Become a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner
Learn about women's health nurse practitioner careers, education and salaries.
The Basics: Women's Health Nurse Practitioner
What you'll do: Women's health nurse practitioners provide comprehensive woman-focused health care, with an emphasis on reproductive and gynecological health. Their work includes health promotion and disease prevention, as well as management of acute and chronic health conditions affecting women.
Degree you'll need to practice: Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
Certification: Certification is only required for practice as a women's health nurse practitioner in about half the states. Certification is available through the National Certification Corporation (NCC).
Average annual salary: $53,810 - $92,518
Cities where jobs are often found: St. Louis, Denver, Houston, Atlanta, Nashville and Buffalo
Women's Health Nurse Practitioner Career Overview
Women's health nurses work primarily in outpatient care facilities, including primary care clinics, physician offices, community health centers and college health clinics. They may also practice in long-term care facilities, hospitals, or virtually anywhere that women seek health care.
Women's health nurses work under the direction of a doctor or nurse practitioner to provide a wide range of care to women, including some of the following responsibilities:
- Family planning services
- Well-woman care and disease prevention
- Management of sexually transmitted diseases
- Prenatal and postpartum care
- Care during perimenopause and menopause
- Care for women with cancer, HIV/AIDS and disabilities
- Care for women with substance abuse problems
- Care for women who are suffering from abuse
- Assessment, health education and counseling
Women's health nurse practitioners are advanced practice nurses (APNs), qualified to provide diagnosis and treatment for all of the health concerns listed above. They are also trained to apply nursing theory and research to clinical practice, and may function as researchers, administrators, consultants and educators in the field.
Women's Health Nurse Practitioner Education
Women's health nurses are registered nurses (RNs). You can become an RN with a 2-year associate's degree or a 2- to 3-year hospital diploma program. However, you will have greater employment and advancement opportunities if you earn a 4-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree.
To become a women's health nurse practitioner, you will also need to complete a specific Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, typically obtained through a 2-year program of graduate study. You can then seek recognition by your state board of nursing as an APN. Alternatively, if you already have a master's degree, you can pursue a 1- or 2-year post-master's certificate program consisting of specialty coursework.
Women's Health Nurse Practitioner Career Outlook
As with all nursing careers, the demand for women's health nurses is expected to increase significantly over the next 10 years. In fact, 587,000 new registered nurse jobs are expected through 2016, in addition to hundreds of thousands of jobs resulting from experienced nurses retiring or leaving the profession. Outpatient care centers and physician's offices, the settings for most women's health nursing jobs, will have faster employment growth rates than hospitals because new technology enables more sophisticated care on an outpatient basis.
Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009
Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow, 2009
PayScale.com, 2010
Women's Health Nursing Career at a Glance
A Rewarding Career
Women's health nursing is a broad specialty, offering many opportunities to touch the lives of women from adolescence through menopause and beyond. Since women's health nurses focus on health promotion and disease prevention, they have the opportunity to make a big impact on the quality of life for women.
Nursing Careers at a Glance
Access basic information on many nursing career specialties.
- Acute Care Nursing
- Adult Nursing
- Cardiovascular Nursing
- Forensic Nursing
- Geriatric Nursing
- Home Health Nursing
- Infectious Disease Nurse
- Legal Nurse Consultant
- Neonatal Nursing
- Nurse Case Manager
- Nursing Informatics Specialist
- Occupational Health Nursing
- Oncology Nursing
- Parish Nursing
- Pediatric Nursing
- Perinatal Nursing
- Public Health Nurse
- Psychiatric Nursing
- Rehabilitation Nursing
- Rural Nursing
- School Nursing
- Women's Health Nursing
How to Pay for Nursing School
- As nursing school tuition has increased, a rising number of nursing scholarships and grants have become available for qualifying candidates. Nursing school is expensive, but there are many grants, loans, scholarships, work-study and loan forgiveness programs available to hard-working students. Gain access to nursing school financial first aid.
How to Get Nursing Scholarships
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Many scholarship and grant opportunities are available to nursing students to encourage people to enter the nursing field and help alleviate the increasing nursing shortages. With a little research, you can learn how to obtain this free money for your nursing school education. Learn how to uncover these nursing scholarship and grant sources to help free you from financial worries.