Different types of NPs?

[AlisonBSN]

I posted a thread asking which type of RN experience was best for becoming an NP. I got great responses, but now I have more questions. Someone said that for FNP, working in a doctor's office or home health would be best, and for Acute Care NP, hospital experience would be good. Since I'm new to the nursing profession, I guess I didn't realize there were different types of NPs beyond adult and peds. I guess my idea of nurse practitioners were actually FNPs, so what does the Acute Care NP do?

Are there still more types of NPs?

I'm not even sure which kind of program my school offers. It just has the title of Nurse Practitioner...I think. Is there just a plain "Nurse Practitioner" title also?

*** I just looked it up on my school's website, and the exact title is Adult Nurse Practitioner. "The ANP graduate will have the practice skills necessary to provide primary care to diverse populations of adults in a variety of health care settings."

So...does that mean that it's more similar to FNP or Acute Care NP? Or is it something else altogether, and if it is something else altogether, which type of RN work experience would be best for the Adult Nurse Practitioner?

Oh goodness. Thanks for reading!

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

Hi Alison! I noticed nobody responded yet. Read my response to MVANZ on the thread FNP vs ACNP in the NP forum. My response there pretty much summed up the ACNP training, role, and employment settings. You can PM me too if you wish to ask specific questions about ACNP's.

Sorry don't know much about FNP other than graduates can care for patients across all ages and that primary care covering a broad range of medical problems is the focus. My school also didn't offer that option so I had no way to interact with students in that program to even know what the training involves. However, I know a little bit about ANP. Some programs call that Adult Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (that's how it's called in my school). It is similar to ACNP in that the NP is trained to care for adults (in some cases, persons ages 13 and above). However, the focus is on primary care rather than acute care.

Clinical placements for students in the ANP are in out-patient settings mostly (for ACNP's, it's mostly hospital clinical placements). The ANP program at my school runs a nurse-managed primary care center affiliated with the University Hospital. They also run a student health center at the university. Both centers are staffed by ANP faculty in the school and are used as clinical placements for the ANP students.

Other tracks for NP's are Women's Health, Adult or Pediatric Psychiatric and Mental Health, Pediatric, and Neonatal. There may be other programs with other names in other schools. However, the NP roles I mentioned are the only ones where one can receive a certification on.

[KEVO05]

I'm doing NNP...hopefully.