Family Nurse Practitioner Salary And Job Description

The advancements in medical sciences have truly enhanced the lifespan of the human race. Not only the qualified doctors but nurses too have been a great support for the sufferers throughout the world. One such profession is that of Family Nurse Practitioner, who not only takes your care but is eventually like your second mother. People suffering from chronic ailments or even through any acute ones, usually get the assistance from these nurses right from infancy to the end stages of life.

Family Nurse Practitioner Education Requirements

In order to acquire the degree of professional Family Nurse Practitioner, the candidates need to fulfill specific requirements both in terms of education and experience. The ones willing to take up nursing as their aim should have a bachelor’s degree in the field of nursing or equivalent. They must have cleared the NCLEX-RN examination and should have the desired license. They must also have an experience of working around 1 or 2 years as a registered nurse.

Along with this, they could require a Master’s of Science in nursing degree from an accredited institution. They should obtain a license from the state where they are willing to work and attain their goal. Apart from all these, the individuals must have suitable skills required by every nurse to flourish in the field.

Nurse Practitioner Job Description

Before understanding the duties and responsibilities of Family Nurse Practitioner, it is essential to get through their job description. As already stated above, the Family Nurse Practitioner takes full care of an individual or various members of a family suffering from any acute or chronic disease. They can work both as specialty or primary health care providers within the supervision and guidance of a specialist or physician. Most of these nurses, serve the patients throughout their life cycles.  The nurse must have a complete knowledge of the particular illness that their patient is going through.

There are various streams within the profession of a registered nurse where they can work and show up their compassion for serving others. However, in the field of Family Nurse Practitioner, you have to be both, emotionally and physically, capable of handling the shortcomings. As a family nurse, you are not only supposed to take care of the individual but in case of serious ailments, you have to stay with the patient like a shadow. Even a fraction of second can completely change their health conditions.  You have to take up various health assessments, provide them with medicines and analyze the change in health conditions. Some, specific duties that you are supposed to undertake, include-

• The nurse has to develop and execute numerous treatment plans for all sort of chronic and acute ailments that the particular patient or members of a particular family are going through.
• They must conduct regular and continuous diagnostic tests.
• They are supposed to prescribe pharmacological treatments as per the regulations of the state.
• The nurse has to keep a check that, the therapy which is prescribed to the patient, should also be age-specific and based upon the criticality of the disease along with proper rehabilitation facilities.
• The nurse should be able to provide prenatal care while assisting the whole family in proper planning for the betterment of patient’s health.
• Bringing out better assessment plans and providing primary or special care to the children and adults.
• The nurse, at times, may also have to undergo minor surgeries or medical procedures as per the need of patient’s body.
• She must also undertake the responsibility of educating and advocating the patients about all the safety measures which can avoid illnesses.
• They must go through a proper documentation of the individual’s and family’s health history to understand the criticality of the disease and make it stop, spreading to the upcoming generations.
• The nurse should stay in touch with a specialist all of the time who can oversee the problems. She must keep his/her updated about eth changes in patient’s health status.

So these are some of the rigorous tasks that every Family Nurse Practitioner has to undergo in her regular routine. Apart from these, the nurse’s responsibility largely differs from the condition and number of patients that she has. If more than one member of the family is suffering from some chronic disease, then you have to stay compassionate, active and smart enough to deal with any sudden problem and have to efficiently provide time to all the patients. However, if there is just a single patient with some problems, your schedule could be a bit relaxed. Therefore, these factors could also, largely determine the amount of work that you undertake within a day.

Working Environment Of The Family Nurse Practitioner

The Family Nurse Practitioner may either work in collaboration or as an autonomous in providing family-focused care. They could be noticed working at various places like homes, clinics, doctor’s offices, hospitals, urban community health centers, rural areas, public health centers, school or college campuses, etc. besides all of these, the practitioners could also get indulged in health care research, may undertake work at healthcare technology companies, can work as teachers at school or universities, in government agencies like the health departments, military and much more.

