Compare and Contrast Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists - Essay Example

They can specialize with regard to the situation and setting where they want to work that is whether in the emergency room or in acute care settings. They may also be specialized with regard to a particular pathology like cancer or some other disease. Other fields that they can choose include the type of health care which may be mental health or associated with psychotherapy. On the other hand a Nurse Practitioner is another field of nursing in which the nurses are assigned to work in different specialized settings.

The main aim of the nurse practitioner is to provide the most basic healthcare to the patients. They can also opt for specializing in particular fields which include family health, health of the elderly or pediatric health. Psychiatric health is another optional field of specialization that is common to both the nurse practitioner and the clinical nurse specialist. The clinical nurse specialist and the nurse practitioners work in different health care organizations. The clinical nurse specialists are more associated with the hospitals as well as the community healthcare centers.

They may also work in teaching institutions as well as in the offices. They can also be found in the psychiatric health care centers. The nurse practitioners are basically assigned to work with particular doctors and physicians. They may be found mainly in clinics and for outpatient health care departments for the patients. But they may also be found in hospitals. The Clinical Nurse Specialist and the Nurse Practitioner both acquire these positions after doing their masters degree plan. An interesting difference between the two of these fields is that a nurse practitioner is allowed to write out prescriptions whereas a clinical nurse specialist is not allowed to do so.

If he wishes to prescribe than he must obtain a special permission for this purpose. Another major difference seen is that nurse practitioners are mainly seen to be working with physicians and doctors and they also need to have certificates from these physicians which specify the amount of authority that they have with regard to the healthcare services that they can provide. On the other hand, Clinical nurse specialists are mainly seen in organizations like hospitals and they have the work of supervising the nurses and assisting them in providing the best possible care to the patients.

Also the Nurse Practitioner has a greater interaction and communication directly with the patients as they are a part of the outpatient departments and are involved more in basic health care facilities for the patients. On the other hand the Clinical Nurse Specialist works more in a hospital environment and has a lower interaction with individual patients. Clinical Nurse Specialists are also a part of associations and groups of nurses where they work together on joint programs and in collaboration with other nurses.

They are also actively involved in teaching, in providing clinical advice, dealing with patients and are part of researches. Thus they have an all round goal of working in an effective manner to improve the healthcare facilities and provide quality care for the patients. The aim of the Nurse Practit