RN
- Do you like the intensity of the OR and anesthesia? → CRNA
- Do you want to diagnose and treat with a nursing approach? → NP
- Do you prefer a medical-model education with flexibility? → PA
Riley Sellers
Senior Program Specialist
2
Answers
Lafayette, Tennessee
Updated
Riley’s Answer
If you’re considering nursing, CRNA, NP, or PA, the biggest thing to understand is that the day-to-day reality can be very different from what you see in school or on TV. The specialty and work setting matter enormously.
Here’s a realistic breakdown of what each career can actually feel like.
🩺 Registered Nurse (RN)
What the day-to-day can look like:
Assess patients and monitor changes in their condition.
Give medications and treatments.
Start IVs, draw blood, manage wounds, and operate medical equipment.
Communicate with physicians, NPs/PAs, therapists, pharmacists, families, and other nurses.
Educate patients and families.
Document a lot.
Prioritize multiple patients who may all need something at the same time.
Deal with admissions, discharges, emergencies, call lights, family questions, and unexpected changes.
The setting makes a huge difference. A hospital RN might work three 12-hour shifts, including nights, weekends, and holidays, while an outpatient, school, or office nurse may have a much more traditional schedule.
Things nurses often wish they knew beforehand:
The physical demands are real—standing, walking, lifting, repositioning patients, etc.
You're responsible for a lot more than simply "taking care of patients."
Documentation can consume a surprising amount of your day.
You need to be comfortable speaking up when something doesn't look right.
You will probably encounter difficult patients and families.
You can love patient care but dislike the environment you're working in.
Your first nursing job doesn't have to determine your entire career. Nursing gives you a lot of options later.
💉 Nurse Practitioner (NP)
An NP is much closer to being a provider than many people realize. Depending on specialty and state, NPs assess patients, diagnose conditions, order and interpret tests, prescribe medications, develop treatment plans, and manage ongoing care.
A typical clinic day might look like:
8:00 AM: Review charts and labs
8:15: Patient with hypertension
8:35: Patient with diabetes
9:00: URI/sinus infection
9:20: Medication follow-up
9:40: Another patient with several chronic conditions
10:00: More appointments...
And between patients you're often:
Reviewing labs
Answering patient messages
Refilling medications
Reviewing imaging
Calling other providers
Completing documentation
Making referrals
Dealing with insurance/prior authorizations
Following up on abnormal results
So the job isn't simply "see patients and prescribe." There's a substantial amount of work before and after the appointment.
Things NPs may wish they knew:
You have a tremendous amount of responsibility.
Your clinical reasoning becomes extremely important.
You don't stop learning after graduation.
Your specialty dramatically changes your lifestyle.
Some jobs are highly autonomous; others have much more physician collaboration.
Productivity expectations can be intense in some practices.
The quality of your first NP job matters. Mentorship and onboarding can make a huge difference.
Being an excellent RN doesn't automatically mean you'll enjoy being an NP. The roles require different types of decision-making.
😷 CRNA
CRNA is a very different career from traditional bedside nursing.
A CRNA is responsible for providing anesthesia and related care, including pre-anesthesia assessment, anesthesia management, airway management, pain management, and recovery-related care.
A surgical day might look something like:
6:00 AM: Review patients and medical histories
6:30: Prepare medications/equipment
7:00: Induce anesthesia
7:30–9:00: Monitor the patient continuously during surgery
9:00: Wake the patient and transfer care
9:15: Prepare for the next case
9:30: Repeat
And you're constantly watching:
Blood pressure
Heart rate
Oxygenation
Ventilation
Medication effects
Blood loss
Airway
Fluid status
Surgical changes
The job requires continuous attention and independent clinical decision-making. CRNAs can also work in areas such as obstetrics, trauma, pain management, critical care, and other settings.
Things people considering CRNA sometimes don't realize:
Getting there is hard. The educational and clinical requirements are demanding.
ICU experience is generally an important part of the traditional pathway.
You have to be comfortable with high-stakes decisions.
You can have an entire day where you're basically unable to mentally "check out."
The responsibility doesn't end because the surgeon is in the room.
Some cases are routine; others can become emergencies within seconds.
You need to genuinely enjoy physiology, pharmacology, and critical thinking—not just the potential compensation.
