Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Nurse Practitioners
Diagnose and treat acute, episodic, or chronic illness, independently or as part of a healthcare team. May focus on health promotion and disease prevention. May order, perform, or interpret diagnostic tests such as lab work and x rays. May prescribe medication. Must be registered nurses who have specialized graduate education.
MAY 2025 · OCCUPATIONAL WAGES
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
Source wage group: Nurse Practitioners
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Nurse Practitioners. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Median annual wage$132,300USD per year · Published 50th percentile
Median hourly wage$63.61USD per hour · Published 50th percentile
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $101,340 | $48.72 |
| 25th | $117,990 | $56.73 |
| 50th · Median | $132,300 | $63.61 |
| 75th | $156,700 | $75.34 |
| 90th | $174,420 | $83.86 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
ACNP (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner)Adult Nurse PractitionerAdvanced Practice Nurse (APN)Advanced Practice ProviderAdvanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)ARNP Specialist (Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Specialist)Cardiology Nurse PractitionerCertified Nurse PractitionerCertified Registered Nurse PractitionerCPNP (Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner)Dermatology Nurse PractitionerElectrophysiology Nurse Practitioner
Expand more title examples (27)
Emergency Medicine Nurse PractitionerFamily Health Nurse PractitionerFamily Nurse Practitioner (FNP)Family Practice Certified Advanced Registered Nurse PractitionerFNP (Family Medicine Nurse Practitioner)FNP (Family Practice Nurse Practitioner)Gastroenterology Nurse PractitionerGeneral Surgery NP (General Surgery Nurse Practitioner)Gerontological Nurse PractitionerInternal Medicine Nurse PractitionerLicensed Nurse Practitioner (LNP)Medical Surgery NurseNeonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP)Neurosurgical Nurse PractitionerNurse Practitioner (NP)OB-GYN NP (Obstetrics-Gynecology Nurse Practitioner)Orthopedic Nurse PractitionerPalliative Care Nurse PractitionerPCNP (Primary Care Nurse Practitioner)Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP)Psychiatric Mental Health NP (Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner)Psychiatric Nurse PractitionerSurgical Nurse PractitionerTravel NP (Travel Nurse Practitioner)Urgent Care NP (Urgent Care Nurse Practitioner)Women's Health Care Nurse PractitionerWound Care NP (Wound Care Nurse Practitioner)
Typical tasks
- Maintain complete and detailed records of patients' health care plans and prognoses.
- Develop treatment plans, based on scientific rationale, standards of care, and professional practice guidelines.
- Provide patients with information needed to promote health, reduce risk factors, or prevent disease or disability.
- Analyze and interpret patients' histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
- Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
- Prescribe medication dosages, routes, and frequencies, based on such patient characteristics as age and gender.
Expand more tasks (21)
- Diagnose or treat chronic health care problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
- Prescribe medications based on efficacy, safety, and cost as legally authorized.
- Recommend diagnostic or therapeutic interventions with attention to safety, cost, invasiveness, simplicity, acceptability, adherence, and efficacy.
- Detect and respond to adverse drug reactions, with special attention to vulnerable populations such as infants, children, pregnant and lactating women, or older adults.
- Diagnose or treat acute health care problems, such as illnesses, infections, or injuries.
- Counsel patients about drug regimens and possible side effects or interactions with other substances, such as food supplements, over-the-counter (OTC) medications, or herbal remedies.
- Order, perform, or interpret the results of diagnostic tests, such as complete blood counts (CBCs), electrocardiograms (EKGs), and radiographs (x-rays).
- Educate patients about self-management of acute or chronic illnesses, tailoring instructions to patients' individual circumstances.
- Maintain current knowledge of state legal regulations for nurse practitioner practice, including reimbursement of services.
- Recommend interventions to modify behavior associated with health risks.
- Consult with, or refer patients to, appropriate specialists when conditions exceed the scope of practice or expertise.
- Treat or refer patients for primary care conditions, such as headaches, hypertension, urinary tract infections, upper respiratory infections, and dermatological conditions.
- Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in nursing.
- Schedule follow-up visits to monitor patients or evaluate health or illness care.
- Perform routine or annual physical examinations.
- Maintain departmental policies and procedures in areas such as safety and infection control.
- Advocate for accessible health care that minimizes environmental health risks.
- Perform primary care procedures such as suturing, splinting, administering immunizations, taking cultures, and debriding wounds.
- Provide patients or caregivers with assistance in locating health care resources.
- Keep abreast of regulatory processes and payer systems, such as Medicare, Medicaid, managed care, and private sources.
- Supervise or coordinate patient care or support staff activities.
Skills used in this work
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Expand more skills (29)
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
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