How to become a nurse practitioner, what are the prerequisites, how Research Paper

How to become a nurse practitioner, what are the prerequisites, how much money and how long it will take me - Research Paper Example A nurse practitioner is a high level nursing profession so it needs a properly acquired higher education. They can proceed like normal physicians due to the extensive knowledge they have acquired while becoming a nurse practitioner. They give primary care to the patients in hospitals and can diagnose or treat patients as well. The main responsibilities of nurse practitioners are to perform physical tests, prescribe physical therapy, ordering of diagnostic tests and other related errands. The major information which I required about this career is the education needed for being a nurse practitioner. Upon researching about the educational requirements for this career I came to know a lot about the career itself. It is not at all an easy task to become nurse practitioner because plenty of hard work and time is needed to become a good nurse. To become a nurse practitioner a master degree is required but in order to get that, first he or she needs to complete all the prerequisites in orde r to further carry on with the higher education. The prerequisite for master is a bachelors of science in nursing (BSN). The curriculum that BSN follows includes the course of anatomy, physiology, nutrition, microbiology and nursing. BSN completes in four years time just like other degrees. Additionally, the candidate for this program has to be a current license registered nurse. In order to get this license there is a criterion to follow, which varies from state to state. But usually what the candidate requires is the completion of an approved nursing program, passing the exam of National Council Licensure Examination or NCLEX-RN and last but not the least they need to have clinical experience in this field. After completion of degree, the applicants now need to complete Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree from an approved nursing program. The main aim of this degree is to prepare the student for specialty in a specific field and primary care. There are various topics that ar e taught in this program which include pathophysiology, advance nursing practice, ethics and other related courses. A Masters of Science in nursing degree is a minimum requirement for becoming a nurse practitioner. Even though master’s degree is enough in order to get into the profession of nurse practitioner but still most students do opt to get admission in doctoral degree program so that it helps them in increasing their career opportunities and expertise. This doctoral program teaches the students advanced methods of how to take care of the needs of the patients. It also helps them to pursue career in teaching and make difference in the field of teaching as well. The general topics that are taught in this doctoral program are capstone project, leadership, behavior complexity and population health. All these courses are taught to enhance the knowledge of these nurses so that they can use this knowledge to help other people and also to pass on this to their students. Other then the information about the education the next question which is also equally important is that how much time all of this takes. As a bachelors degree in nursing is required for this which is of four years, we can straight away add four years to this time. After this the Masters of Science degree in nursing is required which takes almost two to three years. Now, by simply adding up