How to Progress into a Career as a Nurse Practitioner

Dictate Your Own Career Path in Nursing

Becoming a nurse practitioner is a common career step for registered nurses to take. The role provides you with more autonomy, greater responsibility, and real opportunities to have a bigger impact on patient outcomes.

To become a nurse practitioner, you’ll need to take specific qualifications and be licensed as a nurse practitioner in the states in which you work. You may also choose to specialize and move into fields in which you are most passionate (for example, as a family nurse practitioner). For your hard work and dedication, you’ll be rewarded with average earnings of around $20 per hour more than that of a registered nurse.

What Is a Nurse Practitioner?

As a nurse practitioner, you’ll support other professionals such as physicians. Dependent upon your qualifications and specialization, you might also provide primary care to patients. Your main duties are likely to include:

  • Recording patient histories and medical information
  • Examining patients
  • Conducting diagnostic tests and making patient diagnoses
  • Recommending patient care and treatment plans
  • Prescribing medication
  • Counseling patients
  • Monitoring the progress of patients

With experience, you may also decide to practice independently in much the same way as a physician.

How Much Could You Earn as a Nurse Practitioner?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2019 registered nurses earned an average salary of $73,300 per year ($35.24 per hour). As an advanced nurse with greater responsibility, the average earning power in 2019 was markedly more at $115,800 per year, or $55.67 per hour, as a nurse practitioner.

How Do You Qualify as a Nurse Practitioner?

To become a nurse practitioner, you will need to have gained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and then a Master of Science in Nursing. You will also need to pass a national certification exam (depending upon your chosen area of specialization).

Nurse practitioner training courses take around two years to complete, and you can study online or on-campus.

Most states require you to hold both a master’s degree and national certification to become licensed to practice. If you are certified by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB) or the American Nurses Credentialing Center, you will need to provide proof of continuing education or take another exam to be re-certified every five years.

Advancing Your Career as a Nurse Practitioner

The direction your career takes is your choosing as a nurse practitioner. For example, you may choose to specialize as a family nurse practitioner, and further specialize in pediatrics, neonatal, oncology, geriatric, psychiatric, or other specialized field of healthcare. If you prefer to care for acute care patients, the clinical training you do may lead you to work in fast-paced healthcare facilities.

If you wish to share your knowledge and move into education of other healthcare professionals, you might decide to take a further degree (e.g. Doctor of Nursing Practice) which allows you to educate and coach other nurses. Other non-clinical roles for nurse practitioners to transition to, if they wish, include:

·      Policy Specialist

Helping healthcare organizations develop their healthcare policies to achieve their objectives. You could help shape the healthcare provision at state or federal level, too.

·      Nurse Informaticist

If you enjoy the technology side of nursing, you could move into helping to manage and innovate the systems that healthcare providers use to process, store and share patient information.

·      Chief Nursing Officer

As a CNO, you will be responsible for managing the nursing staff across a healthcare organization. You may also become involved in developing healthcare policies with specific regard to nursing.

How Far Can You Take Your Career in Nursing?

We may think of physicians and doctors as the height of provision of healthcare, but as a nurse practitioner you fulfill a critical role in the healthcare system. Your advanced skills, experience and expertise are highly sought after, and this is reflected in high-average salaries.

As a nurse practitioner you have the potential to make a real difference to your employer and, more importantly, to your patients. You can also take your career in the direction you desire, remaining in clinical practice or branching into education, management, and policy making.

Your advanced skills are sought after, and demand for them is set to grow in the coming years. The BLS forecast that the number of jobs for nurse practitioners will grow by 26% between 2018 and 2028 – that’s much faster than the national average jobs growth, and more than twice the growth predicted for registered nurses.

Many healthcare providers employ nurse practitioners on short-term contracts, allowing you to gain valuable experience and work to a pattern that suits your desired work-life balance. To learn about the opportunities open to you, and how they could help advance your career in nursing, contact Loyal Source today.

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