Working as a Family Nurse Practitioner can be a wonderfully rewarding job. The variety of working with families and patients from birth can provide extra challenges and keep advanced practitioners learning for years to come.
There is definitely a certain sense of reward when one can follow the progress of a patient from birth right through their life, and of course a sense of pride in knowing that you have provided the very best in end-of-life care, easing the burden on a family at a difficult time.
What are the Duties of a Family Nurse Practitioner?
A Family Nurse Practitioner will provide advanced primary care or specialist nursing care to patients in whatever setting they are working in, be that a hospital setting or another facility. Their duties include such tasks as running diagnostics tests, creating patient care plans, recording medical histories, performing physical exams as well as observing the patients’ response to treatments and making judgement calls where needed.
Nurse Practitioner Responsibilities
- Help provide primary care to patients – this can be at many levels and you will need to work collaboratively with a medical doctor on the team.
- Perform physical exams and patient observations – some FNPs do carry out smaller procedures.
- Record patient medical histories and symptoms – an accurate record of medical notes is vital for patient health both in the short term and for years to come.
- Create patient care plans and contribute to existing plans – especially those patients with chronic care needs.
- Order, administer and analyze diagnostic tests – ordering lab work where it is required will be a vital part of the role of an FNP.
- Detect changes in a patient’s health and change treatment plans as necessary – thinking on your feet with an in-depth knowledge of patient care is critical.
- Administer medicines and treatment – under the supervision of a physician, FNPs may carry out treatment and will administer or manage certain medications.
- Consult with healthcare professionals – a vital role for FNPs is to be able to work collaboratively as a team.
- Train patients and families on managing illnesses – this may be one of the harder parts of the role, gaining the trust of a patient and family to allow you to teach them how to manage chronic illness.
Can FNP Work in a Specialty
A Family Nursing Practitioner will have the good fortune of working with patients at all life stages. From birth to adolescent years, adults, seniors and end of life care. At Baylor University, the DNP FNP programs on offer will expose students to a wide range of experiences, giving a good insight into areas they may wish to specialize in at a later date. These may be such specialisms as neonatal care or women’s health, for example.
A great way for FNPs to specialize their skills is to choose a mentor in an area which interests them whilst they are studying. Being able to have on-the-job experience is a fantastic way to test whether a specialism is the right way to go and, as all aspiring FNPs must complete a set number of clinical practice hours before graduating, being supervised in a particular specialism that interests you is a good way to go.
Residency programs are another way for aspiring Family Nurse Practitioners to further their skills. Whilst these programs are quite new, they give a fantastic insight into other roles within the health care setting and may include areas such as:
- Gastroenterology – digestive medicine
- Oncology – cancer care
- Endocrinology – the study of hormones and the hormone system
- Emergency Medicine
- Surgery
- Cardiology – medicine of the heart and cardiovascular system
- Neurology – diseases of the nervous system
On an Average How Much Does a Family Nurse Practitioner Make?
A Family Nurse Practitioner can expect to earn, on average, a salary of $106,00 per year. This position is usually a salaried position rather than an hourly position, but for hourly FNPs, the range is approximately $51 an hour.
Of course, like all roles, the level of experience and extra qualifications that the FNP has will impact on their salary expectation, location and employer will also play a key role in what you will earn in this role, with some more sought-after locations and more prestigious employers paying more to gain better talent.
It’s worth noting that, although this salary seems like an excellent wage, it is based on the years worked and experience gained by the practitioner. A newly-graduated and licensed practitioner will not expect to command such a high salary, although their salary will not be modest by any means. An average of around $74,000 (similar to that of a registered nurse) will be the expected starting wage.
The salary growth for an FNP is good. NursingProcess.org states that:
“after just five to nine years, that salary increases to $102,370, and after 20 years or more, an FNP will earn $143,520 on average”.
Taking those numbers into consideration it isn’t unreasonable to expect that a Family Nurse Practitioner’s salary may increase by around 7% each year.
This will not be the same for every practitioner, and it will depend greatly on experience, working time, attitude to the job, and personal commitments, but even a modest increase of 3-5% year on year is very respectable.
How Many Hours a Day do Family Nurse Practitioners Work?
The hours which a Family Nurse Practitioner will work will vary greatly depending on the facility at which they are working. The work is usually shift based, comprising of eight hour, ten-hour or twelve-hour shifts. In some facilities (such as Emergency Rooms) these will be over a 24 hour period and FNPs will be scheduled to work across the “graveyard” shift, or night shift. It’s also not uncommon for ERNPs (Emergency Room Nurse Practitioners) to be “on-call” over a 24 hour shift when required.
Whilst FNPs may choose to work overtime, the average working week is similar to most other roles and is usually around the 40 hours per week mark. This does not include FNPs working in Emergency Rooms as these hours can vary greatly.