Nursing is a diverse career that has more opportunities than before. As time goes by, the numbers of aging and chronically ill patients continues to rise. Thus, there is a demand for trained professionals t provides quality healthcare services.
Nursing professionals play a vital role in the healthcare sector and remain an indispensable resource. The recent coronavirus outbreak is proof of this. They are essentially the frontline workforce for treating the patients and meeting their medical needs.
Nurse practitioners are advanced nursing professionals that cover various roles in clinical and non-traditional healthcare. These include treating the patients by creating care plans and recording data. With the challenges imposed by threats to human health and disease, the nurses’ demand is rapidly increasing. However, nursing practitioners are coming forward to fill these gaps by working in various areas related to delivering quality care.
If you are considering becoming a nurse practitioner, it is worth noting that the field branches off into several types. Each type relates to the different roles and focuses on specific groups of people, such as families, children, and elders. With that said, let’s discuss different types of nurse practitioners and their role in healthcare.
- Family Nurse Practitioner
One of the most common types of practitioners in family care is FNPs. This group of professionals focuses on providing healthcare services to individuals and families. Their responsibilities are similar to those of the doctor or registered nurse. However, these professionals have more authority than registered nurses. Moreover, they train to offer a wide array of healthcare services, including health counseling, disease prevention, and promoting healthy lifestyles.
FNPs employ their unique set of skills to treat patients with a specific need. They acquire these skills via graduate-level education, like an online masters degree in nursing, which a prerequisite for entering a career. With this education, the family nurse practitioner can incorporate all the factors to assist the patients in physical and mental wellness.
- Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner
AGNPs focus on treating people from adolescence to adulthood and old-age. They are responsible for providing the diagnosing the disease while educating the people for improving healthcare. Not just that, but adult-gerontology practitioners also offer counseling, routine checkups, and immunization courses for people of all ages. These professionals can secure jobs in all healthcare facilities, including hospitals, local clinics, intensive care, rehabilitation centers, and nursing homes.
- Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
Because physicians and RNs cannot treat every patient in a hospital, acute care nurse practitioners come in handy to fill the gap. ACNPs specializes in providing medical care to patients with acute, chronic, or critical health conditions. They are responsible for communicating with the physician to ensure proper medical services to the patients.
ACNPs are trained explicitly for making life-altering decisions. These professionals make sure that they are providing treatment according to strict medical policies and evidence-based practice. This ensures that the treatment is entirely safe for the patient and helps to stabilize their health.
- Cardiac Nurse Practitioner
As the name implies, the cardiac nurse practitioner takes on a complex role of focusing on cardiovascular systems and heart health. These nurse professionals work in clinical and emergency environments, making them more flexible for jobs in the heart department. Moreover, these professionals deal with people of all ages. Their day-to-day responsibilities include taking a patient’s medical history, regular stress tests, and monitoring cardiovascular activity.
Technology has played a significant role in enhancing cardiovascular health. Likewise, the role of a CNP is continually evolving to keep up with technological advancements. Cardiac nurse practitioners can also practice independently to treat the patients and analyze heart disease. Moreover, the profession enables team collaboration, which significantly improves healthcare services across the spectrum.
- Orthopedic Nurse Practitioner
Orthopedic nurse practitioners treat patients with musculoskeletal problems. These include joint pains, fractures, tendon ruptures, etc. The primary responsibilities of ONPs are to identify the patients suffering from these diseases and providing adequate medical treatment. These nurses also assist orthopedic surgeons by providing the data for patient treatment. They analyze data from tests, X-rays to evaluate the best possible treatment for the patients.
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Mental health is a serious concern all over the globe. For this reason, nurse practitioners are opting to become PMHNPs to create more awareness about mental health and help people. These professionals provide quality care to patients with mental illness, including PTSD, anxiety, schizophrenia is to name a few. PMHNPs give counseling to patients to treat disorders.
- Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner
WHNPs focus on issues related to women’s health from adolescence to drug rehabilitation and pregnancy. They provide counseling on birth control and family planning. WHNPs conduct research to address the rising issues women face in society.
However, it is worth noting that the role of a WHNP is broader and different as compared to the nurse-midwife. The nurse-midwife focuses on health issues related to pregnancy and childbirth. Meanwhile, WHNPs take a more holistic approach with far more career options in healthcare and social work.
Final Words
The scope of nurse practitioners is spread over several rewarding career paths. Each career path provides unique opportunities within specific niches to deliver quality patient care. Many of these jobs also offer a sizeable annual remuneration. If you are looking for a rewarding career with a promising outlook, then a nurse practitioner is the best choice to go for.
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