Advanced practice nursing is one of the most recent trends in nursing education and scope of practice. Top nursing programs, including University of California at San Francisco and Pennsyvania State University, offer master's degrees that allow nurses to specialize in adult health, neonatal care, anesthesia, midwifery, pediatrics, and psychiatric mental health. Graduates are then able to take on more independent roles in hospitals and private practices including -- in the case of a nurse anesthetist -- being able to oversee sedation in much the same way an anesthesiologist would.
Numerous master's in nursing programs, including Asuza Pacific University, have special tracks for becoming a nurse practitioner. Nurses are trained to deal autonomously with a variety of medical conditions within their sphere of specialty. Because they receive extensive pharmacological education, their scope of practice includes being able to prescribe medications within a list of drugs allowed by their respective states. Nurse practitioners report to physicians who oversee them and they are required to bring their cases to their supervising physicians when patients' cases become challenging or need care beyond what a nurse practitioner is allowed to give. Nurse practitioner degrees come with specific specialties including adult acute care, adult health, family health, gerontology, neonatal care, pediatric critical care, pediatric care, pediatric oncology, psychiatric-mental health and women's health.
A standard nursing curriculum doesn't include management training. However, in the world of hospitals and clinical health care, nurses manage nurses. Many universities, including Johns Hopkins and Asuza Pacific University, recognize that nurses with diplomas and bachelor degrees require additional education to become effective managers and therefore have developed nurse management health systems management-oriented master's degrees.
In specialized nursing degree programs, nurses enter clinical areas that other nurses are not always credentialed and qualified to instruct. Much of the education in specialties like nurse anesthetist and pediatric oncology programs comes from physicians. Besides classroom learning, nurses in advanced training do a lot of hands-on work with specialty physicians, learning more about diagnostics and treatments that are beyond those administrated by the average nurse. Nurses usually participate in research projects as part of any master's in nursing program. In specialty courses, they usually make their work correspond to their new clinical area.
Not every nursing school offers advanced clinical specialties as part of its graduate program. Some of the best and most prestigious are attached to research, teaching and university hospitals, which have the resources to provide advanced training. These programs include public options, such as Pennsylvania State and UC San Francisco, and private options including Johns Hopkins University. Not every program offers every specialty. The more advanced the specialty such as nurse anesthetist, the fewer options a nurse may have. While expenses can be significant for any of these programs, many hospitals offer tuition reimbursement and advanced education support to assist or pay entirely for a nurse's advanced training in exchange for an extended employment commitment to the hospital.