The lifestyle can vary considerably depending on the practice and call requirements.
🩻 Physician Assistant (PA)
PAs are medical providers who can examine patients, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, prescribe medications, perform procedures, and assist in surgery. Their exact responsibilities and relationship with physicians vary by state, specialty, and workplace.
One of the interesting things about becoming a PA is specialty flexibility.
You could potentially work in:
Family medicine
Emergency medicine
Orthopedics
Dermatology
Cardiology
Surgery
Pediatrics
Oncology
Psychiatry
Urgent care
Hospital medicine
And you aren't necessarily locked into one specialty for your entire career.
A clinic PA's day might involve:
Patient → history → physical exam → differential diagnosis → labs/imaging → diagnosis → treatment → prescription → education → documentation → next patient.
In surgery, the day can be completely different.
You might:
See patients before surgery
Perform preoperative evaluations
First-assist in surgery
Perform procedures
Round on hospitalized patients
Manage postoperative care
Write orders
Handle follow-up appointments
AAPA notes that PA responsibilities vary significantly according to specialty, setting, experience, and state law.
Things PAs may wish they knew:
The flexibility is one of the biggest advantages—but changing specialties isn't necessarily effortless.
Your supervising/collaborating physician and workplace culture can have a huge impact on your experience.
You can have a lot of autonomy while still functioning as part of a physician-led/team-based model.
Patient volume can be intense.
Documentation and administrative work are a significant part of the job.
You have to be comfortable saying "I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out."
You don't need to know exactly what specialty you want before becoming a PA.
The biggest difference
If I boiled the four careers down to the kind of work you're doing most of the time, I'd describe them like this:
Career A lot of your day is spent…
RN Directly caring for and monitoring patients
NP Evaluating, diagnosing, treating, and managing patients
CRNA Managing anesthesia, physiology, airway, medications, and patient safety
PA Evaluating, diagnosing, treating, and performing procedures as part of a medical team
There's obviously overlap, but the mindset can be different.
Something I would tell someone before choosing any of them:
Don't choose based solely on salary, schedule, or the title. Shadow the actual job.
Spend several hours watching an RN on a hospital floor. Then watch an NP in a clinic. If possible, spend time in an OR with a CRNA and shadow a PA.
Pay attention to what happens between the interesting moments.
Ask yourself:
"Could I do the boring parts of this job for years and still enjoy the important parts?"
Because every one of these careers has exciting, meaningful moments—and every one also has charting, repetitive tasks, difficult people, bureaucracy, long days, and stress.
And one other important point: there isn't one universal "day in the life." An ICU RN, family NP, outpatient PA, and CRNA can all have completely different experiences even within the same profession.
If you're trying to decide which of the four fits you personally, I can also
break them down by school difficulty, length of training, salary, work-life balance, stress, autonomy, patient interaction, schedule, and career flexibility without just giving you a generic "pros and cons" list.
Here’s a realistic breakdown of what each career can actually feel like.
🩺 Registered Nurse (RN)
What the day-to-day can look like:
Assess patients and monitor changes in their condition.
Give medications and treatments.
Start IVs, draw blood, manage wounds, and operate medical equipment.
Communicate with physicians, NPs/PAs, therapists, pharmacists, families, and other nurses.
Educate patients and families.
Document a lot.
Prioritize multiple patients who may all need something at the same time.
Deal with admissions, discharges, emergencies, call lights, family questions, and unexpected changes.
The setting makes a huge difference. A hospital RN might work three 12-hour shifts, including nights, weekends, and holidays, while an outpatient, school, or office nurse may have a much more traditional schedule.
Things nurses often wish they knew beforehand:
The physical demands are real—standing, walking, lifting, repositioning patients, etc.
You're responsible for a lot more than simply "taking care of patients."
Documentation can consume a surprising amount of your day.
You need to be comfortable speaking up when something doesn't look right.
You will probably encounter difficult patients and families.
You can love patient care but dislike the environment you're working in.
Your first nursing job doesn't have to determine your entire career. Nursing gives you a lot of options later.
💉 Nurse Practitioner (NP)
An NP is much closer to being a provider than many people realize. Depending on specialty and state, NPs assess patients, diagnose conditions, order and interpret tests, prescribe medications, develop treatment plans, and manage ongoing care.
