Inside The Practice Of A Family Nurse Practitioner
A family nurse practitioner has duties that are very important
. This type of nurse is able to practice autonomy which gives them the ability to treat patients alone like physicians can. This is why this type of nurse is able to come to your home to treat you just like they would with other patients.
A nurse practitioner actually has prescriptive authority in all of the 50 states. This means they can prescribe their patients the medications that they need without enduring any serious complications. A family nurse practitioner is actually licensed using the same method that all nurse practitioner use.
The nursing board in each state will license a family nurse practitioner so they can use the license to practice medicine in the given state that they choose. Normally this nurse practices within a clinic or similar environment. This nurse will provide family medicine to various patients of all different age groups.
This is what makes this type of nurse so versatile in their respective field. It is uncommon to find this type of nurse practicing medicine in a hospital type of practice. In rare cases a family nurse practitioner will take a hospital call so they can aid their patients. The majority of responsibilities that this nurse faces include sharing phone-call type duties, handling patient calls, and seeing patients in the outpatient or clinic setting.
Family medicine is actually the type of practice that the majority of general practitioners are involved in. The nurse will serve the healthcare needs of a whole family for the range of their lifetime. This specific type of nurse will see a range of different patients.
A family nurse practitioner will also practice medicine for patients of virtually any age. Normally this type of nurse will deal with aging adults as well as young toddlers. Sometimes the type of patient that this nurse will see depends on the setting that the nurse is practicing in.
There is a range of different specialties that you might find a family nurse practitioner practicing within. A few of these include cardiology, pediatrics, urgent care, internal medicine, family medicine, and urology. This type of nurse also has some limitations in some cases.
You will never find this type of nurse assisting in any type of surgery unless they have additional training with surgical. A family nurse practitioner also has limitations in an acute care type of setting.