Thursday, January 19, 2012

A Closer Look at Nurse Practitioner Training


Those who know they like to care for others could be seriously considering nursing, but how can you figure out if being a nurse practitioner would be the best fit for you? You can figure it out if you simply think about the opportunities for training, earnings, and occupational duties.

For those who are presently employed as a LPN or an RN, the nurse practitioner position is more advanced and so will take advanced training and responsibility. Nurse practitioners are really diagnosticians, so that is a boost from nursing responsibilities. The nurse practitioner works to plan patient care, write prescriptions and make diagnosis whether they are working in a hospital, health clinic, or a doctor’s office.

Nurse practitioners of all specialties and settings perform a very similar set of functions, which are listed below:

Write prescriptions; request lab tests. Collecting patient history to determine diagnosis, determining which tests should be ordered. Drain and attend to wounds, collect biopsies, complete basic suturing and incisions. Test for glucose levels and insulin tolerance. Do gastric analysis and intubation.

Even though the training is strenuous, nurses report incredible satisfaction with their job, and say the extra training required to acquire this increased autonomy and responsibility are well well worth it.
 
Exactly how is the training different than that of what registered nurses and LPNs receive? Most nurse practitioner training programs require potential students to possess registered nurse licensure and to have practiced as an RN for approximately twenty four months.

At the masters degree level, there will be courses in advanced pharmacology in addition to in depth practice in a variety of areas in different semesters. Anticipate practicum hours in at-risk population care, pediatric, adult, and child health care. All courses are progressively more complicated compared to those offered in registered nurse training.

You'll find training programs which allow you to do some or all of the work online, which allows you to continue working. Many web-based programs are just as good as traditional programs, and many are part-time and full time.

Certification is the next thing in your journey after your coursework is done; Certification comes from one of many national nursing organizations. You will get certification from both the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the American Nurses' Association.

Certifications in special areas like gynecology, neonatal, obstetrics and pediatrics. You can sit for an exam anywhere in the nation for about $300 per exam.

The bump in salary for nurse practitioners is roughly $14 an hour typically over that of an RN. Master's degrees typically mean an increase in earnings like this.

Nurse practitioners don't just get to work with patients one on one, but they also enjoy an income increase, and those two reasons persuade many people to pursue it. By acquiring higher education, RNs are able to re-invent themselves and open up new and enjoyable opportunities.

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