Most nurse practitioner schools online offer a variety of specializations in the field of nursing. A family nurse practitioner program is a generalized advanced study in nursing that allows you to work closely with patients of all age groups with the ability to diagnose, treat and counsel patients just like a medical doctor. When it comes to the family nurse practitioner program, this is a vast area of study with several basic elements.
Here, advanced anatomy and physiology are two of the topics that this kind of nursing program comes with. As this course is developed for individuals who have undergone a bachelor’s degree in nursing, this course will serve as a brief review of the human anatomy and physiology. You will also learn about the miniscule elements of the human body in this case.
Another fundamental aspect of a family nurse practitioner program is primary care or health care. Before you engage in this program, you will have earned a bachelor’s degree which means that you already know the basics of primary care. When it comes to primary care, advanced applications will be discussed through this program.
Regardless of the nurse practitioner program that you choose, you will deal with techniques used to assess health conditions as this is necessary before any treatment is given to patients. A course called advanced health assessment will introduce you to various methods used for making patient assessments. You will also get a re-briefing of health assessment aspects when it comes to this.
Adult and elderly patients will take up most of your time in family nursing even if you can also deal with younger patients here. Since this is the case, adult and geriatric care will be included in your education. When it comes to this, you will learn about assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients aged over 12.
To be able to have a better grasp on diagnosing patients, one of the basic subjects includes advanced pathophysiology. In order to come up with an accurate diagnosis and the right kind of patient care, you first have to figure out the pathophysiology of the condition. In this case, you will be dealing with pediatric and adult diseases.
The kind of work done by family nurse practitioners involves medical prescriptions and because of this, they also have to take up a course in advanced pharmacology. Undergraduate programs normally focus on the nursing element that applies to the provision of meds. However, as nurse practitioners, you must be able to study the full specifications of a drug so that you can prescribe medications properly.
When it comes to the family nurse practitioner program, you will be dealing with a lot of research. Some programs require their students to create a thesis as part of the requirements for completion of the study. This combines practical skills, critical-thinking and the use of research methodologies.
Clinical hours are important in this case because you are dealing with work that is hands-on. Adequate experience in healthcare institutions will be required from the students in this case. Healthcare experience is what you should have for this program.
Depending on the nurse practitioner schools, the fundamental course work may vary. Here is where specializations in nursing can also be considered. However, the basic subjects such as anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology and health care are still part of the fundamental course work, whatever specialization it may be.
