Nurse Practitioner: main tradeoff

One of the fastest-growing occupations with strong compensation and a large national workforce, but it requires graduate nursing education and state-dependent practice rules.

Physician: main tradeoff

Extremely long training and high opportunity cost are balanced by durable demand and a projected national physician shortage.

Which should you choose?

Nurse Practitioner has the higher projected 2024–2034 growth rate. The larger decision is whether you prefer the training path, work style, and occupation-specific tradeoffs of Nurse Practitioner or Physician.