The FNP Difference

1. RNs cannot diagnose illnesses, treat patients, prescribe drugs, order diagnostic tests, gather medical histories, perform physical exams, and educate their patients. With the master’s degree and certification, the FNP can do all the above. This role is similar to the family doctor, but the FNP follows the nursing model of health care rather than the medical model. The nursing model includes education and preventive care. You might note that FNPs may prescribe drugs only in some states. In others, they must do so under a physician’s care. If you go on to earn your Doctor of Nurse Practice (DNP), this barrier may be overcome.
2. If you don’t have time or money to become a doctor, the FNP route can provide you with responsibilities, yet also provide you with the ability to spend time with your patients, too.
3. If you want more autonomy, the FNP is the way to go. As a rule, lower-tier nurses must always work under the supervision of a doctor. This is not always the case with nurse practitioners. States that allow NPs to practice independently also allow NPs to open clinics or offices to treat patients.
4. There are more than 250 nurse-run clinics nationwide. Some of these clinics are funded by a special federal program for affordable care. In all of these projects, nurse practitioners offer both primary and preventive care, including mental health services and screening for HIV and diabetes.
5. The ability to offer the nursing model of health care in conjunction with a medical doctor also appeals to some nurses. Prevention and education can help patients stay healthier longer.
6. The FNP fills a need for more accessible health care for families, since fewer physicians are entering that field and many family doctors are retiring. The need is felt in clinics, physicians’ offices, and even in hospitals.
7. The NP has been around for more than 40 years, providing primary care and some acute care to patients throughout the country. An FNP provides high-quality, cost-effective, and individualized care for patients, families, and communities and the FNP fills gaps in at-need communities or in rural areas.
8. FNPs and NPs have become a growing part of lower health costs for various parts of the country. Walk-in clinics, which replace visits to emergency rooms for the uninsured, include care for the uninsured as well as for employees who have self-insured health plans.
9. According to the American Nurses Association, approximately 60 to 80 percent of primary and preventive care can be performed by nurse practitioners. The growing emphasis on prevention and public health will continue to create excellent job opportunities for FNPs.
10. Many states are offering expanded responsibilities to NPs. For instance, on Feb. 2, Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation giving more independence to nurse-midwives practicing in Massachusetts. This bill grants nurse-midwives authority to issue prescriptions and to order and interpret tests independently, while maintaining clinical relationships with doctors.
11. As more nurses obtain their DNP, they also may serve in administrative and political roles. These placements bode well for the NP who is trying to obtain more autonomy and responsibility. It also provides a platform to showcase the importance of the NP and the DNP.
12. NPs and FNPs can become advocates for their patients. In the nursing health care model, the FNP can hear about their patients’ stories — how they came to be in your care and how you can fit your care to the patient within their narrative.

FNP Money and Job Aspects

13. Nursing is the largest health-care occupation and one of 10 occupations projected to have the largest numbers of new jobs annually through 2010. Opportunities should be excellent for nurses with advanced education and training.
14. The salary and benefits of being a nurse practitioner are also much higher than that of a registered nurse, but not as much as the family physician. Since the NP makes less than the GP, but can provide many of the same services, they will find no lack for jobs at many different types of health care facilities.
15. Some health care facilities now are footing the bill for their nurses to earn higher degrees, because the demand for nurses with bachelor’s degrees and higher is growing. This requisite for higher degrees comes from a report that shows how nurses can fill roles within the health care field, but that they need more education to do so.
16. The NP is cost-effective, and their patients are more satisfied with their services than with services provided by the primary MD. There are many research efforts that have shown these results.
17. A looming shortage of 30,000 primary care providers by 2015 leaves space to bump up the numbers of traditional and non-traditional primary care providers, including FNPs.
18. As the need for the FNP grows, job listings will become easier to find. Support services and organizations for networking also are growing.
19. NPs practice in all U.S. states, Canadian provinces and territories and in all Australian states and territories. The institutions in which they work may include nursing homes, private and public schools, retail-based clinics, college clinics, walk-in clinics, hospitals and hospices, community clinics, urgent care centers and about ten other venues. There are no shortages of jobs for the nurse, especially one with an advanced degree.
20. Finally, well-trained nurses, no matter how high the degree, could hold the key to keep many health care facilities open. This ability alone will help maintain public health and healthy communities, and almost guarantees jobs for nurses in many areas.

Blogs By Dr. (and Nurse) Moms

A number of mommybloggesr are also health care professionals. If you are looking for some solid information about family health, you might consider these posts, written by moms who are also doctors and nurses.

