Providing professional care to patients is the ultimate calling of a nurse practitioner. Not just for good compensation and other benefits, many individuals aspire to become a nurse practitioner because of the noble job of serving others. An NP can specialize on women's health care, neonatal health care, pediatric health care, family health care, geriatric health care, acute care, and other medical care expertise.
What Does an NP Do?
Covering the above-mentioned specializations, nurse practitioners come next after the doctor's level of responsibilities in the hospital. They are above registered nurses in terms of training and experiences acquired in the field. Generally, NPs are the ones responsible in the initial communication with the patients, securing patient's records and personal information, conducting physical examinations, ordering diagnostic tests, and diagnose acute and chronic illnesses.
Nurse practitioners generally work at hospitals or in the doctor's clinic. They can also be found in offices working as a company nurse, in private residences, or schools as a clinical instructor on nursing students.
Challenges at Work
Like any other field of profession, nurse practitioners face many working dynamics. There are different work conditions on different patient care specialties that a nurse practitioner must cope with. Along with that, being the doctor's first line of defense gives them the responsibility in dealing with complaints and other inquiries. Stress is also unavoidable especially when dealing with hardheaded patients and family members.
Becoming an NP
Aspiring nurse practitioners must acquire a bachelor's degree in nursing. Many community colleges and universities offer nursing programs with flexible time to accommodate the number of applicants. There are also ladderized programs that give eligibility for practical nurses to work after a year or two of training while enabling them to continue their bachelor's degree.
Upon graduating from a nursing school, BSN graduates must pass the NCLEX-RN so they can work right ahead. To become an NP, one must take a master's degree or additional training and another state licensure for NPs. This gives them the aptness to work on medical institutions.
Career Advancement
As a nurse practitioner continues to take advance studies on health care, career growth is easily within reach. NPs have more opportunities to get promoted because of the training background it possesses. With this, salary compensation also gets better with higher position. Generally, an NP earns within the range of about $75,838 to about $89,392 a year. However, the rate varies per state and the load of responsibilities an NP handles.
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