A typical clinic day might look like:
8:00 AM: Review charts and labs
8:15: Patient with hypertension
8:35: Patient with diabetes
9:00: URI/sinus infection
9:20: Medication follow-up
9:40: Another patient with several chronic conditions
10:00: More appointments...
And between patients you're often:
Reviewing labs
Answering patient messages
Refilling medications
Reviewing imaging
Calling other providers
Completing documentation
Making referrals
Dealing with insurance/prior authorizations
Following up on abnormal results
So the job isn't simply "see patients and prescribe." There's a substantial amount of work before and after the appointment.
Things NPs may wish they knew:
You have a tremendous amount of responsibility.
Your clinical reasoning becomes extremely important.
You don't stop learning after graduation.
Your specialty dramatically changes your lifestyle.
Some jobs are highly autonomous; others have much more physician collaboration.
Productivity expectations can be intense in some practices.
The quality of your first NP job matters. Mentorship and onboarding can make a huge difference.
Being an excellent RN doesn't automatically mean you'll enjoy being an NP. The roles require different types of decision-making.
😷 CRNA
CRNA is a very different career from traditional bedside nursing.
A CRNA is responsible for providing anesthesia and related care, including pre-anesthesia assessment, anesthesia management, airway management, pain management, and recovery-related care.
A surgical day might look something like:
6:00 AM: Review patients and medical histories
6:30: Prepare medications/equipment
7:00: Induce anesthesia
7:30–9:00: Monitor the patient continuously during surgery
9:00: Wake the patient and transfer care
9:15: Prepare for the next case
9:30: Repeat
And you're constantly watching:
Blood pressure
Heart rate
Oxygenation
Ventilation
Medication effects
Blood loss
Airway
Fluid status
Surgical changes
The job requires continuous attention and independent clinical decision-making. CRNAs can also work in areas such as obstetrics, trauma, pain management, critical care, and other settings.
Things people considering CRNA sometimes don't realize:
Getting there is hard. The educational and clinical requirements are demanding.
ICU experience is generally an important part of the traditional pathway.
You have to be comfortable with high-stakes decisions.
You can have an entire day where you're basically unable to mentally "check out."
The responsibility doesn't end because the surgeon is in the room.
Some cases are routine; others can become emergencies within seconds.
You need to genuinely enjoy physiology, pharmacology, and critical thinking—not just the potential compensation.
The lifestyle can vary considerably depending on the practice and call requirements.
🩻 Physician Assistant (PA)
PAs are medical providers who can examine patients, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, prescribe medications, perform procedures, and assist in surgery. Their exact responsibilities and relationship with physicians vary by state, specialty, and workplace.
One of the interesting things about becoming a PA is specialty flexibility.
You could potentially work in:
Family medicine
Emergency medicine
Orthopedics
Dermatology
Cardiology
Surgery
Pediatrics
Oncology
Psychiatry
Urgent care
Hospital medicine
And you aren't necessarily locked into one specialty for your entire career.
A clinic PA's day might involve:
Patient → history → physical exam → differential diagnosis → labs/imaging → diagnosis → treatment → prescription → education → documentation → next patient.
In surgery, the day can be completely different.
You might:
See patients before surgery
Perform preoperative evaluations
First-assist in surgery
Perform procedures
Round on hospitalized patients
Manage postoperative care
Write orders
Handle follow-up appointments
AAPA notes that PA responsibilities vary significantly according to specialty, setting, experience, and state law.
Things PAs may wish they knew:
The flexibility is one of the biggest advantages—but changing specialties isn't necessarily effortless.
Your supervising/collaborating physician and workplace culture can have a huge impact on your experience.
You can have a lot of autonomy while still functioning as part of a physician-led/team-based model.
Patient volume can be intense.
Documentation and administrative work are a significant part of the job.
You have to be comfortable saying "I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out."
You don't need to know exactly what specialty you want before becoming a PA.
The biggest difference
If I boiled the four careers down to the kind of work you're doing most of the time, I'd describe them like this:
Career A lot of your day is spent…
RN Directly caring for and monitoring patients
NP Evaluating, diagnosing, treating, and managing patients
CRNA Managing anesthesia, physiology, airway, medications, and patient safety
PA Evaluating, diagnosing, treating, and performing procedures as part of a medical team
There's obviously overlap, but the mindset can be different.
