Nurse Practitioners

A Nurse Practitioner (NP) is a registered nurse who has completed specific advanced nursing education (generally a master's degree) and training in the diagnosis and management of common as well as complex medical conditions. Nurse Practitioners provide a broad range of health care services.

Nurse Practitioners provide care in offices, family practice offices, urgent care centers, and rural health clinics, and in some states must maintain collaborative working relationships with physicians while in other states the term "collaboration" is used in a broader sense. In the US NPs are licensed by the state in which they practice, and have a national board certification (usually through the American Nurses Credentialing Center or American Academy of Nurse Practitioners). Nurse Practitioners can be trained and nationally certified in areas of pediatrics, geriatrics, family, psychiatry and acute care.

Nurse Practitioners treat both acute and chronic conditions through comprehensive history taking, physical exams, prescribing medications, physical therapy, ordering tests and therapies for patients, within their scope of practice. Many NPs have a DEA registration number that allows them to write prescriptions for federally-defined "controlled medications". Nurse Practitioners may also bill insurance companies for services performed. An NP can serve as a patient's "point of entry" health care provider, and see patients of all ages depending on their designated scope of practice. The core philosophy of the field is individualized care. Nurse Practitioners focus on patients' conditions as well as the effects of illness on the lives of the patients and their families. Informing patients about their health care and encouraging them to participate in decisions are central to the care provided by NPs.*

* Taken from Wikipedia.com