By Levi Leo
Starting a career as a nurse is the beginning of various careers with different roles and duties. This article highlights some advanced areas for nursing students. It discusses functions, scopes, and responsibilities related to family nurse practitioners (FNPs), adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioners (AG-PCNPs), psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPS), and nurse educators. Each career path offers unique responsibilities, scope of practice, and opportunities for professional growth.
Family nurse practitioner (FNP)
First, the job entails offering population-wide healthcare services that meet client’s needs, from infants upwards, regardless of age. Thus, this global process transforms you into a vital family provider. An FNP’s scope is broad because lots of families have different requirements. The work includes health promotion and illness prevention activities that promote overall wellness. Alongside the standardized exam, you must present logical notions such as holistic health evaluation, pathology differentiation, and treatment approaches to acute and chronic diseases. One of the most critical aspects of your functions is cooperation with other healthcare providers to give patients as many benefits as possible.
In addition, you are not only screening for health and vaccinations or disease management. It is about being a part of the prescriptive process and patient education. The specification of being an FNP is related to developing close ties with patients and fighting for their well-being. FNPs engage in community outreach and health education programs outside the clinic.
Your ability to dispense family-centered care distinguishes you as a Fellowship Nurse Practitioner. You face the complexities of family life, focusing on physical health and touching social-emotional aspects. As educators, FNPs empower families to engage actively in their healthcare journey. This holistic approach averts health-related stumbling blocks and helps create a healthy nation.
The demand for FNPs is rising, fueled by aging populations and a shortage of healthcare professionals. According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), FNPs comprise nearly 70% of nurse practitioners. The job growth for nurse practitioners, including FNPs, is projected to be 52% from 2020 to 2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Embarking on the career path of an FNP lets you positively impact families’ health and well-being in a long-term perspective. As you couple clinical knowledge with a humane attitude, your patients see you as their healthcare provider and an ally who can be trusted. As a result, FNPs are primary care leaders since they connect patients with healthcare providers and advocate to increase trust within communities while improving general health.
Adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner (AG-PCNP)
The AG-PCNP is a ray of hope in the global scenario where change orientation concerning nursing practice seems limitless. AG-PCNPs are essential in dealing with the problematic circumstances associated with patients during adulthood. The specialty for an AG-PCNP is primary care focused on health maintenance, disease prevention, and standard or complicated adult and older problems. On the one hand, you have a grander scope of responsibilities than just treatment for acute diseases. As an AG-PCNP, your role concerns the patient’s overall well-being.
AG-PCNPs operate as primary care providers in this position, conducting health screening tests, identifying disorders, and recommending treatment plans. Collaboration with interdisciplinary teammates is essential as they deliver coordinated, patient-centered care. AG-PCNPs are the patients’ first point of contact in health promotion and educating patients about healthy lifestyle choices that ensure a better quality of life and longer lives.
Indeed, the ability of AG-PCNPs to effectively address adult and geriatric care challenges makes them unique. They understand the underlying aging process, chronic conditions prevalent among older adults, and their psychosocial determinants of health. The AG-PCNPs are prepared to manage complications resulting from age by managing the patient’s physical wellness and addressing their patient’s psychological state.
The boundaries of a single patient encounter are an AG-PCNP. These specialists are crucial to community health because they specialize in adult and gerontology nursing. Their knowledge helps prevent actions such as seniors living a better life and building a nation that honors older adults.
Wilkes University offers an online MSN-AGPCNP program to address the increasing demand for nurse practitioners. As such, enrolling as a gerontology nurse practitioner provides the best results for your career. Under state statutes, this program allows students to determine whether the healthcare needs of adolescents, adults, and senior clients can be met by persons who can care for patients 13 years or older. In addition, the program has a specialized clinical placement group that ensures quality placements according to national standards. The admission criteria also vary depending on the level of studies, including an associate degree in nursing (RN) or Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and a post-graduate/APRN certificate in AGPCNP. The qualifications are a minimum GPA, an unrestricted RN license, one year of clinical practice, and a resume. The admission committee can request additional information to run a full qualification review and make admission decisions individually.
Psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP)
Psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioners are crucial to frontline mental healthcare; they conduct the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of various psycho-diseases. Their responsibilities range from doing comprehensive psychiatric assessments to creating and implementing integrated treatment strategies. The PMHNPs operate within the biopsychosocial perspective, collaborating with patients and families and members of interdisciplinary teams to supply mental health services.
Apart from providing patients with psychotherapeutic counsel and individual treatment, PMHNPs also act as prescribers of medications to address psychiatric stress in their clients. Beyond the hospital, they work towards promoting mental health awareness and eradicating stigma among members of their communities. One of the primary issues related to this role is that it tends to be integrative; thus, physical and mental health are connected.