Something I would tell someone before choosing any of them:
Don't choose based solely on salary, schedule, or the title. Shadow the actual job.
Spend several hours watching an RN on a hospital floor. Then watch an NP in a clinic. If possible, spend time in an OR with a CRNA and shadow a PA.
Pay attention to what happens between the interesting moments.
Ask yourself:
"Could I do the boring parts of this job for years and still enjoy the important parts?"
Because every one of these careers has exciting, meaningful moments—and every one also has charting, repetitive tasks, difficult people, bureaucracy, long days, and stress.
And one other important point: there isn't one universal "day in the life." An ICU RN, family NP, outpatient PA, and CRNA can all have completely different experiences even within the same profession.
If you're trying to decide which of the four fits you personally, I can also
break them down by school difficulty, length of training, salary, work-life balance, stress, autonomy, patient interaction, schedule, and career flexibility without just giving you a generic "pros and cons" list.
Courtney Hundley
RN
21
Answers
Elkin, North Carolina
Updated
Courtney’s Answer
Having an early focus on healthcare options will give you a big advantage as you start looking at college applications next year. Each of these advanced clinical paths shares a foundation in patient care, but their daily workflow, mindset, and training routes differ significantly.1. Day-to-Day Realities of Each RoleRegistered Nurse (RN) — The Bedside CoreDaily Workflow: RNs manage direct, hands-on patient care. A typical shift involves continuous vital sign monitoring, administering complex medications, dressing wounds, inserting IVs, and coordinating care between doctors, physical therapists, and family members.Shift & Rhythm: Shifts are usually 12 hours (e.g., 7 AM–7 PM or 7 PM–7 AM), working 3 days a week. You are on your feet almost the entire shift, moving rapidly between high-acuity tasks and heavy electronic documentation.What People Wish They Knew:Charting and administrative paperwork take up a substantial portion of your day.Emotional and physical stamina are essential—handling patient anxiety, bodily fluids, and fast-changing emergencies requires thick skin and strong boundaries.Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) — Operating Room & Acute AnesthesiaDaily Workflow: CRNAs focus on single-patient, high-intensity care during surgical, surgical-obstetric, or trauma procedures. Your day involves performing pre-anesthesia evaluations, administering general or regional anesthesia, managing airway/intubation, continuously monitoring hemodynamics (heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation) during surgery, and waking the patient safely.Shift & Rhythm: Often follows surgical schedules (8-hour, 10-hour, or 12-hour shifts) with on-call shifts for emergency surgeries or labor & delivery.What People Wish They Knew:It is a high-stress, high-responsibility job. Anesthesia involves rapid decisions where a second's delay matters.The focus is strictly on physiology, pharmacology, and crisis management rather than long-term patient relationship building.Nurse Practitioner (NP) — The Holistic Advanced ClinicianDaily Workflow: NPs diagnose conditions, order and interpret diagnostic tests (X-rays, lab work), prescribe medications, and design treatment plans. Depending on practice authority in your state, NPs can manage their own panel of patients independently in primary care clinics or collaborate with physicians in specialized hospital teams. Shift & Rhythm: Clinic-based NPs often work standard 8 AM–5 PM, Monday–Friday schedules, whereas acute care NPs in hospitals work 12-hour shifts similar to hospitalists.What People Wish They Knew:Insurance prior-authorizations, billing codes, and administrative hurdles take up a huge chunk of non-clinical time.NP education follows the nursing model, emphasizing holistic care, health promotion, and disease prevention alongside clinical diagnosis.Physician Assistant (PA) — The Medical-Model ClinicianDaily Workflow: Like NPs, PAs diagnose illnesses, perform minor procedures, assist in surgery, and prescribe medication. However, PAs are trained under the medical model (similar to medical school, focusing heavily on disease pathophysiology and pathology) and work in formal collaboration with supervising physicians.Shift & Rhythm: Varies widely by specialty—from 40-hour office work in outpatient clinics to 12-hour shift work in Emergency Departments or Surgical Services.What People Wish They Knew:Specialty Mobility: PAs can switch specialties (e.g., changing from Dermatology to Orthopedic Surgery) without returning to school, providing high career flexibility.You will always work under a physician's scope of practice, which requires a collaborative dynamic.