Nurse Practitioner

Common tasks

• Maintain complete and detailed records of patients' health care plans and prognoses.
• Develop treatment plans, based on scientific rationale, standards of care, and professional practice guidelines.
• Provide patients with information needed to promote health, reduce risk factors, or prevent disease or disability.
• Analyze and interpret patients' histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
• Prescribe medication dosages, routes, and frequencies, based on such patient characteristics as age and gender.
• Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
• Diagnose or treat chronic health care problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
• Prescribe medications based on efficacy, safety, and cost as legally authorized.
• Recommend diagnostic or therapeutic interventions with attention to safety, cost, invasiveness, simplicity, acceptability, adherence, and efficacy.
• Detect and respond to adverse drug reactions, with special attention to vulnerable populations such as infants, children, pregnant and lactating women, or older adults.

Most important skills

Critical Thinking

Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.

Complex Problem Solving

Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.

Reading Comprehension

Reading work-related information.

Active Listening

Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.

Active Learning

Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.

Judgment and Decision Making

Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.

Monitoring

Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.

Writing

Writing things for co-workers or customers.