“My sister is a nurse and saves people’s lives.“

Nicholas Lea, Actor

Pros and Cons of Working as a Nurse Practitioner

You think about becoming a nurse practitioner?

Make sure to check out the pros and cons of being a nurse practitioner in this article so that you get more information on this career path and can make a profound career choice that will have a huge impact on how your future life will look like.

Nurse Practitioner Job Profile

Advantages of Working as a Nurse Practitioner

1. Nurse practitioners can make decent money
2. You can save and invest enough money for retirement
3. You will be able to afford some nice things
4. Decent job security for nurse practitioners
5. Easy to get a mortgage
6. Good job to plan your life in general
7. Nurse practitioners learn a lot about how to live a healthy life
8. You don’t have to work outdoors
9. You can avoid sitting in front of a computer all day long
10. Nurse practitioners are important to keep our system running
11. You can help many people
12. Nurse practitioners have a good social standing
13. Working as a nurse practitioner can give you meaning in life
14. You will never get bored at work
15. You can help your family and friends with minor health issues
16. You can treat yourself

Nurse practitioners can make decent money

One advantage of being a nurse practitioner is that you can make good money from what you are doing for a living.

While many other people out there will struggle to pay rent and other basic expenses, you will not have to worry about those issues that much since you will make more than enough money for that.

In fact, with a few years of experience, you should earn a six-figure income as a nurse practitioner and this will be enough so that you don’t have to worry about every dollar you spend while jewelers and many other people make far less.

You can save and invest enough money for retirement

Thanks to your good salary as a nurse practitioner, you will also be able to save and invest enough money.

In turn, once you get to retirement age, you will have enough funds so that you don’t have to worry about money anymore.

Sure, not all nurse practitioners will get to this stage since some of them will just waste their money on things they actually don’t need.

However, if you are humble and don’t need many material things, you will be able to save lots of money and you may even be able to retire early in your 50s while many other people have to work until their 60s or even 70s.

You will be able to afford some nice things

As a nurse practitioner, you will also be able to afford some luxury. Sure, you will not be able to afford the same living standard as many doctors do.

However, you will still be able to afford much more than the average person and this can give you a great feeling since you will know what you are working for and will not get frustrated like people who work hard all day long but still struggle to afford any luxury.

Decent job security for nurse practitioners

Another benefit of becoming a nurse practitioner is that you will also have pretty decent job security.

In fact, there is a shortage of qualified nurses in many regions of our planet and if you are really good at what you are doing, you will soon have almost freedom of choice for what hospital or doctor’s office you want to work for.

Moreover, not only will your job prospects be quite good right now, but they will also be excellent in the future since society gets older and the older people get, the more vulnerable they become to diseases that need to be cured.

Hence, becoming a nurse practitioner can make quite a lot of sense for you in case you want to have a secure job while still making lots of money at the same time.

Easy to get a mortgage

Nurse practitioners also have an easy time getting a mortgage. Due to your good salary and your excellent job prospects, banks will be more than happy to grant you a loan since they know that you will be a credible debtor and that you will most likely be able to pay back the loan.

Consequently, while many other people out there will struggle to buy their own home, you will have a rather easy time in this regard and will be able to afford to live the American dream.

Good job to plan your life in general

Thanks to your good salary and your high level of job security, you will also have a rather easy time planning your life as a nurse practitioner.

In fact, you will not have to worry about money that much and this will make you quite flexible regarding what you want to do with your life.

Moreover, you will also be able to send your kids to college and to good schools.

In general, your life will just be much more solid than the lives of most people out there who continually have to struggle and to worry about the future.

Nurse practitioners learn a lot about how to live a healthy life

Another upside to working as a nurse practitioner is that you will also learn a lot about how to live a healthy life.

Not only will you learn a lot about nutrition, but you will also see the struggles of your patients and you will therefore know what lifestyles you should avoid to maximize the chances to stay healthy in the long run.

Consequently, also your overall life expectancy might be higher compared to the average person who just doesn’t care about healthy living that much.

You don’t have to work outdoors

As a nurse practitioner, you will also be able to work indoors in a protected environment while many other people have to work outdoors.

For instance, construction workers or roofers will often have to work during quite unpleasant weather and while those people suffer in the cold, you will be able to work in a rather comfortable work environment.

You can avoid sitting in front of a computer all day long

Another advantage of a nurse practitioner career is that you will also not have to stare at a computer for many hours a day like many other people who work in classical office jobs have to do.

Instead, you have lots of social interaction since you will talk to your clients and this can be much more interesting than just making presentations all day long.

Chances are that you will also stay motivated much longer compared to other people who just work in those office jobs solely for the money.

