Nurse Practitioners: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Job description

Nurse Practitioners 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.

• Analyze and interpret patients’ histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
• 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.

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Salary

Nurse Practitioners with little to no experience tend to make between $78300 and $90760 while the more experienced ones can earn over $125440 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Nurse Practitioner is to move to a higher paying state like CA. Right now, the highest paying states for Nurse Practitioners are CA, AK, MA, NJ and NY.

However, a higher pay at CA doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at CA might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Nurse Practitioner is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

Requirements

We asked other Nurse Practitioners what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Master’s Degree followed by a PhD.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Nurse Practitioner.

What is the job like

74% of Nurse Practitioners said they were satisfied with their job and 82% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

Is this right for me

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like working with, communicating with, and teaching people. They like helping or providing service to others..

They also like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

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