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Essay On Family Nurse Practitioner

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Family Nurse Practitioner – Master’s Degree Track There are two main types of nurse practitioners (NPs). One type is a family nurse practitioner (FNP), who is a nurse practitioner who possesses a master’s degree level of education. The second type is a doctor of nursing practice (DNP), who is a nurse practitioner who possesses a doctorate degree level of education. Even though these are two different degrees, titles, and differ in education required, the duties and responsibilities of both types are essentially the same in the clinical setting. The type of nurse practitioner that will be discussed in this paper will be the FNP. The scope of practice of a nurse practitioner is dependent on the legislation of each state but the primary responsibilities are to assess, diagnose, and treat patients in the health care setting (Nurse Journal, 2017b).
Societal Trends …show more content…

Although there is some personal satisfaction and financial gain to motivate nurses to pursue a higher level of education, the stressors of healthcare imposed by our society has pushed for the demand of higher educated nurse professionals (Bradley University, 2016). Increased costs of healthcare, increased complexity of disease treatment, decrease of physicians in primary care and the integration of new technology in providing care are essential factors that play a key role in how society is impacted and has ultimately affected the development of the NP role (Short, 2017). With such an increased need of NPs that has already taken precendence and as the societal factors only increase in demand, the need for NPs will be even greater in the future. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015), the need for advanced practice nurses (APN) will increase by 31 percent between 2014 and 2024, which is significantly faster than the average for other

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