Educational Path for Nurse Practitioners
A nurse practitioner has already completed her basic nursing education and has her R.N. license (Registered Nurse). The R.N. certification can take up to 4 years to complete and is considered the bachelor's degree of nursing. The degree is generally given through the nursing school of a medical training school, college, or university. After completing this degree, an individual can then attend an NP, nursing practitioner program through a college or university. This program is considered a master's degree in nursing and will generally take 1 to 2 years of academic study to complete.
Different Specialties for Nurse Practitioners
Another great thing about becoming a nurse practitioner is that there are specialties within the field that nurse practitioners can specialize in. Some of these specialty areas include school nurse practitioner, neonatal nurse practitioner, clinical nurse practitioner, adult nurse practitioner, pediatric nurse practitioner, certified nurse midwife, family nurse practitioner, clinical specialist in mental health nursing, and many more.
Great Earning Potential for Nurse Practitioner
Nurse practitioners can earn excellent salaries. According to the website payscale.com, in 2010 nurse practitioners had average salaries up to $90,000 annually. According to the United States Department of Labor Statistics, nursing is the largest employment field in the medical industry of the United States. The nursing field is expecting to see continued excellent job growth. For those with an R.N. certification or higher job growth is expected to increase as much as 22 percent through 2018. Nurse practitioners who have advanced degrees and training have even more marketability, because they can work independently of other medical staff in treating patients. Some clinics are actually hiring more nurse practitioners to replace doctors on their staff. Nurse practitioners can also teach other nursing staff and work in supervisory positions at hospital, colleges, and other medical facilities.
If you want to go beyond just becoming a registered nurse and increase your ability to improve the lives of people you treat and also the amount of money you can earn, you should become nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners can actually treat and diagnose illnesses as part of a medical team or independently. Nurse practitioners can actually perform examinations on patients and treat them independently without a doctor on hand. They can prescribe some types of drugs for different illnesses. They can also advise patients and assist doctors and surgeons in minor surgeries. They can also supervise other nursing and medical staff in hospital and clinic situations.
