What is an Advanced Practice Nurse?

There was a time when doctors made “house calls” to treat patients, or when doctors needed meticulous and extensive knowledge of specialized skills for treatments. Now, nurses have taken over those areas of medicine in an expansive and profitable way!

Enter: the Advanced Practice Nurse. An Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) is a Registered Nurse with extensive knowledge, skills, scope of practice, and education in medical and clinical rules, regulations, and procedures. Put simply, an Advanced Practice Nurse is a nurse with a master’s degree.

There are four types of Advanced Practice Nurses – Nurse Practitioners (NPs), Certified Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs), and Certified Nurse Midwifes (CNMs). These Advanced Practice Nurses provide services that were previously handled by full medical doctors.

The wide variety of nursing jobs for Advanced Practice Nurses allows those with more experience to earn $50,000 to $100,000 a year. In fact, experienced Advanced Practice Nurses have the potential to earn more than doctors! Sounds exciting, right?

If you’re looking to enter a career similar to that of a “house-call” doctor and earn money with your extensive medical knowledge, then Advanced Practice Nursing could be the job for you.