Becoming A Nurse Practitioner: Providing Comprehensive Healthcare

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses who have gone back to school for extra training and education. This additional schooling allows them to provide many of the same services as a doctor, including:

• Talking to patients about their medical history (taking a history)
• Performing physical examinations
• Ordering and reviewing lab tests
• Prescribing medications
• Developing treatment plans
• Educating patients and their families about managing their health
  

Specialists And Educators:

Some NPs choose to focus on specific areas of healthcare, like women's health or caring for children (pediatrics). 

They are called nurse practitioners specialists. Other NPs may work in research or teach nursing students in a university setting.

Similar But Different To Doctors:

While NPs share many of the same duties as doctors, there are some key differences. 

Doctors typically have more years of schooling and training, which allows them to handle more complex medical problems. 

This additional training usually means doctors are paid more than NPs.

Focus On Wellness:

Many NPs worked as registered nurses before becoming NPs. 

As registered nurses, they may have focused on providing care that considers a patient's overall well-being, not just their medical condition. 

This focus on preventive care and wellness can carry over into how NPs practice medicine.

A Growing Field:

Nurse practitioners are a well-paid profession, with most earning six-figure salaries. 

The job market for NPs is expected to grow much faster than average over the next decade.

This means there will be many new opportunities for qualified nurses to become NPs.