6 minute read
Family Nurse Practitioners Drawn to Making a Difference
BY JULIA QUINN-SZCESUIL
If you are thinking of a way to get the most from your master’s degree in nursing, pursuing a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) specialization helps nurses gain additional broad skills and experience. Once nurses join the workforce, the FNP’s purposefully broad reach helps with patient care and career progression.
The FNP specialization offers nurses the ability to care for people across the life span, says Marie Smith-East, PhD, DNP, PMHNP-BC, EMT-B, director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program and clinical assistant professor at the Duquesne University School of Nursing. In general, says Smith-East, NP programs focus on a specific patient population such as pediatrics or psychiatric care, or on the type of care, such as acute or ambulatory. Because the FNP specialty focuses on the life span, not a population or type of care, nurses aren’t limited to a specific area when they are looking for a job.
Nurses also find the FNP
empowers them as professionals and as caregivers. For Brenda Collins, PhD, APRN, FNP-C, assistant professor and director of the FNP Program at Alcorn State University, the FNP path offered her a level of autonomy she wanted. As she worked her way up first as an LPN, then an RN, and through her BSN and MSN, she realized the more advanced roles gave nurses more options. “As a nurse, you care for your patients and you teach them,” she says. “As an FNP, you can implement the changes, too. So that means you write the prescriptions, you make the referrals for them, you call social services so you can get the heat put on for them. It’s a greater level of advocacy you are empowered with, and people listen to you. You have the ability to do more.”
Why Choose the FNP?
And as the market shows demand for nurses who can offer high-quality family care, the FNP brings increased career growth. “It’s the drive to do more,” says Gloria Rose, PhD, NP-C, FNP-BC, director of graduate studies and associate professor and coordinator of the FNP Program at Prairie View A&M University. “To pursue the RN to FNP brings greater autonomy, a growth mindset, and professional and personal satisfaction.”
All the Skills You Need
Having a wide range of highquality skills helps the FNP treat patients most effectively by identifying and addressing their needs. “You have to practice cultural
sensitivity—essentially you do that to build the relationship,” says Rose. “You learn about the patient’s culture and offer cultural competence and cultural awareness and sensitivity.” When you approach patients with that in mind, it changes how you speak with them and interact with them. “It makes the patient feel understood,” she says. “You have to be a good listener.”
Additional skills include everything from communication and leadership to excellent assessment, diagnostic, and treatment skills, says SmithEast. Even as FNPs practice more one-on-one patient care, they remain an integral part of a larger team that includes providers and loved ones. Close collaborations allow them to develop a holistic care plan for patients, says Rose. And FNPs must be tremendously skilled at assessing patients across all ages, says Collins, noting it’s a skill nursing students work on. “We want students to be good at assessment,” she says. “If you miss something, it could be life or death.”
Choosing the Right Program
Many FNPs will find their role as an advocate is a crucial piece of how they provide care for patients, particularly underserved populations and patients who may not be as familiar with the health care system. As an FNP, nurses can ensure patients receive the services they most need.
Because each FNP program is different, it’s a good idea to find out about any program’s particulars such as clinical hours (over the required minimum is going to offer more hands-on experience), opportunities to present research Many FNPs will find their role as an advocate is a crucial piece of how they provide care for patients, particularly underserved populations and patients who may not be as familiar with the health care system.
at national conferences, and potential networking with the larger medical community. All of these can lead to job offers for students, says Rose. Professional development opportunities and business courses for FNPs who might want to begin an autonomous practice will help students understand the complex world of entrepreneurship.
The Future with an FNP
The need for primary care providers continues to grow, and FNPs fill this gap. The FNP opens the door to the wide field of primary care and the constant demand provides an advantage over a more focused specialization. “There’s a risk for nurses who are only able to see people in one specialty area,” says Collins. “With the FNP, you can still have an interest in that area, though,
and see patients without limiting yourself.”
When Collins thinks of all the benefits of being an FNP, she says it’s more than
the obvious professional reasons that drive nurses to the career. Making connections with patients and then being able to help them with a wide scope of treatment or services is especially meaningful.
“When nurses talk to a patient, they don’t see a condition right away,” she says. “I might see a 65-yearold grandmother raising three grandkids on a limited income who comes in and says she’s a little short of breath.” With a simple follow-up question of “What brings you here today?”, Collins says she often gleans information in a few short minutes that reveals more about a patient’s systemic health than any list of symptoms ever would. “That’s what makes FNPs standout,” she says. “People want to know you are interested in them. Nurses have power with our compassion.”
Julia Quinn-Szcesuil is a freelance writer based in Bolton, Massachusetts.