1. DoctorMama: Addresses a number of issues related to health on a number of levels — as well as on life.
2. Confessions of a Dr. Mom: Great insights into healthy parenting from a pediatrician.
3. Dr. Gwenn Is In: Great information on raising healthy families from another pediatrician.
4. wife.mom. nurse: This nurse shares insights into life and health.
5. Blog of a Wife, Nurse & Twin Mom: Raise healthy kids with insights from this nurse.
6. Octopus Mom: This RN knows how to juggle responsibilities. She left her job as a nurse, but still has great professional insights.

Healthy Eating

These blogs focus more on healthy eating. You will find nutritional tips, as well as healthy recipes for meals that the whole family will love.

7. Frugal Dr. Mom: This frugal mom has a doctorate — and a passion for cooking. Great recipes, many of them healthy and homemade. Healthy eating on a budget.
8. Foodariffic: Great ideas for fun food that is also healthy (most of the time).
9. Healthy Mom Living With Picky Eaters: A practical blog with great ideas for helping your family eat healthy.
10. $5 Dinners: This site includes a number of health recipes that can help you feed your family for less.
11. A Year of Slow Cooking: Delicious meals, many of them healthy, with help from the crock pot.
12. Gourmet Mom on-the-go: Cook delicious, healthy meals that fit into your daily schedule.
13. Mom’s Kitchen Handbook: Written by a registered dietitian, this blog offers delicious, wholesome recipes and practical nutrition advice for raising healthy eaters.

Physical Activity

Mommybloggers are often interested in physical activity and health. Here are some great blogs that will help you exercise — and help you with tips for encouraging physical activity in your kids.

13. Catherine’s Family Fitness Blog: This mother of two active children offers helpful insights on family fitness.
14. Fitness Blog: Stephanie Romero helps you learn more about family health and fitness.
15. The Happy Runner: Learn how you can be a better runner, and get in better shape. Training tips that can help the whole family.
16. Total Fit Mom: Learn how to get in better shape while playing with your kids.
17. The Wii Mommies: Get fit playing Wii — and do it with the whole family.
18. Kids Exercise Blog: A great resource for those looking to help their kids remain physical active. Not written by a mommyblogger, but this man knows his stuff.

Weight Loss and Eating Disorders

In some cases, the family can become healthier overall with a little weight loss. The following blogs offer helpful suggestions for dealing with eating disorders that may need a little weight gain as well.

19. Escape from Obesity: An inspiring blog for those of all ages.
20. The Sassy Pear: Losing weight, feeling good, and plenty of tips.
21. Eating Disorders Blog: Jane St. Clair offers insight and information on eating disorders.
22. The Blubber Blog: Losing weight — and keeping it off. This blogger had a lap-band procedure.

Going Green

Many people believe that going green can help a family live healthier in general. If you want some ideas for going green, these blogs can provide you with insight, practical tips and more.

23. The Raw Mom Blog: Find out about living greener and healthier.
24. Green and Clean Mom: Practical tips for going green.
25. NatureMoms Blog: Learn more about natural living and its health benefits for the whole family.
26. Mom Goes Green: Learn how you can live greener — and have a healthier family.
27. Mindful Momma: Living green and healthy.
28. Green Mom Happy Mom: Natural solutions and healthy ideas for the family.
29. EcoCrazy Mom: A Mom’s blog on her mission to save Planet Earth!

Healthy Pregnancy

Start your family off right with a healthy pregnancy. Take care of yourself, and expected members of your family, with help from these mommybloggers who know a thing or two about parenting while pregnant.

29. The Baby Bump Project: Great blog about body image and pregnancy.
30. BabyLune: Insights into healthy pregnancy and parenting.
31. a little pregnant: Parenting, infertility and pregnancy.
32. Mama Knows Breast: A look at breast feeding, and its health benefits.
33. New Moms Need: Helpful information on baby and mom health during pregnancy and after from moms working with the March of Dimes.
34. Tiny Playground: Help For New Moms Everywhere: Articles on pregnancy, breastfeeding, childbirth and more.

Stress Relief and Mental Health

It is important to see to the emotional and mental health needs of your family. These blogs focus on relieving stress, as well as promoting better mental health. Helpful resources that can be used to help address all aspects of family health.