PMHNPs, as agents of healthcare professionals and advocates for acts in promoting positive mental health, actively facilitate policy-making towards reforming mentally ill individuals through creating awareness by themselves while simultaneously guiding society to a population open. They extend beyond the limitations of patient-individual management to define community-level well-being that directs the health status and population’s robustness. Besides their clinical work, the PMHNPs conduct research activities and promote evidence-based practices that advance the quality of mental health care.
However, PMHNPs use cultural competence to understand and respect how different cultures view beliefs and values. Moreover, they provide educational activities and training for health professionals and community leaders to increase mental literacy by eliminating stigma. Instead, PMHNPs create an environment of personal care culture in mental health because they always have services available to address the welfare of a person.
In general, the entry of mental health nursing is an issue of friendliness and wisdom in addressing psychiatric conditions. The role of PMHNPs is to close the gap between vulnerable people and their opportunities for a happy life. PMHNPs’ role in promoting healthy societies is ensuring care and advocating for improving mental health.
Clinical nurse specialist (CNS)
The CNS is an expert and knowledgeable practitioner. Clinical knowledge, leadership, nursing education, and research are the key characteristics of the CNS. It has functioned as a vital tool in shaping the quality of patient care.
CNSs are advanced practice nurses in critical care, cardiology, oncology, and neonatological subspecialties. In addition, their highly specialized professional know-how and superior clinical skills enable them to perform valuable consulting services to develop evidence-based practice and health policy.
The CNS’s role is based on one commitment to optimal patient care. In a nutshell, CNSs work with healthcare teams whose role is to improve patient outcomes through implementing evidence-based intervention that will help simplify treatment procedures and practices of quality delivery. They promote innovation and change in clinical settings.
Other than their clinical roles, CNSs are responsible for teaching functions. They guide and coach the nurses toward better practices and new research findings in their areas of specialization. Moreover, this educational element promotes an existing learning culture in health centers.
The CNS’s role is leadership. CNSs enable catalyzing change within a particular unit and adapting to all systems. Their leadership is not limited to the nursing bedside but encompasses administrative positions, policy management, and co-venturing stakeholders on care for patients.
CNSs are also used for research purposes. They engage and often produce research that contributes to nursing theory development. The role of research orientation is central, as the CNS constantly works to change and update nursing practices according to new evidence.
The Clinical nurse specialist is a multi-dimensional clinician who, through their competence in clinical practice and leadership capabilities, combines education with research to help improve healthcare. They impact every facet of the health system, from bedsides with patients to boardrooms. It aims to achieve better patient outcomes and establish a learning culture that supports positive transformation in health.
Nurse educator
The nurse educator is an essential and transformative role in the vital profession of nursing. Educators are crucial guides to future health professionals because they help individuals learn and be proactive, assertive heart nurses of tomorrow.
The role of nurse trainers is to fill in the gap between theory and practice. They encourage developing and implementing programs in academic centers, clinical venues, and healthcare agencies. Nurse educators teach nursing students the skills and knowledge that turn them into caregivers.
One of nurse educators’ significant duties is to create content for their curriculum that reflects contemporary practices born as an effect of changes within health care. They ensure that nursing students are well-equipped to face the modern challenges of the health system. Moreover, nurse educators include real-life cases and practice implementation, which leads to a complete understanding of nursing practice.
Nursing educators are mentors and guides in classroom and clinical practice, providing learning opportunities. They encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, and pragmatic communication, an essential aspect of nursing. Nurse educators employ mentorship to impart confidence and enhance the level of competency among students who are ready for challenges related to patients.
Nurse educators do not influence only a particular group of students but the entire nursing cohort. They advocate practice standards for nursing and the educational policy framework guidelines and ensure that they constantly update themselves with modern trends in health care. Therefore, nurse educators are vital in fostering a culture of life-long learning and maintaining the dynamic nature or adaptability that is characteristic of nursing practice.
Additionally, a nurse educator is an information carrier and a defender of nursing. You teach your students they can be proud of ethics, empathy, and patient-centered care. By doing so, nurse educators generate a generation of technically competent and kind nurses who put their patients’ needs first.
Broader spectrum
Exploring career pathways in nursing is an opportunity to open a broad spectrum of opportunities for nurses willing to become specialists and increase their careers. Whether you pursue a career as a family nurse practitioner, adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner, or psychiatric/mental health NP or want to study clinical nursing specialist and work in the nursing education field, each practice has its message. By pursuing higher education, receiving national certificates, and keeping yourself updated about what is happening in your field, you will be successful as a nurse.
