What a nurse practitioner is in a nutshell...

A nurse practitioner (NP) is an individual who is an advanced practice nurse, that has specialized training in a specific area. These areas include:
Family Practice
Pediatrics (Acute and Primary Care)
Psychiatric
Acute Care Adult
Women's Health
Geriatric
Adult
Neonatal
Occupational Health
Oncology
A nurse practitioner is specifically trained to be an expert in both health promotion and primary prevention practices.In addition, nurse practitioners collaborate with physicians to diagnose and treat medical conditions in both the hospital and in outpatient clinics as well as prescribe medications in most states.
The utilization of nurse practitioners has been shown to improve patient outcomes in several ways. First, nurse practitioners treat the patient using both the nursing and medical models of care which allows for holistic care of the patient. This holistic care encompasses not only the patient's medical issues and disease process(es) but also allows the nurse practitioner to explore what else is occurring in the patient's life that may also be a contributing factor affecting the patient. Some common thoughts in this process are:
How did the patient handle stress?
Does the patient have a support system?
Does the patient need more education on their specific condition?
Is the patient compliant with their medication/diet/exercise regimen?
If not, is the patient able to afford the medicine? Do they understand the reason for the diet and exercise prescribed?
In addition, nurse practitioners are amazing ***TEACHERS***
They teach patients about how to take care of themselves for the future and are gatekeepers when it comes to health promotion behaviors such as screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, immunizations needed and available, gynelogical testing and breast exams for women, prostate screeings for men, colonoscopies, and are especially trained in identifying those in high-risk categories and ensuring these individuals are seen for these essential screenings earlier.

****Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to see links to articles highlighting nurse practitioner outcomes and value as well as a survey.