Across the United States, the demand for family nurse practitioners is growing by the day. Becoming a family nurse practitioner is open to everybody with a range of online nursing programs available that you can use to get your BSN before moving on to advanced study. Many registered nurses are signing up to study to become a family nurse practitioner due to the fact that they care about their patients and want to enjoy a career that allows them more autonomy and responsibility when it comes to improving patient care.
Family nurse practitioners are helping to fill the gap left by the national shortage of primary care physicians. They often work in clinic settings and provide similar care to what you would expect from a general practitioner. If you are a family-oriented person who likes the idea of a career that allows you to help others and use your time for good, here are just some of the main reasons to think about pursuing this career.
Career Autonomy
Many family nurse practitioners benefit from more autonomy and freedom when it comes to their career. Due to their high level of education, unlike registered nurses, they can often work alone or in partnership with a primary care doctor. The growth of family nurse practitioners in the healthcare profession is currently very high, allowing new family nurse practitioners more career freedom thanks to the demand. Whether you would like to choose to work in a hospital, in a doctor's office, a retail clinic, or even start your own private practice, the options are endless when you choose this career.
More Responsibility
Whether you are already working as a registered nurse or looking to get your BSN, working as a family nurse practitioner in the future allows for much more responsibility in your career. In most states, family nurse practitioners are permitted to diagnose patients, prescribe medication, and refer patients for treatment in a similar way to a primary care physician. If you like the idea of this kind of work but would struggle to go through years of medical school, becoming a family nurse practitioner is an excellent alternative with various online degree programs that you can take to increase your knowledge and skills while working as a registered nurse at the same time.
Higher Salary
Compared to working as a registered nurse, family nurse practitioners have the opportunity to earn a much higher salary. And, the career progression does not stop at this level; there are opportunities for family nurse practitioners to study even further and advance their careers in several different ways. You can progress into a more specialized area of nursing or increase your education with a doctor of nursing practice degree, allowing you to become a nurse educator and earn a generous salary guiding and mentoring the next generation of nurses.
Choice of Workplace Setting
Family nurse practitioners can fill a huge range of roles. If you want to work with families to provide excellent healthcare, you can choose from a huge range of different settings to work in. Nurse practitioners are needed in hospitals, and they are often the professional of choice to head up the ever-growing number of retail clinics around the US. These clinics are often found in supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Target and allow customers to get quick healthcare advance and support compared to booking an appointment with a primary care physician. Family nurse practitioners can be found working in pharmacies, within the community, and in specialist clinics. Many family nurse practitioners choose to work with the general population, but some decide to focus on a certain patient demographic, such as women's health.
High Demand
There's no denying the high demand for good family nurse practitioners. Wherever you go in the country, you are likely to find work once you have qualified in this advanced level of nursing. Family nurse practitioners are often hired to replace primary care physicians and fill the gap created by the national shortage; they are in especially high demand in rural areas, although it's easy to find work in cities and urban areas too. If you are considering traveling for work, you certainly won't find it hard to find work as a family nurse practitioner in any state as long as you have passed the relevant state exam for the job.
Fit the Work Around Your Family Life
Since nurses are in incredibly high demand at all hours of the day, working as a nurse and a family nurse practitioner offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to your working hours. Nurses will often have the chance to choose the shifts that they would prefer to do, allowing you to easily line up your work schedule with your family's schedule. Rather than being confined to working strict hours, nurses can choose to work night shifts, morning shifts, or regular day shifts depending on what suits their schedule best. As a family nurse practitioner, you will enjoy even more freedom when it comes to your working hours, since family nurse practitioners have the opportunity to start their own clinics and become their own boss.
Training Options
If you're considering pursuing a career in nursing and want to eventually work as a family nurse practitioner, it has never been easier to get to where you want to be in your career. There is a wide range of options available when it comes to study and training. If you are currently working in an entirely different career, changing your career to nursing has now become easier thanks to the range of online degree options available, that can easily be fit around full-time work elsewhere. If you already have a degree in another subject, Marymount University offers accelerated nursing programs online that allow you to get your BSN and meet the entry requirements for family nurse practitioner programs even sooner. Once you have qualified and gained experience as a registered nurse, there are tons of advanced degree options to choose from online that are designed to fit around a busy nursing career.
