If you are wondering how you can find the time to become specialized in an area of health care that appeals to you as well as keep your current nursing job, online acute care nurse practitioner programs might be the answer. An online program can make it easy to increase your nursing skills as well as keep working, all at the same time. In addition, the acute care nurse is a crucial member of the critical care team and can offer other team members important information from the nurse’s point of view.

The nurse practitioner career can be as varied or as specialized as you want it to be. The nurse practitioner program online includes courses and studies that apply to the general health of all patients, but each program allows the students to select an area of special interest to study and become an expert in. These areas include pediatrics, women’s health, men’s health, oncology, and hematology as well as many others. As you think about what area may be of interest to you, one area that is in need of nurse practitioners is acute care.

Nurse practitioner programs online, as well as online LPN to RN programs, allow nurses to study acute care. Acute care nurses center their training on patients who are very ill. Critically ill patients can be found both in the hospital as well as in a combination of hospital and clinic and office locations. The acute care nurse can work in the ICU (intensive care unit), emergency room, labs that do specialty work, other hospital wards that focus on acute care or step-down units, or any combination of these locations. The role of the acute care nurse is critical to the positive outcome of these critically ill patient as they are usually the first people to interact with and assist these patients.

Because a nurse practitioner can diagnose and treat medical conditions, they provide invaluable services to patients in these settings. In online nurse practitioner programs, nurses study more advanced methods of assessing patients, diagnosis and differentials, the study of drugs and their interactions, managing patient care, how to read x-rays and lab results, and how to perform certain procedures, among other things.

Nurse practitioner acute care programs prepares nurses to take the national certification exam and most programs focus on critical care, cardio-pulmonary, and emergency department/trauma settings.

Taking nursing programs online can make it possible to become an acute care nurse practitioner in a fraction of the time it takes to become one through traditional schooling options. For most students though, the real advantage of earning a nursing degree online is working at their own pace and keeping their current job. Acute care NP programs can make it possible to keep working and earning money while still studying at your own pace.

Online acute care nurse practitioner programs may appeal to you if you would like to take a more active role in diagnosing illnesses and treating patients. The role of the acute care nurse is ever-changing and varied and comes with a lot of responsibility, but you will also have the opportunity to make real contributions to the care of critically ill or injured patients.

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