Advance Practice Nurses
Advanced Practice Nurses are usually nurses who have advanced degrees such as
a master's degree or even a doctorate in a particular specialty such as
anesthesia and surgical assistant.
Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists specialize in a particular
area of practice such as psychology, Emergency Medicine, Critical Care or even
Family Practice and Gerontology.
This is a short list of advance practice nursing. I plan to add others as I
learn about them:
Nurse Anesthesiologist
A growing advance practice area for nursing. Historians will note that nurses
were the first medical professionals to administer anesthesia in the 1860's.
A recent article highlighted an increased demand and higher than average
earnings for this specialty.
Nurse
Anesthesiologist
Nurse Practitioner
A rapidly growing advanced practice nursing specialty with many sub-branches
including oncology, family practice, emergency, psychiatric and pediatric nurse
practitioners.
Nurse Practitioner
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Look around you at almost every nursing organization from a clinic to actual
membership organizations and you are likely to find Clinical Nurse Specialists.
While relatively new to nursing these masters and above prepared nurses function
in a variety of settings.
Clinical
Nurse Specialist
Registered Nurse First Assistant or RNFA
Somewhere in an operating room near you a highly specialized operating room
nurse may be working. These Nurse First Assistants assist with suturing, and
other critical skills once reserved for surgeons only.
Registered Nurse First Assistant
Locum Tenens
Because they often fall into the same professional status as physicians advanced
practice nurses who travel often are referred to as Locum Tenens which is a
latin term that means temporary place holder. A travel nurse for example is a
Locum Tenens
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