As the demand for Nurse Practitioners has increased, the variety of NP specialties has also grown. While the majority of NPs provide primary care, nearly one-third of the NP workforce currently provides specialty care. Provided below is a list of the current NP specialties along with an explanation of how and where they are used.
What are the types of NPs?
Primary Care NP Specialties
Adult Nurse Practitioners (ANP) – provide primary health care to adolescents through the senior years. ANPs can practice in several clinical settings, including family practices, rural clinics, home health services, and occupational health clinics. 20% of all NPs are ANPs.
Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)– provides comprehensive health services to patients of all ages. FNPs practice in many settings, including family practices, student health services, occupational health clinics, home health services, rural clinics, and child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric sites. Roughly 70% of all NPs are FNPs.
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP)– provides comprehensive healthcare exclusively to children (ages 0-18 or 0-21). PNPs practice in a variety of settings, including outpatient pediatric clinics, health departments, preschools or elementary schools, private pediatric practices, and community agencies.
The NPs listed below can only work in their board-certified specialty:
Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP) – provides comprehensive care to pre-term and full-term infants through the first few years of their lives. NNPs can practice independently in an intensive neonatal hospital setting or in private practices outside the acute care setting.
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) – provides counseling and psychopharmaceutical management to individuals, groups, and families. PMHNPs can treat youth, adolescents, adults, and seniors in a variety of practice settings, such as home health agencies, community mental health centers, inpatient psychiatric facilities, private psychiatric practices, schools, and correctional facilities. 3% of NPs are PMHNPs.
Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP) –provides primary health care to women of all ages. Prenatal management, family planning, fertility, uro-gynecology, and well-woman care. WHNPs can serve in a variety of practice settings, including but not limited to adult/internal medicine, family planning clinics, and ambulatory OB-GYN clinics.
Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner/Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (WHNP/ACPCNP) – treats acute and chronic adult health problems and meets the unique health care needs of women, including gynecologic health. WHNP/ACPCNPs serve in a variety of practice settings, including adult/internal medicine, OB-GYN, family planning, ambulatory care, community, private, and specialty clinics.
The NPs listed below are trained to work in the hospital as a hospitalist or in the ER or ICU, but they can also work in primary care or other specialties:
Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (ACNP) – provides treatment for the brief but severe episodes of illness, injury, or trauma. ACNPs practice in a variety of settings, including emergency departments, intensive care units, operating rooms, specialty labs, long-term care facilities, and home healthcare settings.
Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) – provides care to acutely ill adults and aging adults in both hospitals and clinics. AGACNPs focus on managing current and ongoing problems and preventing complications. AGACNPs can practice in a variety of settings, including the emergency department, intensive care unit, specialty labs, acute and sub-acute care wards, and specialty clinics.
Emergency Nurse Practitioner – meets the growing needs of emergency departments in treating children, adults, and seniors with urgent primary care needs, critical illnesses, injuries, or trauma. This specialty is a dual focus Family Nurse Practitioner and Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner specialty. Emergency Nurse Practitioners serve patients in many practice settings, including critical access hospitals, main emergency departments, urgent care clinics, and fast-track emergency departments.
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Acute Care (PACNP) – provides care to acutely ill children. A few settings where PACNPs can practice include pediatric emergency departments, pediatric hospital services, pediatric sedation services, and pediatric ICUs.
Please Note: Some NPs are dually certified, for example, they are an FNP and PMHNP, so they can do everything a PMHNP and everything an FNP can do. Some also have a DNP-Doctorate NP. All NPs have an MSN/Master’s in Science in Nursing. CNSs/clinical nurse specialists can sometimes be used interchangeably with NPs (though they are trained differently).
Understanding the different types of NPs helps healthcare facilities hire more strategically.
Nurse practitioners play a vital role across primary, specialty, acute, women’s health, pediatric, neonatal, and psychiatric care, as well as emergency settings, making the profession far more diverse than many healthcare employers and candidates realize. Understanding the different NP types, certification tracks, and clinical environments helps healthcare organizations hire more strategically. Furthermore, as demand for accessible, high-quality care continues to grow, knowing how each NP specialty is used can improve recruitment, workforce planning, and patient access.
Understanding the different opportunities for Nurse Practitioners helps providers choose the path that best matches their training and long-term career goals.
With national reach, experience placing NPs, PAs, and physicians, and relationships across more than 1,000 health systems, NOW Healthcare Recruiting helps healthcare organizations identify the NP specialty that best fits their patient population while helping candidates find roles aligned with their training, goals, and long-term success. In a competitive market, that kind of specialty-specific recruiting support can shorten hiring timelines, improve match quality, and lead to stronger long-term placements.
Resources
*http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/853478_2