Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Salary

A hospital environment is never complete when one pictures only the doctors and patients. One of the most important personnel who completes this equation is a nurse. The nurses are professionals who play a crucial role in tending to patients when doctors are not around. They also help in rehabilitation of patients and in helping out doctors whenever they see patients. Hence, one cannot underestimate the importance of nursing staff in a hospital. There are many specialty areas for nurses out there. Most common areas of specialty for nurse practitioners in the hospitals include family practice, adult practice, women's health, pediatrics, acute care, and geriatrics. Today, the acute care nurse practitioners are especially in great demand, seeing that they are most well-equipped of all in dealing with an emergency for patients. However, before choosing this specialty, what many nurses aspiring to work in an emergency care unit should know is the salary range for acute care nurse practitioners. Before getting into details about salary range, let us find more on what exactly these professionals have to deal with.

Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Job Description
An acute care nurse practitioner is involved with providing advanced care to those patients suffering from severe illnesses. Although it is one of the most sought after medical jobs, the work of acute care nurses can also turn quite stressful; this is because it requires great patience, grit and commitment to sustain in this field for a long time. Nurses are often required to work in shifts so as to provide coverage in hospitals round the clock. They may even be required to be on call, however, a majority of nurses are associated with ambulatory care positions. Furthermore, if there are emergencies like a crash or disaster, they would be in charge of tending to severely injured patients. Conducting assessment of health of patients on a regular basis is amongst the routine jobs handled by these professionals; they are also in charge of prenatal care.

To become an acute care nurse practitioner, one has to complete a specialized program that lays focus on caring for patients with acute illnesses. Knowledge of advanced pharmacology also is imparted to these students through this program. A full-time program involves 600-hour clinical practice that spreads out across 3 semesters. Those who want to work in this field has to have minimum 1 year experience as an adult acute care nurse.

Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Salary Range
Coming to average salary range of this job, you'll find that the annual median salary in USA is somewhere around USD 80,400. Even those professionals with only a few years of work experience manage to pull somewhere between USD 73,840 and USD 87,000. However, most nurse practitioners exclusively working in emergency settings earn much high salaries; the median expected nurse salary is somewhere around USD 86,802. However, there are many other factors which affect the salary of acute care nurse practitioners; location and kind of employment sector are amongst the important ones. Given below are details regarding average annual salary with respect to department or setting.

Annual Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Salary Based on Department and Setting
Department	Annual Salary (In USD)
Emergency Department	84,835
Surgery	84,084
Neonatal Unit	81,511
Hospital	79,393
Gerontology	77,020
Specialty Setting	76,006

As mentioned earlier, there are many factors which influence the salary of acute care nurses. They are still paid a much higher salary in comparison to other nurses like neonatal nurse practitioners. This is mostly because there is a higher liability risk associated with the job; the reimbursement rates also are quite high. This is a very serious job and it is no wonder that hospitals are always on a lookout for qualified and well-trained nurses for the position. The scope of practice for acute care nurse practitioners is good because as a nurse gains experience, she eventually becomes a skilled acute care nurse. So, if you want to get into a field that pays well and offers an exciting and highly satisfying career opportunity, then the job of acute care nurse practitioner is for you!