Nurse practitioners are becoming a big part of our healthcare in the United States; they can serve as the primary healthcare provider for a patient. They treat a broad range of patients and conditions. Nurse practitioner jobs include urgent care centers, private physicians offices and nursing homes, just to name a few.
Nurse practitioners are licensed by the state in which they work and hold certification from one of many national boards. They are educated to care for patients with both common and complex illnesses and injuries, depending on which area they specialize in.
Some states allow nurse practitioners to practice independently of a licensed physician while other states require that he or she be directly supervised. Most practitioners have jobs as physicians and they perform duties in the office just as a physician would; examining patients, ordering tests and prescribing medication or therapy as needed.
The training a nurse practitioner undergoes prepares them of all facets of a medical practice; they are trained to take thorough medical histories, perform comprehensive physical examinations and prescribe medication as needed. Some states do regulate the type of medications that can be prescribed by a nurse, however. Nurse practitioners may be trained to assist physicians with minor surgeries and procedures; they are usually directly supervised during these procedures. Nurse practitioners may be employed by community health clinics or urgent care facilities where they see many different patients and conditions.
The first nurse practitioner program was begun in 1965 at the University of Colorado; since then there are many accredited programs at colleges and universities throughout the United States. To enroll in a nurse practitioner program one must first have passed all the coursework to become a licensed registered nurse; nurse practitioner programs are all at the graduate or doctoral level.
Nurse practitioners are often thought of as the primary care provider for the patient, if that is their area of specialty. Nurse practitioners may specialize in pediatrics, adult care, acute care, or psychiatric care. It is not unusual to find nurse practitioners in college and university clinics and public health clinics; however, they may be employed by nursing homes and hospice care.
These nurses are trained to provide holistic and preventative care; and since a nurse practitioner is trained as a nurse first he or she may try to involve the patient more in his or her well-being. They often view healthcare as a process that involves the patient and also their family in the process of the treatment; this allows the patient to feel as if they are playing a role in their treatment. Of course, if a nurse practitioner feels a patient requires care that is out of their scope of practice, they refer the patient to the appropriate physician.
Nurse practitioners have become a vital part of healthcare in the United States and nurse practitioners now often fill travel nurse jobs that were filled only by physicians in the past. There are different types of nurse practitioner jobs ranging from emergency rooms and urgent care facilities to nursing homes and hospice care. Nurse practitioners provide services that are indispensable to our health care system.
