Before you decide whether you want to pursue a career as a Nurse Practitioner (NP), you might want to find out some facts about NP which you should consider before making your decision. In this article, you will find some basic facts about NP which would help you in making your choice.

1. Education/Qualifications
Before becoming an NP, you need to attend an undergraduate school of nursing, where you would obtain a degree in nursing. Next, you need to obtain licensure to become a registered nurse. Practice as a Registered Nurse to gain experience. After that, decide which area of specialty that you would like to take up as an NP. You will then need to take up a Master’s degree in Nursing, and sits for a licensure exam to become a Nurse Practitioner.

2. Working environment
Depending on your specialty, the work environment ranges from hospital to standard practice offices to the patients’ own houses.

3. Working hours
If you choose to work in the hospital, especially as a Neonatal or Acute Care NP, you may need to work in rotation basis, to ensure that there is an NP 24 hours a day. If you are doing house calls, then the working hours vary, depending on when the patient is available. On the other hand, working in a standard practice offices usually require working in fixed duration of hours everyday, usually during office hours.

4. NP specialty
There is a wide range of specialty available as an NP. Following are some of them:
a. Pediatric NP
b. Adult NP
c. Family NP
d. Neonatal NP
e. Acute Care NP
f. Women’s Health Care NP
g. Psychiatric/ Mental Health NP
h. Occupational Health NP
i. Geriatric NP

5. Remuneration
Being an NP undeniably offers a high remuneration due to the work environment setting and the hours put in by an NP. However, the salary varies from each state and based on the NP specialty.

So, based on the facts given above, think wisely before choosing to become an NP. It might just be the ideal career that you will love!

For more information about nurse practitioner job and nurse practitioner facts, visit NursePractitionerCareer.com.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/nurse-practitioner-facts-that-you-should-know-1773902.html

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