Career As A Nurse Practitioner

If you want to pursue a health-care career, you may want to consider various nurse practitioner jobs. This line of work can be general or highly specialized, depending on your interests. Doctor’s offices are a common place to find practitioners working in this type of nursing, but they also can serve in different settings.

With this level of accreditation, you can perform a significant number of tasks in a doctor’s office or to help a medical specialist in a certain line of treatment. This type of nurse can diagnose and treat his or her own patients. Doctors in the office also can consult in a patient’s case, but the nurse typically makes the decisions in the patient’s care.

Patients may think this type of practitioner is a doctor because the job appears to have similar duties. This type of nurse can talk with a patient and review their medical care, perform a brief exam and order testing if necessary for further treatment or to monitor an issue. He or she also can write prescriptions for the patient as needed.

You can have your own group of patients, like a doctor, and may feel like you have more control of your career in this type of nursing. You can help teach the patients more about health care. You also may serve as supplemental care for a patient if they see you in between regular appointments with their primary care doctor.

Practitioner accreditation can open doors for different types of employment. There may be pediatric or family care opportunities for you. This level of accreditation also may help you gain work as a midwife, serving pregnant women in a clinic. If your interest is in working with seniors or elderly patients, you may specialize with more education and training to work in gerontology.

There are many medical careers beyond a general practitioner’s office for this type of work. You may work in cancer treatment or have a career in pulmonology or cardiology. You may find yourself working with patients in these areas to help them with their treatment plans. If you are interested in working in a hospital, you can explore a nursing career at practitioner level in anesthesiology to work with surgical patients.

Advancement and expanded job opportunities may be possible for you in these careers. You typically will go for advanced certification to attain this level of nursing. What you may earn in this field of work will depend on a job’s location, your education and experience and the work itself. Doctoral degrees in this field can allow you to go for more specialized, complex jobs.

The need for people in nurse practitioner jobs may grow as the general population becomes older. Doctor’s offices, government or nonprofit work or hospitals are all areas that may add to the demand for this position. You can have the freedom in these careers to interact with patients and set your course for your career. You may find yourself advancing with a higher earning potential through more training and experience.