The requirements of nurses largely depend upon the provinces of a particular state and the intensity of disease and patients. The working conditions also differ as per the Family Nurse Practitioner association with health professionals too. In some of the countries like the United States, there are nurse-managed health centers where the practitioners work with numerous qualified professionals and serve the community, family, and population at their best. The nurses may even have to travel from places to places, thus, they should be capable of getting adapted to every sort of environments.

Above all these, the nurse should always have an emotional attachment to their patients so as to bring out the best results and positive changes in their health conditions.

Skills Required For Becoming a Professional Family Nurse Practitioner

Well, it is a definite fact that, apart from having practical knowledge and skills, one may have to possess numerous advanced skills that can assist them in undertaking their job well. They must show some great skills and abilities while being with their patients. Just like every other nurse, they should be compassionate about their profession and must understand the patient’s emotions like their own.

They should have great communication skills and must have knowledge of multiple languages as per the city they are living in. the nurses should also follow the ethics and code of conduct as set by the professionals.

Moreover, they must be confident, have critical thinking, should have adaptability, understanding, team working ability, active decision taking ability and much more. Having this specific skill set can actually help them in advancing in their future and attaining more benefits over a specific period of time.

Family Nurse Practitioner Salary

Considering the remuneration earned by a Family nurse practitioner, there are various parameters on the basis of which they are judged and paid. Their salary is thus, similarly judged by numerous factors. As it is a well-known fact that every individual gets paid as per their caliber in every field and profession, here too, the nurses have to show exemplary performance so as to reach a peak. Their salaries largely differ based upon the criticality of the ailment and the number of patients they are looking for in a particular family. Moreover, factors like their knowledge, understanding educational qualification, and experience also influence the amount which they are paid though.

According to the recently updated statistics on 4th February 2018, a particular family nurse practitioner in the USA can earn up to $89,043 as their average annual salary. Moreover, this may range somewhere between $73,158 – $109,933. These are just the rough amount details without the inclusion of benefits like overtime, bonus, insurance and a lot more. Being a family nurse practitioner could really be lucrative if you are skilled and experienced enough. However, the figures may largely differ as per the provisions of counties, states, regions or the community in which they are serving.

Hourly Wage Earned By Family Nurse Practitioners

Some credible researchers state that the average hourly wage rate of these nurses goes up to $48, and falls in the range of $38.24 – $62.12. Most of the nurses, working in advanced organizations and setups are also rewarded with some additional monetary and non-monetary benefits. The overtime amount may also range from $22.15 – $92.53 for a particular nurse working in this field.

Some of the nurses earn huge rewards in the form of bonus yearly, this amount may fluctuate somewhere between $996 -$15,646. While added to some other factors like the commission of $8,118 and profit sharing amount of $1,163 – $19,885, their overall pay scale reaches another level. The nurse thus, while counted along with all of these factors, may earn a total pay of $74,862 – $118,196.

Well, all of these facts are taken through credible health care centers, employers and employees working in these specific fields. The data belongs to the USA, however, as already mentioned in the above context, the given salary parameters can largely change over time-based upon their performance and other factors of the individuals. Moreover, if they are capable of bringing out positive changes in the condition of their patient, they may even get additional advances from the family of those patients they are treating.

Still, there is no restriction to the amount which one may earn in this profession. You can anytime; scale up your earnings by getting advanced education, exceptional personally, emotional and practical skills, while being mentally alert and supportive. With more experience, you can have the capacity to generate good revenue as you can cure out the patient in short span of time. However, the ones who have just started up with their career could find difficulties in dealing with their patient’s disease in a short time.

Conclusion

Therefore, being a family nurse practitioner is not only the profession where you take care of the individual’s specific sickness. But, it is an opportunity for you to show up your skills which can help a human’s life turn back from hell to heaven. Being a nurse, you must have to focus on their all-around management and eventually have to deal with their emotional and mental problems as well. You have to comfort them with their sickness and make them live happily ever after all such odds.

You may also have to undertake special awareness programs which can not only help the patient, but the whole family to understand the symptoms, criticality, and cure of the diseases. Well, it is an unbeatable fact that the nurses have to work in a challenging environment, but you can’t even deny the level of achievements and height which you can attain through being a professional family nurse practitioner.

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