There are numerous roles in nursing that require different approaches and education that prepares nurses for the necessary tasks that lie within their duties. All the nurses have at least an RN allowing them to offer basic primary care. Most of the specialized types of nurses described in this essay require a Masters of Science in Nursing. Those choosing to push their career and become more specialized go on to earn a Doctorate, which is strongly recommended for Nurse Educators and is often obtained by NPs for specialized care.
Nurse practitioners can offer primary care with the ability to prescribe medication, order tests, and make diagnoses. Nurse practitioners must have clinical expertise and often specialize in a specific area such as pediatrics or women’s health. Out of the four types of nurses, NPs are the only ones with clinical practice.
Nurse educators offer primary care part-time to keep in touch with basic skills. Nurse informaticists work with systems, using their IT expertise in clinical practice. All the nurses have administrative tasks of various means as their duty. Administrative nurses have a wide range of responsibilities, primarily as executives. They must oversee departments, all the nursing staff. They must have management skills, deal with the budget and financial planning. Managing departments include salaries, scheduling, equipment, services, and patient care. Nurse informaticists work with information systems to keep track of patient records as part of the hospital administration, also having small management roles.
Nurse educators effectively teach nursing to students of various levels academically; they are the faculty at colleges and universities. Other nurse educators are staff at hospitals that offer specialization or refresher courses. They focus on evaluating curriculum and research progress in medicine that can be passed on to their students to improve their skill set or knowledge. Similarly, nurse informaticists deal heavily in research, having to analyze clinical data and trials, as well as the use of new technology and systems.