What You’ll Learn in a Nurse Practitioner School

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A Nurse Practitioner is a licensed medical professional who works alongside a physician or Medical Doctor to provide basic health care in the office as well as hospital settings. Nurse Practitioner is a growing medical field that allows patients and consumers to make a broader choice in who will be their primary care physician.

Nurse Practitioner School Education

In order to become a Nurse Practitioner, one must complete a Baccalaureate degree in Nursing and continue to the Masters Study in the Nurse Practitioner emphasis.

Things you’ll learn in a Nurse Practitioner school include many of the same things an early medical student learns. This is because Nurse Practitioners generally provide similar health care to patient/clients as doctors relieving congestion in medical practices.

You will learn human anatomy and how to diagnose abnormalities. About 87.2% of all nurse practitioners will provide primary care. Appropriate treatment and diagnosis of general medical issues is therefore of primary importance to the Nurse Practitioner’s learning.

In your nurse practitioner program, you will learn basic pharmacology. As either a primary care provider or someone who works in a hospital or clinic, you will need to proscribe medication to patients under the supervision of a Medical Doctor who will sign off on your paperwork and diagnoses for billing purposes. However, for all intents and purposes, the Nurse Practitioner will be the primary care physician and will need knowledge of pharmacology. You will need to pass exams on both administration of and basic compounding and chemistry as it relates to pharmacology.

Nurse Practitioner School Special Training

Nurse Practitioner schools also offer specialized trainings in different areas of specialty. For example, most Certified Nurse Midwives are also Certified Nurse Practitioners and able to have a practice semi-independently from a Medical Doctor for Obstetrics and Gynecology. You can take courses in this at your College of choice for Nurse Practitioners.

Another area of study one may choose in Nurse Practitioner school is psychology. Becoming a specialist in the field of psychology allows one to work in many different areas of mental health. If you study in this area, you will learn specifics of health issues that affect mental health as well as diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders. In addition, specialized training of psychotropic medications will be an emphasis of training. As a Nurse Practitioner, working with those who are mentally ill or in need of counseling, you will need to be able to prescribe appropriate medication as well as know about pharmaceutical interactions with other medications.

One may also choose their emphasis to be in pediatrics. In which case, specialized training in treating young children will be given in your Nurse Practitioner schooling. Children and adults have vastly different needs; therefore, your emphasis of study will be somewhat different, tailored towards youth.

Public Health is a growing area in which Nurse Practitioners are needed and there are specific courses for this too. Public health does a great deal of education, so you will have some emphasis on teaching skills. You will also have training in infectious diseases and quarantine protocol as well as immunization training, in order to help the public.

Becoming a Nurse Practitioner is a good option for someone who wants to work with patients and for whatever reason does not choose medical school. In your schooling, you will however be working quite hard and writing as well as participating in studies. If this is something that appeals to you, a future in being a Nurse Practitioner may be waiting for you.