Nurses and the Classification
Nurses are classified according to their specialization in a particular area of medicine. Before making an application to an NP school, nurses decide speciality in advance. Compared to a physician assistant, nurses differ in the sense that they focus on a particular population, while physician assistants focus on the entire medical field. Nurses need to choose between the different available population foci in medicine. According to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the population foci and sub-specializations detailed in their Consensus Model for APRN Regulation forms the basis of classifying nurses. They include; women’s health and gender-related, paediatrics, Neonatal, Psychiatric -mental health, Family, and Adult-gerontology.
Pediatric and Adult-gerontology populations require NPs to choose between acute or primary care. The difference between the two is that the former requires the short- term urgent care while the latter is concerned with day-to-day healthcare. Besides, NPs that are related to primary care should work in an outpatient clinic, whereas those dealing with acute care should be in the setting of a hospital. Therefore, aspiring NP students should make informed decisions based on the population they are interested in dealing with. For example, when an aspiring NP is involved in handling women’s health, the best choice is to attend a women’s health and gender-related school.
Within the population foci, nurses can further be classified into sub-specializations. The common sub-specialities include emergency medicine, orthopaedics, palliative care, Oncology, Dermatology, Nephrology, Cardiology, Psychosomatic medicine, Surgery, and Holistic care. A good example is where a pediatric specialist chooses to specialize in emergency medicine. On this, a nurse does not require further schooling beyond the population foci. There are only some exceptional cases that require an additional exam certification. Due to this, some schools offer the provision for other programs to certify their students and gain necessary experience in the field. Therefore, nurses can be classified according to their preferred population focus. Sub-speciality is applicable within a given population focus and, in most cases, a nurse does not require additional certification.