Nurse Practitioner vs Physical Therapist
Measured from each occupation's own live postings: related jobs with a real gap between them. Posted pay favors the nurse practitioner by about $12k at the midpoint. Salary bands, both switching directions, and the shared skills below — every number from live postings, refreshed nightly.
Nurse Practitioner
114 open roles · nurse practitioner salary · careers for nurse practitioners
Physical Therapist
25 open roles · physical therapist salary · careers for physical therapists
The overlap, measured
Skills that appear in both occupations’ posting demand. This is the shared core; everything else on each side is the difference.
Switching, both directions
Nurse Practitioner → Physical Therapist
DPT degree + state PT license (NPTE) required
Transition estimate: 3+ yr incl. license.
The gap, from physical therapist postings: Training & Facilitation, Clinical Documentation, Manual Therapy.
Physical Therapist → Nurse Practitioner
State APRN license + national certification required
Transition estimate: 9–16 mo + license.
The gap, from nurse practitioner postings: Mental Health, Telehealth, Medication Administration, Emergency Care.
The full route page: physical therapist to nurse practitioner
Related comparisons
- Nurse Practitioner vs Registered Nurse87% peak overlap
- Nurse Practitioner vs Physician81% peak overlap
- Nurse Practitioner vs Pharmacist70% peak overlap
- Medical Assistant vs Nurse Practitioner69% peak overlap
- Medical Assistant vs Physical Therapist66% peak overlap
- Dietitian vs Nurse Practitioner64% peak overlap
Which one do your skills favor?
Run the instrument with your own skill set and both readiness numbers recompute for you. Free, no account.
Quick answers
Which pays more, nurse practitioner or physical therapist?
Posted mid-bands from each occupation's own corpus: Nurse Practitioner $57k–$143k, Physical Therapist $63k–$114k. At the midpoint that favors the nurse practitioner by about $12k a year. Only postings that state pay are counted.
Are nurse practitioner and physical therapist the same job?
Related but distinct: postings share a real core and then diverge. Skills both sets of postings ask for: Rehabilitation, Patient Care, Treatment Planning, Clinical Skills, Scheduling.
Can a nurse practitioner become a physical therapist?
Skill readiness is 58 percent: that share of what physical therapist postings demand, a typical nurse practitioner profile already covers. Note the credential gate: dpt degree + state pt license (npte) required. Estimated transition: 3+ yr incl. license.
Can a physical therapist become a nurse practitioner?
Skill readiness is 63 percent in this direction. Note the credential gate: state aprn license + national certification required. Estimated transition: 9–16 mo + license.
Method: each occupation’s salary band is the posted 25th–75th percentile from its own corpus; readiness is coverage of the destination’s posting-skill weight; shared skills are read from the overlap waterfall. Pairs sharing too few skills are not scored in that direction. Refreshed with the nightly scrape.