34. Manic Mother: Managing depression while raising children.
35. Anxiety Help: Tips for reducing anxiety.
36. Mental Health Blog: Families.com offers great posts on family mental health.
37. Mom Stress Relief: Relieve your stress, and learn about helping others.
38. Anger Management with Children: Teach and practice patience.
39. Parenting Zen: Great tips on stress relief and healthier parenting.
40. Mom 101: Stress relief, parenting and better emotional health.

Parenting Troubled Kids

Another part of family health is learning how to parent troubled kids. These blogs provide insights and hints for effective parenting, and ideas for helping your children and your whole family find balance and better emotional health. Also includes information on raising children with other challenges.

41. Raising Troubled Kids: Margaret shares some helpful hints for parenting troubled children.
42. Parenting Teens: Learn more about parenting teens in a health manner.
43. Denise’s Parenting Teens Blog: Learn about parenting teens, including troubled kids.
44. Mom-Blog: Raising a healthy family when autism and Down syndrome is involved.
45. ADHD Parenting Blog: Kay offers insights on the challenges of parenting a child with ADHD, and provides suggestions.
46. Troubled Teen Blog: Learn more about healthy parenting when you have troubled kids.

Healthy Relationships

Total family health depends on the relationships of family members. Consider these blogs as resources for promoting better, healthier family relationships.

47. ABC’s of a Healthy Marriage: This mother and wife shares thoughts on marriage.
48. Mombian: Developing healthy family relationships as a lesbian mom.
49. Woulda Coulda Shoulda: Great blog on developing healthy relationships in a blended family.
50. Single Mom Seeking: Maintaining health relationships as a single parent, and a single mom.
51. Grandma Home Bloggers: Diverse collection of grandparenting articles, tips, and parenting issues.

1. General Human Anatomy:Offered by Berkeley, this class focuses on the functional anatomy of the human body.
2. Introduction to Biology: This course from MIT is basic biology.
3. Introduction to Health Policy: This course from Johns Hopkins explores the basic issues in health policy and management.
4. Human Growth and Development: Tufts University offers this course on how humans develop and grow.
5. Adolescent Health and Development: Another course from Johns Hopkins, this course covers the development of the adolescent body.
6. Cardiovascular Pathophysiology: This course from Tufts offers an in depth look at the cardiovascular system.
7. Musculoskeletal Pathophysiology: This course from Tufts offers an in depth look at the human musculoskeletal system.
8. Renal Pathophysiology: Learn how the kidneys function and adapt to disease in this course from Tufts University.
9. Introduction to Human Nutrition: This course from Berkeley gives you an overview of basic nutritional requirements.
10. Genetics: This course from Tufts covers basic human genetics, including how they contribute to disease.
11. Images of Memorable Cases: 50 Years at the Bedside: This course from Connexions is a study in the art and science of medical diagnosis.
12. Epidemiology of Infectious Disease: This course from Johns Hopkins explores infectious disease epidemiology.
13. America’s Battle for the Cure: The Culture and Politics of Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment: This course from Columbia University explores the politics and culture that surround breast cancer in the United States.
14. General Psychology: An introduction to General Psychology from Berkeley.
15. Aging Health and Diversity: These podcasts from Berkeley explore aging and how different cultures embrace it.
16. Health Issues for Aging Populations: This course from Johns Hopkins explores aging and health policy related to treating older persons.
17. Ethical Issues in Public Health: This course from Johns Hopkins explores ethics in healthcare.
18. Diabetes Mellitis: Diagnosis and Pathophysiology: This course from Tufts University explores diagnosing and treating diabetes, one of America’s most prevalent chronic diseases.
19. Impact of Pandemic Influenza on Public Health: This course from Johns Hopkins explores the public impact of an influenza pandemic.
20. Biological Agents of Water and Foodborne Bioterrorism: This course from Johns Hopkins explores the possibility of bioterrorism through food and water borne illness.
21. Environmental Health: This course from Johns Hopkins explores environmental concerns and the health problems associated with them.

There is a lot to learn for family nurse practitioners. Since they often take care of patients of every age, from administering vaccines to healthy babies to helping older patients deal with chronic and serious illnesses, the family nurse practitioner needs a broad knowledge base in healthcare. These are just some of the areas of knowledge you’ll need to build in order to be able to handle family medical needs for patients of all ages and varying degrees of health.
The family nurse practitioner is definitely in high demand these days, and there’s every reason to believe that the field will continue to grow as demand for healthcare increases and as the population becomes more comfortable with turning over more and more healthcare needs to nurse practitioners. This is definitely a field for the future. If you’re up to the challenge, consider one of the degree programs in this field after you’ve checked out all these free courses you can find on the web.

