What Should a Nurse Practitioner Expect in Their Role?
Over 3,25,000 nurse practitioners in the United States are not enough to fulfill the actual requirement of healthcare facilities. Should there be more nurse practitioners? Indeed. Today, a person who chooses to be a nurse practitioner will be employed after graduation with an average $90000 salary. So, if you want a lucrative professional role that pays all bills, you should consider being a nurse practitioner.
But you may be wondering about, What will I have to do? What will be available nurse practitioner roles in healthcare facilities? What qualities do I need to be successful?
Check out everything by reading this article completely!
Let’s begin!
What Does Exactly a Nurse Practitioner Do?
The general conception among the masses about nurse practitioners is that they care for patients in healthcare facilities. Technically, the job of a nurse practitioner is to provide primary care to patients by using medical skills, equipment, and expertise. A nurse practitioner can provide primary care to patients without the oversight of a physician. Also, they can prescribe medicines and take diagnostic tests if required to do so.
Nurse practitioners perform their duties everywhere in healthcare facilities, including emergency rooms, surgical clinics, private facilities, managed care facilities, and more.
Most abundant primary care cases in healthcare facilities are related to family care. That’s why specialist family care nurse practitioners are in high demand. Suppose you are interested in a nurse practitioner role. In that case, the Master of Science in Nursing FNP online program is the qualification that’ll get you a lucrative job after graduation.
If you want to know the daily task detail of a nurse practitioner, here it is:
- Putting patient’s medical history in records
- Maintaining medical paperwork
- Recording symptoms
- Collecting samples
- Performing diagnostic procedures
- Taking detailed examinations
- Creating treatment plans
- Management of junior nurses
- Monitoring patients
What are the Different Roles of Nurse Practitioners?
Every healthcare has a different job detail for a nurse practitioner; however, the following roles generally summarize everything.
- Family Nurse Practitioner
It is a specialized role that provides focused care to families. The role involves managing primary care for family patients that range from infant babies to elderly patients. As a family nurse practitioner, you must be skilled in advanced pathophysiology, health policies, disease prevention, diagnosis, emergency procedures, clinical pharmacology, health assessment, and nursing leadership.
To become a family nurse practitioner, you need to pass a master-level course in family health, along with the required training. Many nursing graduates choose this role due to abundant job opportunities and lucrative salaries. It can be your way out to have a decent living as a professional.
- Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
It is a specialized role that requires handling children and treating developmental problems. You have to be proficient in treating all children’s issues related to general health and specific developmental problems. However, not many nurse practitioners in the United States work as pediatric nurse practitioners. Among all nurses in the United States, only 4% are pediatric nurse practitioners. That’s why this role comes with a high salary. The average yearly compensation of a pediatric nurse practitioner is $91000. That’s why it is a specialty that can give you a guaranteed job at high pay. Don’t neglect it as a professional career path if you want to work in the healthcare industry.
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
It is a specialized role that requires working with patients who have mental health problems. You have to encounter aggressive behavior from patients in this role and face difficult situations. Your job is to provide primary care, along with making sure that your patients take their medicines. Most of your job will be to do the diagnostic evaluation, plan treatment, psychotropic medication management, and therapy. You also have to maintain strict discipline during your job. Your patients will always be irrational, and you cannot let go of any standard procedure in all situations. Also, you’ll have the assistance of strong-bodied staff to maintain order among patients during your job.
- Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner
It is a specialized role that requires working only with women. You’ll be responsible for your women patients, and you’ll do wellness examinations, screenings for health issues, pregnancy procedures, childbirth, and post-natal care. If you want to work in such a role, you have to do a specialist course after your graduation. Also, you’ll have plenty of job opportunities. You can be employed in hospitals, parental clinics, women’s prisons, family planning clinics, private clinics, OB-GYN clinics, women’s health clinics, and more. Moreover, you’ll have a lucrative job because the average yearly salary of a women’s health nurse practitioner is $93000.
- Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner
It is a specialized role that requires dealing with patients from adolescence to elderly age. You’ll never have to deal with children. Also, most of your job will require you to provide primary care to elderly patients. You’ll be responsible for diagnosis, medication, and treatment planning. Such a role is highly demanded in the United States because over 77 million people are above 65. That’s why there is a high inflow of elderly patients in healthcare facilities all over the US. Moreover, you’ll have a decent compensation package because the average yearly salary of such a role is $90000.
Qualities Required to a Successful Nurse Practitioner
You must have the following traits and qualities.
- Maintaining discipline
- Being punctual
- Being patient
- Tolerance with stress
- Attention to detail
- Multitasking
- Adaptability to changing environment
- The high tendency of anticipation
- Ability to manage a personal life with professional problems
- Resilient mindset
- Interpersonal skills
- Strong communication
Conclusion
As a nurse practitioner, you’ll provide primary care to patients. You’ll also be responsible for managing records, planning the treatment, recording symptoms, and preventing diseases. Your job will come with a lucrative compensation package. But you also have to deal with a lot of stress. Also, you’ll have to deal with changing work conditions because there can be an emergency at any time in your healthcare facility. That’s why you make up your mind for this role only if you can be punctual, disciplined, and able to perform under stress.