Career as a Nurse Practitioner
A Nurse Practitioner is a registered nurse that has additional education and experience. These nurses are able to prescribe medications, perform in-office procedures, communicate diagnoses, and order and interpret diagnostic tests. They also have hospital admitting, discharge and hospital rounding privileges. There is a lot of collaboration between the nurse practitioner and the physician and vice versa. Because the nurse practitioner can practice independently from the physician, the physician is freed up to leave the office and focus on surgical cases, do rounds at the hospital, or tend to an emergency. Rescheduling of appointments is avoided, and patient satisfaction is increased by allowing the physician to focus on patients that need physician-specific attention. A Nurse Practitioner is able to not only diagnose and treat a patient's medical problems, but also incorporate the treatment into the patient's family, culture and daily life by teaching the patient ways to stay healthy. They are able to give a patient more education, individual attention and encouragement to incorporate and adjust to a lifestyle that will be of benefit to them and their family. There are two types of nurse practitioner, Primary Health Care - these nurse practitioners work in community settings and provide general health care to all ages. Adult & Pediatric Care - these nurse practitioners tend to work in hospitals and provide specialized health care to adults and children who are hospitalized with acute illnesses, and for patients with specific health conditions (diabetes, cancer, heart disease, neonatal issues). The duties of Nurse Practitioners typically includes to performing comprehensive and focused physical examinations and diagnosing and treating common acute illnesses and injuries to providing immunizations. They are also engaged in managing high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and other chronic health problems and for ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests such as X-rays and EKGs, as well as laboratory tests. Prescribing medications and therapies and performing procedures.