• WebMed SymptomChecker:  This tool is a great resource for information about symptoms of illnesses and diseases but is not intended to be used as treatment. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
• Health Calculators: These tools are to help and assess the function of your body to ensure you are healthy. Tools like the pregnancy calculator and the ovulation calculator demystify crucial bio cycles. You can also figure out some fun facts with the Body Fluids Volumes calculator and Surface Area Calculator. However, these calculators are only for informational purposes and are never meant as a substitute for professional advice or as medical diagnosis.
• MediLexicon Tools: MediLexicon tools provide searches, information, news, and resources for the medical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare professions. The following medical searches, medical dictionary listings, and resources are available for free use within this website. With help of this tool there medical news, medical abbreviations, and searches that can be done for other medical tools.
• Medical News Gadget: This gadget is for useful purposes, such as the iGoogle homepage or can be used from this page. It is an easy method to access the latest medical and health stories from Medical News Today. This Gadget pulls up the best information on every category employing RSS technology. The gadget lets users select four shortcut tabs from the favorite medical news categories.
• Online Medical Dictionary: It is a free online medical dictionary search engine for definitions of medical terminology, pharmaceutical drugs, healthcare equipment, health conditions, medical devices, specialty terms, and medical abbreviations. Medical Dictionary Online is provided at no cost and should be used for educational and informative purposes and not be used for medicinal usages and purposes.
• Epocrates MedSearch Tool: The Epocrates MedSearch Tool allows a user to instantly access clinical information on thousands of prescriptions, over-the-counter and herbal drugs, along with hundreds of diseases and conditions. This tool, with the help of provided medical guidance, can be put on a website of a company, hospital, group, or association’s internet/intranet site, blog, or wiki.
• Symptom Checker: This tool is provided by the Mayo Clinic, and it can answer very general medical questions like reasons that cause foot pain or reasons for a child’s sore throat. This is a phenomenal guide to learn about the most common reasons for diseases. The Mayo Clinic has a dedicated mission of empowering people to manage their health. This tool is developed by web professionals as well as medical experts.
• Pregnancy Calendar: This tool is provided on this website to track your baby’s development each month. This tool is provided only for educational purposes. It is intended only for educational purposes and should not be used to replace medical advice from your physician. There are many tools like Facebook apps, ovulation calculators, recipe finder, ask the experts, baby name finder, birth plan, and a BMI calculator.
• GlobalRPh.com: This is a hospital-wide intranet that is located at the VA Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan. Several programs on this site are rated number one based on many criterion. On the website, many tools related to medical importance like Drug Tables, Dilution Protocols, Laboratory Values, and Medical Calculators are provided.

To begin with the nurse must have an associate degree under their belt. The only way one can get this is by putting in a minimum of 70 semester hours either online or at a college or campus of their choice. In order to get the necessary certification, the nurse must then obtain a license after they have passed the National Council Licensure Examination. This gives the nurse the legal platform to carry out all that their course entails though they are still far from being a family nurse practitioner. The next step is to earn a Bachelor of Science degree form an accredited institution.

There are numerous programs under this category and they include pharmacology, nursing, community and family health. The right course should be chosen before the nurse in waiting can proceed. From here the next step is to earn yourself masters in the relevant field then the nurse now has an upper hand with regards to salary potential and employment opportunities. The masters should however be in the family medicine category because the more the nurse specializes then the better. This is an interesting career option and the opportunities it affords all those that take it on are almost limitless regardless of the environment they operate in across the globe. The FNP can work in both private and state funded health care system with the only driving force behind this career choice being the health and well being of the patient.

Once the FNP in waiting has completed their masters than it is time to get all the necessary certification from all the relevant boards. To begin with there is the American Academy Of Nurse Practitioners that asserts that the nurse is indeed qualified and in a position to carry out all the procedures they have been taught in school. Then there is the American Nurses Credentialing Center. This is the next step for all those interested in taking their career further and the only thing that the nurse needs is to pass their certification exam and they are finally a fully fledged Family Nurse Practitioner. All these credentials must be acquired from the relevant organizations though in some cases they tend to vary from state to state.

The minute all the necessary paper work is in the bag so to speak then the nurse is on a higher platform with regard to career options and salary increments. The FNP is a career that is in high demand and as with any other the more specialized one is then the better. This may sound like a difficult career option but it is highly rewarding and the salary is just as good.