Career Profile: Career Profile - Nurse Practitioners

Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 246,700 people employed as career profile - nurse practitioners in the United States. The median annual salary is $120,680. Entry level employees earn approximately $79,470 per year and senior employees earn approximately $163,350 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Diagnose or treat acute health care problems, such as illnesses, infections, or injuries.
• Prescribe medication dosages, routes, and frequencies, based on such patient characteristics as age and gender.
• Diagnose or treat chronic health care problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
• Prescribe medications based on efficacy, safety, and cost as legally authorized.
• Recommend diagnostic or therapeutic interventions with attention to safety, cost, invasiveness, simplicity, acceptability, adherence, and efficacy.
• Detect and respond to adverse drug reactions, with special attention to vulnerable populations such as infants, children, pregnant and lactating women, or older adults.
• Treat or refer patients for primary care conditions, such as headaches, hypertension, urinary tract infections, upper respiratory infections, and dermatological conditions.
• Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in nursing.
• Schedule follow-up visits to monitor patients or evaluate health or illness care.
• Perform routine or annual physical examinations.
• Maintain departmental policies and procedures in areas such as safety and infection control.
• Advocate for accessible health care that minimizes environmental health risks.
• Perform primary care procedures such as suturing, splinting, administering immunizations, taking cultures, and debriding wounds.
• Maintain complete and detailed records of patients' health care plans and prognoses.
• Develop treatment plans, based on scientific rationale, standards of care, and professional practice guidelines.
• Provide patients with information needed to promote health, reduce risk factors, or prevent disease or disability.
• Analyze and interpret patients' histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
• Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
• Provide patients or caregivers with assistance in locating health care resources.
• Keep abreast of regulatory processes and payer systems, such as Medicare, Medicaid, managed care, and private sources.
• Supervise or coordinate patient care or support staff activities.
• Counsel patients about drug regimens and possible side effects or interactions with other substances, such as food supplements, over-the-counter (OTC) medications, or herbal remedies.
• Order, perform, or interpret the results of diagnostic tests, such as complete blood counts (CBCs), electrocardiograms (EKGs), and radiographs (x-rays).
• Educate patients about self-management of acute or chronic illnesses, tailoring instructions to patients' individual circumstances.
• Maintain current knowledge of state legal regulations for nurse practitioner practice, including reimbursement of services.
• Recommend interventions to modify behavior associated with health risks.
• Consult with, or refer patients to, appropriate specialists when conditions exceed the scope of practice or expertise.

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