Nurse practitioners are important to keep our system running

You will also do an important job to keep our system running as a nurse practitioner. Imagine a world without doctors and nurses.

Chances are that this world would be pretty chaotic since we would not get proper medical treatment and our overall quality of life would greatly decrease due to that.

Hence, as a nurse practitioner, you will do a pretty important job for society and most people will also be grateful for what you do for them.

You can help many people

Working as a nurse practitioner is not only a job, it can be a real passion. In fact, many nurse practitioners are not in this job for the money, but since they really want to help people and want to make their lives better.

In turn, becoming a nurse practitioner can make quite a lot of sense for you in case you also have this altruistic attitude and you just want to make as many people happy as possible.

Nurse practitioners have a good social standing

Since you will do an important job for society and will cure many people every day, you will also have a pretty decent social standing as a nurse practitioner. Sure, some people may belittle you and may not consider you a real doctor.

However, many other people will still greatly appreciate your work and will know what an important job you will do for society.

Working as a nurse practitioner can give you meaning in life

Becoming a nurse practitioner can also make sense for you in case you currently struggle to find purpose and meaning in life.

Quite often, we as humans feel unhappy since we feel unimportant and don’t know what to do with our lives.

In such a case, a career as a nurse practitioner can make quite a lot of sense for you since you will know why you should go to work and will therefore likely stay much more motivated compared to someone who just works for money and has no higher motivation whatsoever.

You will never get bored at work

As a nurse practitioner, you will likely also never get bored at work. In fact, you will have to do so many things going on and you will also work in a demanding environment.

Consequently, there will just not be any time to feel bored since many patients will be waiting for your support and you will often hustle all day long.

You can help your family and friends with minor health issues

Thanks to your good medical knowledge, you will also be able to help out your family and friends in case they have minor health issues and don’t want to wait in a doctor’s office for quite a long time.

In such a case, you can get quick and easy relief for them and your loved ones will be quite grateful for your support.

In turn, they will also be more likely to also help you out in difficult situations in your life when you urgently need support of others.

You can treat yourself

Not only will you be able to treat minor health issues for other people, but you will also be able to treat yourself.

This can be quite convenient, especially if you live in rather rural areas and the next doctor’s office will be many miles away.

As you can see, a nurse practitioner career can have many upsides. However, we should not forget to also talk about all the downsides that come along with it so that you can get a more realistic picture of reality and can make a profound career choice.

Disadvantages of Being a Nurse Practitioner

1. You can’t work remotely as a nurse practitioner
2. You have to spend many years on education
3. Student loan debt may become a serious issue
4. Nurse practitioners have a high level of responsibility
5. Mistakes on your side may cost lives
6. You will not make the same money as normal doctors
7. Working as a nurse practitioner can be stressful
8. Clients can be difficult
9. People may sue you
10. You may catch diseases
11. You will have to justify yourself why you haven’t become a doctor
12. Nurse practitioners often have to work long hours
13. You often have to work on weekends
14. Problems of your patients may bother you
15. Hard to unwind from work
16. Many nurse practitioners develop mental health issues
17. Hard to get out of the medical field

You can’t work remotely as a nurse practitioner

One problem with being a nurse practitioner is that you will not be able to work from home.

Instead, you will have to be present at work in person and this will take away lots of flexibility from you.

In fact, while programmers and many other people who work remotely will be able to do some private work during their workday, you will not be able to use your time as efficiently.

Moreover, you will also have to commute to work on a regular basis and this will not only cost you lots of time and money, but also some nerves since you will often get stuck in traffic jams.

You have to spend many years on education

Nurse practitioners also have to spend many years on education before they are finally allowed to work in this field.

In fact, you will not only have to get a college degree, but you will have to get further qualifications to be able to work as a nurse practitioner.

This means that you will have to spend lots of time and money on your education and you should really be passionate about a medical profession so that you stay in this field for quite a long time and make the initial investment worth it.

Student loan debt may become a serious issue

Since you will have to get college education for becoming a nurse practitioner, you may also have to take on serious student loan debt.

In turn, you will have to pay back those loans for quite a long time and this may financially constrain you right after finishing your education.

Nurse practitioners have a high level of responsibility

You should also not underestimate the high level of responsibility that comes along with working as a nurse practitioner.

In fact, mistakes on your side can lead to serious issues for your patients and this means that you will always be focused and will barely have any time to relax at work.

Mistakes on your side may cost lives

If you make big mistakes, you may even take away the lives of people. In turn, you may always worry at work about your decisions and may therefore not be able to work in a relaxed manner, especially if you have already made mistakes in this regard.

You will not make the same money as normal doctors

Even though you will make decent money as a nurse practitioner, you will still not make as much as most doctors.

