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Nurse Practitioners

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Diagnose and treat acute, episodic, or chronic illness, independently or as part of a healthcare team. May focus on health promotion and disease prevention. May order, perform, or interpret diagnostic tests such as lab work and x rays. May prescribe medication. Must be registered nurses who have specialized graduate education.

Related: Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses Clinical Nurse Specialists Emergency Medicine Physicians Family Medicine Physicians Registered Nurses

Industries: Health & Counseling

Summary
Details

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

Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.

Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.

Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.

Education

Master's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

140220/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

67.41/hr

Currently Employed

6,020

Yearly Projected Openings

600

Investigative: People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out. They do well at jobs that need:

Attention to Detail
Dependability
Integrity
Concern for Others
Adaptability/Flexibility
Stress Tolerance

Anesthesia nerve block kit or tray
Apnea monitors
Arm orthopedic softgoods
Arterial blood gas monitors
Arterial line catheters
Back or lumbar or sacral orthopedic softgoods
Binocular light compound microscopes
Blood collection syringes
Cardiac output CO monitoring units
Cardiac pacemaker generators or cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers CRT-P
Central venous catheters
Cervical collars or neck braces
Chemistry analyzers
Chest tubes
Crutches
Diagnostic or interventional vascular catheters for general use
Electrocardiography EKG units
Electronic blood pressure units
Electronic medical thermometers
Electrosurgical or electrocautery equipment
Emergency or resuscitation carts
Endoscopic instrument sets
Endotracheal or tracheotomy sets
Endotracheal tubes
Eye charts or vision cards
Flow sensors or regulators or components
Glucose monitors or meters
Goggles
Head or neck traction supplies
Holter or wearable EKG monitoring systems or accessories
Intermittent positive pressure breathing IPPB machines
Intraaortic balloon pumps
Intracranial pressure ICP monitoring units
Intravenous infusion pumps for general use
Intravenous or arterial catheter trays
Intubation laryngoscopes
Intubator components
Lancets
Leg orthopedic softgoods
Medical acoustic stethoscopes
Medical exam or non surgical procedure gloves
Medical nasal oxygen catheters or catheterization kits
Medical or surgical suction or vacuum appliances
Medical oxygen masks or parts
Medical staff isolation or cover gowns
Medical staplers for external use
Medical syringes with needle
Medical tuning forks
Medical ultrasound or doppler or echocardiograph transducer accessories
Microcentrifuges
Mobile medical services automated external defibrillators AED or hard paddles
Mobile medical services head immobilizers
Mobile medical services spine boards
Mobile resuscitator or aspirator kits
Nasogastric tubes
Nebulizers
Non invasive bi level machines
Notebook computers
Ophthalmoscopes or otoscopes or scope sets
Orthopedic splint systems
Oxygen concentrators
Patient floor scales
Peak flowmeters
Pericardiocentesis needles or kits
Personal computers
Personal digital assistant PDAs or organizers
Pulse oximeter units
Reflex hammers or mallets
Sigmoidoscopes
Skin staple removers or kits
Special purpose telephones
Specimen collection container
Spirometers
Surgical clamps or clips or forceps
Surgical isolation or surgical masks
Surgical lasers
Surgical pneumatic or electric tourniquets
Surgical punches or punch holders
Surgical scalpels or knives or blades or trephines
Surgical scissors
Suturing kits or trays or packs or sets
Tablet computers
Thoracentesis sets or trays
Tissue culture incubators
Tourniquets
Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation units
Tympanometers
Umbilical catheters
Urinalysis test strips
Urinary catheterization kits
Vacuum blood collection tubes or containers
Vaginal exam speculas
Ventricular assist devices
Walking braces