Nurse Practitioner Career and Programs

Listed below are colleges and universities that offer online degrees, certificates, and diplomas in the major of Nurse Practitioner and a detailed list of the programs offered. Tuition, financial aid, course offerings, online classes, adult education, and distance learning options are available by request.

Nurse Practitioners: The Future of Primary Care

If a crystal ball were to highlight your future medical visits, it wouldn’t be uncommon for you to see a Nurse Practitioner, rather than a doctor, to fix what ails you. Besides performing the basic caretaking functions of nurses, nurse practitioners have additional training to allow them to diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret medical tests, as well as prescribe medication.

It takes two-four years of study (beyond a BSN) to complete this degree and education requirements are ratcheting up. But at the end of the day, being a nurse practitioner is still one of the highest paying nursing positions in health care. Think about it: an NP can provide many of the same services as a doctor, particularly in a primary care setting, which is emphasized in the impending health care reforms. Yet an NP’s salary, while substantial, is less than a doctor’s rate. Who do you expect to see around more in the hospitals and outpatient clinics?

What’s In It for NP’s?

Like many jobs in the nursing industry, long-term prospects are booming for nurse practitioners, particularly with the dawn of health care reform and its emphasis on primary care. The most recent salary studies show an NP on average earns about $90,000 per year, with certain specializations going much higher. The projected job growth for nurses in general is 22%, although NPs aren’t broken out, and much of the growth will be in primary and preventative care – an NP’s forte.

Difficult but Rewarding

Expect to be in school for a long while. First you’ll need to get licensed as a nurse, then obtain a master’s degree plus certification, and, increasingly, a doctor of nursing practice, which requires three more years to complete. On the other hand, besides the fact they earn more and have more job responsibilities, nurse practitioners focus, perhaps even more so than doctors, on disease prevention. Helping people avoid getting sick can be an extremely gratifying up side to this job.

Listed below are online Nurse Practitioner colleges and online Nurse Practitioner universities complete with the programs offered. Information about tuition, financial aid, online classes, and other options are available by submitting a form request to the appropriate online school.

Use the following link if you are interested in help with locating a college or university with an online degree in Nurse Practitioner.

Enter a thriving Job Market

The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts nurse practitioners to be in high demand from 2008 to 2018, especially in underserved areas such as rural areas and inner cities. Hospitals, home healthcare agencies, urgent-care centers, private practice and health departments are just some of the settings you can work in as a nurse practitioner.

According to the American Nurses Association about 60 to 80 percent of primary and preventive care can be performed by nurse practitioners and increasingly doctors are specializing instead of offering primary care. The growing emphasis on public health and prevention is expected to create excellent job opportunities for NPs. Nurse practitioners are increasingly attractive to health care employers because they provide a lot of the healthcare typically offered by doctors and receive less pay. The Career Center at the University of Michigan reports an excellent employment outlook for nurse practitioners because they provide high quality, effective medical care.

Do you enjoy helping senior citizens? If you do, there are plenty of employment opportunities for geriatric nurse practitioners. Those aging baby boomers need healthcare! If preventive healthcare interests you, job opportunities are on the rise in this rewarding field.

In 2009, CNNMoney.com ranked nurse practitioner as the #4 best job in America, mostly because of the high pay and an abundance of job opportunities.

Help People While Making a Great Salary

According to the 2010 National Salary Survey of Nurse Practitioners the average full-time nurse practitioner (NP) salary in 2010 was $90,770 and the average part-time hourly rate was $43.77. The survey was based on nearly 3,000 registered nurses salaries. According to indeed.com, a major worldwide job site, the average salary as of September 2011 was $90,000.

Nurse practitioner salaries vary based on geographic location, the type of employer, the specialty and experience. Salaries for NPs are typically higher in general hospitals and surgery settings than in private practices and schools. PayScale.com reports the federal government pays the highest nurse practitioner salary.

No matter what setting you're working in your salary typically increases as you gain experience. For example, nurse practitioners with just one year of experience usually make between $60,000 to $78,000, while nurses with 20 years of experience make anywhere from $73,000 to 98,000.

According to Payscale.com these cities have the highest nurse practitioner salaries:

Go Back to School

The first step to becoming a licensed nurse practitioner is getting a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing degree. The second step requires a registered nurse license and the third step is completed after you earn a master's or doctoral nursing degree The Master of Science in Nursing degree (MSN) is the minimum requirement and the popular choice, (typically takes two to three years to complete). In some states you also need to show proof of work experience to enter a graduate program.

To complete the fourth and final step you'll have to pass a national board exam in your specialty area. It's important to know that the State Boards of Nursing regulate nurse practitioners and every state has its own licensing and certification criteria.

Going back to your education choices, you have the opportunity to increase your expertise and expand your career opportunities by getting a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. For example, a doctoral degree is coveted by employers who hire nursing instructors; these days nursing instructors are in very high demand.

Here's a list of some of the specialties provided by Master's in Nursing degree programs: