#6

       The second career I have chosen to research is a Nurse Practitioner. I hope to eventually continue my education and become an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, but it will be a few years down the road. Nurse Practitioners work alongside doctors and provide much of the same care to patients. They do physicals, diagnose and treat common illnesses and injuries, interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe medications, perform procedures, and educate patients and their families.

       There are 25 states in the US that allow NP’s to practice independently from doctors, however in all Acute Care NP’s follow doctors. In the hospital setting, the NP’s do rounds with doctors and sometimes even do rounds on the doctor’s patients while he or she is in surgery or busy with other patient needs. This makes the doctor’s job much less grueling, but I have noticed at my current job that if a patient is particularly ill the doctor will make the rounds no matter what.

         An NP’s average salary is $75, 000 per year, but that varies depending on where you are working at. The only bad thing is Acute Care NP’s will likely have to work weekends, holidays and possibly even be on-call. This would not necessarily be the case in a clinic setting though. As with being an RN there are so many different directions you can go once you obtain your Masters of Science in Nursing aka a Nurse Practitioner.

*All information from http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/75/Nurse_Practitioner