What is a nurse practitioner (NP)?<\/p>\n
The technical name for a nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered nurse, or APRN. There are four main types of APRNs: nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse-midwives, and clinical nurse specialists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nurse practitioners can diagnose and treat illnesses, prescribe medications, manage chronic conditions, order and interpret diagnostic tests, and provide preventative care, says Valerie J. Fuller, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).\u00a0Fuller says NPs are unique because they are trained in nursing and so are extremely patient-centered. \u201cI think patients who choose a nurse practitioner are really looking for a clinician who can diagnose, treat, manage their health needs, but who also takes the time to listen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
To become a nurse practitioner, you need an undergraduate nursing degree and a registered nurse license. Then you must go back to school to pursue a graduate degree: either a master of science in nursing or a doctor of nursing practice. After your graduate degree, you must pass a national certifying exam; only then can you receive an APRN license. (Not all states issue a specific APRN license; some issue similar authorization but call it a certification or registry.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is a nurse practitioner (NP)? The technical name for a nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-504979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}