10 Essential Nurse Practitioner Skills
Registered nurses (RNs) already have much of the expertise that nurse practitioners (NPs) rely on in their practice. However, there are also nurse practitioner skills specific to advanced practice that NPs must have to serve the complex needs of patients. Here is a look at 10 essential nursing skills of NPs.
Jump to:
- Clinical Nurse Practitioner Skills
- Scientific and Analytical Nurse Practitioner Skills
- Leadership Skills
- Policy Skills
Clinical Nurse Practitioner Skills
An NP’s scope of practice is broader than an RN’s, meaning that they must possess a number of additional clinical skills. The skills needed to be a nurse practitioner are fundamental for advanced practice nursing and allow NPs to provide primary and preventive patient care. In states that allow full practice authority, NPs can diagnose conditions and prescribe medications without physician supervision.
1. Assessment and Diagnosis
Patient assessment and diagnostic reasoning are among the required skills of a nurse practitioner that go beyond an RN’s duties. NPs must be able to conduct a comprehensive physical exam and order diagnostic tests when necessary to get a full picture of a patient’s health. With this information, they should be able to make a list of potential differential diagnoses to determine the best workup, treatment plan and follow-up care. NPs must be able to interpret data from the history and physical as well as diagnostic results to inform their decisions about treatment.
2. Formulating of Treatment Plans
NPs must be able to formulate treatment plans for their patients. This advanced practice nurse skill can require factors such as a patient’s personal and family medical history, lifestyle, culture, financial hardships, familial obligations, religious beliefs, allergies and sensitivities. NPs need to use critical thinking skills and cultural competency to shape treatment plans that meet the unique needs of the individual patient to promote optimal health outcomes. A treatment plan is only as good as the consistency with which the patient follows it, and NPs must consider how easy or difficult it will be for a patient to incorporate treatment into their lifestyle.
3. Patient Education
Another essential nurse practitioner skill is patient education. Nurses of all levels of seniority and specialty must be skilled in providing patient education. They do this by explaining procedures and aftercare, describing medical conditions in terms that patients can understand and educating patients on treatment plans. Especially in chronic disease management — a condition that afflicts roughly 6 in 10 adults — NPs must educate patients on the ways their lifestyle can impact their condition and counsel them on lifestyle modification. Good patient education is critical to patient health outcomes because patients who understand their condition and treatment plan are more likely to adhere to treatment.
Scientific and Analytical Nurse Practitioner Skills
NPs must possess an advanced set of scientific and analytical competencies to allow them to conduct and examine research to inform their practice and benefit patients.
4. Interpreting and Translating Research Into Practice
Health care research is an ever-changing landscape with new findings emerging every day. An essential NP skill is interpreting research to adapt standards of practice as medicine evolves. Not all research findings are conclusive, nor are all studies equally credible. NPs can evaluate research for quality and apply credible findings where appropriate to improve patients’ outcomes.
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5. Generating Knowledge From Practice Experience
Conversely, NPs must also use their experience to expand knowledge on advanced-practice nursing. While there is a value and place for theoretical research in the advancement of the medical field, there is also a need for real-world data gathered outside the lab to inform evidence-based guidelines and best practices. NPs should be able to identify quality improvement opportunities from observations and data gathered in clinical practice. They should also be able to identify whether potential improvements brought about via medical innovations are relevant to their scope of practice prior to implementation. Doctorally prepared NPs often conduct translational research to examine how best practices can be implemented in real-world settings to improve quality.
6. Applying and Developing Technology and Information Systems
The evolution of health care is accelerating due to technology used both for the delivery of care and for documentation and records. NPs must have the technical skills to use these tools, but also the ability to inform their configuration and improvement. Few technological solutions can be used “off the shelf” — they must be customized to fit the needs of a particular care setting, patient population and staff. An essential NP skill is the ability to inform these processes by advocating for the needs of patients and staff in technology implementation.
Leadership Skills
As advanced-practice nurses, NPs are positioned to lead discussions on patient care. Patient outcomes can be affected by not only nursing practice but also nurses’ working conditions. Leadership is one of the essential nurse practitioner skills needed for decision-making in these two arenas to improve quality outcomes in health care.
7. Advocating for Patients and Health Care Professionals
Nurses have some of the closest, most trusted relationships with patients, making them ideal advocates. NPs must be able to leverage these relationships to advocate on behalf of patients as they seek insurance coverage for necessary procedures and accommodations for medical conditions. Similarly, NPs should be able to advocate for improvements to the working conditions of their teams, to reduce opportunities for error that can lead to poor health outcomes, and to reduce nurse burnout, which can exacerbate staffing shortages.