Work with People
Unlike several other options when it comes to nursing career progression, the fact that you get to continue working directly with patients is a main benefit for many nurses who go on to become a family nurse practitioner. As a family nurse practitioner, the work that you do will have even more of an impact on your patients and you may often be the first point of call for patients who are in need of treatment.
Have an Impact on Healthcare
Family nurse practitioners don't just provide direct care to their patients; they are also very often active in improving healthcare services and acting as vocal advocates for their patients when it comes to healthcare policy. Working as a family nurse practitioner gives you more opportunities than ever before to make your voice heard and stand up for your patients in any situation. You may be influential in helping communities work together and support the creation of improved healthcare facilities that are a better fit for your patients. You may also have the chance to get involved in politics to influence changes to healthcare legislation based on your patients' needs.
Fast-Paced Work
Just like working as a registered nurse, no two days in the career of a family nurse practitioner are the same. While there are different settings to work in that might not be as exciting as working in the ER, family nurse practitioners get to enjoy a huge range of different situations on a day-to-day basis and will work with different people from all walks of life throughout the day. Even when working in a more relaxed setting such as a clinic or doctor's office, you will enjoy interesting work with a range of patients of all ages who need your help for various different things.
Make a Difference
Working as a family nurse practitioner allows you to make a difference in the world by having a positive impact on individual lives every single day. As a family nurse practitioner, you will not only be working with patients to provide treatment and care, but also providing education to all on improving health. You will play a key role in health education and support your patients to make better decisions for their health and well-being, improving the health of communities as a whole.
Take on Leadership Roles
Aside from working on the front line of healthcare in hospitals and clinics, family nurse practitioners are often excellent candidates for leadership roles within the healthcare industry. If you are interested in leading teams and are the type of person who inspires others, this could be the perfect career opportunity for you. Experienced and passionate healthcare professionals are often needed to step up as leaders in a wide range of extended healthcare fields including patient education, public health, academia, healthcare research and more, and family nurse practitioners are often the ideal leader to have due to their combined knowledge and experience of working first-hand with patients.
It's Interesting Work
Not only does working as a family nurse practitioner allow you to enjoy a fast-paced job where you can make a huge difference, but it's also very interesting. In this line of work, you're always going to be faced with somebody new to meet or something new to learn; it is highly mentally stimulating and there's very little risk of finding yourself bored.
Play a Role in Accessible Healthcare
Family nurse practitioners are currently the healthcare professionals that are having the most impact on a lot of communities. Due to the authority granted to them by most states to diagnose patients and prescribe treatment, family nurse practitioners can offer more cost-effective healthcare services to a large percentage of the population. Just over 70% of family nurse practitioners in the US are currently delivering primary care, meaning that you can join a rapidly-growing career that is helping to make affordable, quality healthcare more accessible to everybody.
Challenge Yourself
If you are looking for a new challenge with a great reward, becoming a family nurse practitioner could be the ideal choice. Studying to become a family nurse practitioner is certainly not a quick or easy process, especially if you are starting from the beginning with getting your BSN. From the moment you enroll in a nursing program, becoming a family nurse practitioner is a huge intellectual challenge that pushes you to continue learning and solve the often-complex problems that you will face on a daily basis. And, you don't stop learning once you get into this career; family nurse practitioners need to be committed to consistently updating their knowledge and skills in line with the ever-evolving world of healthcare.
Get a Great Return on Investment
While going to college and getting an advanced nursing degree is certainly not cheap, the good news is that there is an excellent return on investment to be had. Family nurse practitioners can earn upwards of $100k per year, often doubling the salary of a licensed practical nurse. In fact, the role of a family nurse practitioner has been named as one of the best-paying career options for women right now. The demand for nurse practitioners also means that you might not have to invest as much as you think; many healthcare employers are willing to foot the bill for BSN and FNP degree programs in order to help meet the need.
Along with the generous salary, family nurse practitioners can also often enjoy a range of career benefits including generous insurance packages for themselves and their families. And it's not all about the financial return on investment either. With so many options for career progression, making a real difference to the healthcare industry and providing meaningful care to patients every day, the work is undeniably hugely rewarding in every single way.
If you are a family-oriented person, a career working with families to improve their health and wellbeing could be the perfect choice for you.