In fact, you will sometimes only earn a fraction of what real doctors make and this may be quite disappointing and frustrating since you will often have a similar workload but don’t get paid accordingly.

Working as a nurse practitioner can be stressful

Another downside of working as a nurse practitioner is that you will also have to experience stress at work on a regular basis.

Since you will have to work with many different patients and they all have different opinions and views on the world, you will just not be able to make everyone happy.

Moreover, you will also have plenty of emotional stress since you will know about your high level of responsibility and the consequences your mistakes could have for your patients.

Clients can be difficult

Some of your clients will just not be able to get happy at all. In fact, there are just some people who will never be satisfied with your work, it doesn’t matter how good you are at what you are doing.

Hence, make sure that you have a stable mindset so that you can ignore those people before you decide for a nurse practitioner career.

People may sue you

Not only may patients be quite disappointed and angry if you make mistakes, but some of these people may even sue you.

In the worst case, you may even lose your license and may also have to pay huge sums of money as compensation for your mistake.

Thus, make sure to also get proper insurance before you start to work as a nurse practitioner so that you are covered in case of emergency.

You may catch diseases

While this is rather unlikely, you may also catch diseases during your work as a nurse practitioner.

Everyone of us makes mistakes and if you have a bad day and are not careful, you might forget to disinfect certain things or may forget to take certain safety measures and you may get infected with the diseases of your patients.

You will have to justify yourself why you haven’t become a doctor

Many of your friends will also not understand why you wanted to become a nurse practitioner instead of becoming a real doctor.

Thus, make sure that you are able to deal with these snarky comments in a healthy manner and that these opinions don’t bother you at all.

Nurse practitioners often have to work long hours

Another disadvantage of becoming a nurse practitioner is that you will also have to work long hours on a regular basis.

In fact, you should not underestimate the hours you will have to spend at work and you will also often have to work during evenings or even at nighttime.

Consequently, you will not only come home tired from work quite often, but you may also experience serious sleeping problems.

You often have to work on weekends

Not only will you have to work long hours as a nurse practitioner, but you will also have to work on weekends quite often.

In turn, you will often have no time to make nice trips with your loved ones and while most other people enjoy their leisure, you will have to work in a stressful environment.

Problems of your patients may bother you

During your career as a nurse practitioner, you will also hear many bad stories and some diseases may also touch you emotionally.

In turn, the problems of your patients may become your own problems and this may lead to a state where you will get quite sad when your patients experience negative things.

Hard to unwind from work

Due to the many problems you have to deal with on a regular basis, you may also have a hard time unplugging from work.

In fact, many nurse practitioners struggle to relax after work since they will always have to think about their patients’ issues.

Many nurse practitioners develop mental health issues

Due to the high stress level and the issues you will experience every day, you may also develop serious mental health problems as a nurse practitioner.

In fact, it can be a real burden to be surrounded by problems all day long and you may just not be emotionally strong enough to stomach these things in the long run.

Hard to get out of the medical field

Last but not least, it is also not easy to get out of the medical industry.

While you will become really good as a nurse practitioner over time, you will still lack many important digital skills that are urgently needed to work in different fields.

Consequently, you may get stuck in the medical field forever and you should therefore really make sure that working as a nurse practitioner is what you want to do for quite a long time.

Top 10 Being a Nurse Practitioner Pros & Cons – Summary List

Should You Become A Nurse Practitioner?

As you can see, there are many advantages and disadvantages of being a nurse practitioner.

In the end, you have to decide for yourself whether you still want to go for such a career or if you rather want to work in a different field instead.

If you are still interested in becoming a nurse practitioner, you should also get detailed information on the salary, future outlook, duties, educational requirements, work-life balance and job satisfaction of nurse practitioners.

Also make sure to check out the following articles to get more information on other job options:

Advantages and disadvantages of being a pharmacist

Advantages and disadvantages of being a nail technician

Advantages and disadvantages of being a makeup artist

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_practitioner

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1226926/annual-wage-of-nurse-practitioners-in-the-united-states/

Own research and interviews.

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people about the different career paths that are possible in our current state of the world. In my opinion, people often make the mistake to choose their profession solely based on how much money they can earn from it instead of doing what makes them really happy.

This is quite sad and I just want to give people a more objective picture of how a fulfilling career could look like. I did the same when I started working in consulting after finishing my Master’s degree in Economics. However, I’ve quit pretty soon after that since I haven’t found true meaning in my job.

Now I can do what I really love to do and I want to enable as many other people as well to go this exciting path towards happiness instead of money.

I conducted various interviews with employees to give you a good impression of what working in different fields will look like and that you can make the best possible decision regarding your future career choice.

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