As a family physician, a family nurse practitioner looks after patients throughout their lives, doing checkups, identifying illnesses, and giving medications.
In addition, a family nurse practitioner can operate a solo practice and represent patients as their sole health care professional.
The client’s family nurse practitioner is permitted to diagnose accurately and treatment of the patient in addition to caring for them. Family nurse practitioners are highly regarded in the healthcare world.
According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, almost 70% of nurse practitioners (NPs) have selected family medicine as their major field of specialization.
If you’re unfamiliar with the field, you might be thinking, “What is a family nurse practitioner?” An advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who caters to individuals of every age, from babies to the old, is known as a family nurse practitioner (FNP).
A family nurse practitioner (FNP) is one of the various NPs specializing in multiple patient care areas.
The initial step toward becoming an FNP is to get a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. Candidates need to become RNs after receiving an associate’s degree in nursing (ADN) or a bachelor’s certificate in nursing (BSN).
To become an RN, you will first pass the National Council Licensing Examination (NCLEX) and then seek to license with your state’s medical regulatory authority.
Those who study what a family nurse specialist is will discover that they have a variety of master’s degrees to pick from to acquire an FNP.
For their master’s degree in nursing, RNs can choose from various authorized schools, institutions, and universities. An online Master of Science in Nursing is the most common degree (MSN).
Challenges Faced by Family Nurse Practitioners:
1. Unfair Financial Compensation
Both nurses and doctors believe that family nurses should be free to practice to the fullest length of their education since this would increase the quality of primary healthcare provided to patients and the availability of treatment.
This accord, however, comes to a stop here because the payment offered to family nursing practitioners is far lower than that paid to physicians doing the same activity.
The argument is that there is a significant difference in the financial reimbursement between doctors and nurses.
However, t nurses believe that they should be paid the same as they perform similar tasks. According to their perception, the doctors believe they are more highly qualified than nurses and can suggest a better healthcare plan for any age group.
2. Lack of Growth in Career
Nurses with special or advanced education have no specialized growth prospects in the healthcare system. Nurses are grouped into a large group, with registered nurses at the bottom and superintendent at the top.
In this aspect, development is made along operational lines. This is an unfortunate scenario since it leads to all veteran professional nurses joining management searching for higher opportunities.
As a result, health institutions are deprived of the experience of senior professionals who could usually contribute significantly to the standard of treatments.
3. The Inability to Work Independently
Getting the information you require from your overseeing physician might be challenging if you reside in a jurisdiction where you can’t practice independently. You may frequently feel overlooked, which can cause worry.
Due to this problem, many family nurses perceive their jobs to be less enjoyable. It’s terrible enough that it’s affecting your practice.
Remember this on your first day as an FNP. This aspect of the work will undoubtedly irritate you, but you are not the only one. Many FNPs and non-profits are working for full practice authorization for FNPs in every country.
4. Imbalanced Power and Hierarchy
It’s no mystery that nurse-doctor interactions can be unpleasant, whether you’re a nurse, a healthcare professional, or a doctor.
This isn’t only a problem for doctors. This may also be found in the nursing environment. Working with other nursing staff who have more expertise or have been at your occupation position for older than you can help maintain the dominance.
This is typically due to the old hierarchical health industry, which could become one of the most challenging aspects of becoming a nurse practitioner.
In theory and technically, you may have complete freedom to offer treatment to your patients individually.
Still, the persons you interact with may nitpick, appear to lack faith in you, interfere with your professional judgments, and otherwise create hurdles in delivering the sort of care you want.
Although not all employees will be like this, you may have productive and powerful connections with those you engage with.
Competition
Though family nurse practitioners can perform similar tasks as physicians, doctors see them as rivals for specific reasons.
The self-obsession of the medical physicians that they have better and superior qualifications than a nurse creates a rivalry among the two professions.
Even though the poll results were released over a decade earlier, experts believe that similar practices still exist in the workplace and even appear on social networks these days.
Professionals from the healthcare business still think that nurse practitioners (NPs) do not give an equivalent quality of care as doctors when it pertains to advanced practice nurses (APNs).
As per 2014, from the Internet Journal of Health Care management, any dispute among physicians and nurses can significantly impact the efficiency of patient treatment, work satisfaction, and worker wellness.
Conclusion
A job as a family nurse practitioner is demanding yet gratifying. As you mature, you will continue to discover more about yourself and everyone else.
These obstacles of becoming a professional nurse are meant to educate and assure you, not to terrify you. There will never be a profession that isn’t difficult at times.
Knowing what problems family nurse practitioners face and how to overcome them will help you develop fortitude, grow, and become a greater nurse.