8. Coordinating and Transferring Care Between Various Providers
NPs working in primary care often work collaboratively with specialists such as nutritionists, cardiologists, endocrinologists and pulmonologists to coordinate care for their patients. Managing a complex care team and ensuring proper communication among the providers are some of the most critical NP skills to develop.
Policy Skills
NPs must be able to lend their expertise to policymakers who may not be aware of shortcomings in current health care policy and opportunities to improve patient outcomes.
9. Developing Health Policy to Advance Practice and Improve Outcomes
NPs need to understand how health policy is developed and contribute to positive initiatives with evidence-based recommendations. They must know how to work with legislators and the various advocacy channels available to build consensus and approval for policies that will improve patients’ lives and health.
10. Evaluating and Identifying Improvement Opportunities
To advance policy improvement, NPs must have the analytical and critical thinking skills to evaluate existing clinical practices and identify opportunities for improvement. By analyzing current protocols and procedures, NPs can develop and advocate for solutions and policy changes that support quality improvement. NPs may also be able to identify when policy has had a negative effect on patient outcomes or operational efficiencies, and then recommend potential solutions.
Nurse Practitioner Job Outlook
The NP job outlook is strong. Between 2023 and 2033, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that positions for NPs will grow by 46%. This is substantially higher than the 4% job growth that the BLS projects for the job market as a whole in the same time frame.
NPs can specialize in a variety of types of care. Below are some NP specialties with job outlook data for each.
Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) and Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP-PC)
The job outlook for family nurse practitioners (FNPs) and pediatric nurse practitioners in primary care (PNP-PCs) is very strong—just one of the benefits of becoming an FNP. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projects a shortfall of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. This ongoing shortage has already had a notable impact, with roughly 83 million Americans currently living in areas underserved by physicians. Because primary care providers are in high demand but short supply, these nurse practitioner skills are needed across the country. This is particularly the case in rural areas, 65% of which suffer from a primary care physician shortage
Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) and Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP)
Adult-gerontological nurse practitioners (AGACNPs) and adult-gerontological primary care nurse practitioners (AGPCNPs) can treat any adult aged 18 and older; however, the exponential growth of the gerontological population due to aging baby boomers demands that more providers be available to treat the many health concerns that come with advanced age. A major driver of this demand stems from the correlation between older adults and chronic conditions.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1 in 6 people living in the United States were 65 and older in 2020, while data from a 2022 National Council on Aging (NCOA) study found that 94.9% of adults 60 and older had at least one chronic condition. It is no wonder that AGACNPs and AGPCNPs are in high demand.
Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)
More than 1 in 5 Americans was living with a mental health condition in 2022, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). These estimates also indicate that just about half of adults received treatment. Furthermore, the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that just 20% of adolescents received therapy in 2022. These figures are undoubtedly exacerbated by the ongoing opioid epidemic and the mental health crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) are needed to close the gaps in mental health care facing Americans, using their unique PMHNP skills and expertise to help patients mitigate the challenges associated with mental health.
Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP)
Like primary care, women’s health care is generally in higher demand in rural areas. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) projects a 49% shortfall of OB-GYN specialists in nonmetropolitan areas by 2037, substantially surpassing the initial 2030 shortage projections proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2021. This leaves a substantial gap for women’s health nurse practitioners (WHNPs) to step into in order to provide the crucial care women need.
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Are You Ready to Develop Your Nurse Practitioner Skills?
The NP field offers many career paths, each with its own rewards. Rockhurst University’s online nursing programs, which are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), give students the essential nurse practitioner skills they need to achieve their career goals. Rockhurst offers a variety of programs for aspiring nurses looking to make a career change into the nursing field, working nurses who want to advance as NPs (MSN-FNP: Master of Science in Nursing – Family Nurse Practitioner, MSN-AGACNP: Master of Science in Nursing – Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner or MSN-PMHNP: Master of Science in Nursing – Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner), and MSN-prepared nurses ready to become FNPs (with an FNP post-master’s certificate) or add an AGACNP post-master’s certificate or a PMHNP post-master’s certificate to their credentials.
With three intakes per year, part-time and full-time flexibility and the ability to complete coursework anywhere, Rockhurst’s online graduate nursing programs (with on-campus immersions) can be a great fit for working nurses who want to further their education without relocating or pausing their employment. If you’re ready to hone your essential nursing skills for a career as an NP, learn more about Rockhurst’s online nursing programs.
