Nurses carry the enormous burden of leading healthcare facilities towards quality-driven patient care standards and positive treatment outcomes. They work tirelessly to ensure robust patient safety, combatting overwhelming bouts of occupational stress.
Each day comes with numerous battles with life-and-death emergencies to save precious lives and reverse life-threatening risk factors.
The challenges are countless but dedicated and ambitious nurse practitioners master the art of making lemonade out of lemons. The goal is to transform your challenges into opportunities because each challenge presents opportunities in its solutions. Suppose you struggle with a restrictive practice environment that prevents you from self-actualization and clinical authority. In that case, you can combat this challenge with higher education and explore lucrative career advancement opportunities.
It all boils down to your attitude towards problem-solving, professional development, and planning your career advancement journey. Fixating excessively on your challenges can deter your progress while focusing on solutions will help you harness problem-solving skills.
Keep reading to explore the challenges and opportunities of family nurse practitioners (FNPs) in more detail.
Unhealthy Work-Life Balance
The healthcare industry worldwide is overwhelmed with acute staffing shortages, and the burden of managing healthcare services falls on nurses. The rising population of aging physicians has caused physician shortages, compelling hospitals to seek family nurse practitioners (FNPs).
Registered nurses (RNs) and BSN professionals have come under intense pressure with hectic shift schedules and mandatory back-to-back shifts.
Mandatory overtime has emerged as a menace for nurse practitioners, creating an unhealthy work-life imbalance.
It’s natural for nurses to feel their lives revolve around their jobs, leaving barely enough hours for quality sleep and dietary nutrition. Professionals interested in primary care and community service should consider pursuing an MSN FNP degree to explore lucrative opportunities.
FNPs enjoy financial stability and clinical authority with a healthy work-life balance and standard 9-5 shifts. They treat patients of all ages and design treatments for multiple afflictions, often referring patients to specialists.
FNPs execute many of the clinical duties previously limited to physicians and specialists. You can balance an online MSN program with your full-time nursing schedules with considerable ease and flexibility.
It will get tough at some stages, but the sky is the limit once you’ve added an MSN degree to your resume. You can work towards private practice or pursue a doctoral program to become a nursing leader and educator. Consider your present-day unhealthy work-life imbalance as a challenge compelling you to unlock opportunities for future stability.
Emotional Investments in Each Patient
What makes a nurse practitioner or an FNP different from a physician or doctor? We focus on the academic pathways and degrees, but the nurse practitioner’s emotional intelligence stands out. Empathy, compassion, and cultural sensitivity are deeply ingrained within nursing education and training. And it’s incredibly challenging for FNPs and other nurse practitioners to avoid investing themselves in patients emotionally.
Caregiving is a labor of love, and it involves extensive emotional investments for nurse practitioners. Regardless of your chosen specialty, you’re bound to feel touched by the lives you heal and the families you help. When a patient loses a fight against a terminal illness, nurses feel emotionally disturbed.
In some situations, it’s the guilt of not being able to save or help a patient that plagues FNPs and RNs. And for other practitioners, the bond they create with a patient makes their hearts flutter and ache.
Nursing is a profession that demands intimate connections, often resulting in heartache for the practitioner.
How can you turn this challenge into an opportunity? It’s also wise to maintain a realistic distance and detach yourself from your patients and their treatment outcomes. While total detachment isn’t possible for FNPs deeply invested in their professional duties, maintaining objectivity is imperative.
No matter what happens, you cannot carry the burden of these emotionally draining experiences home with you. You can overcome these overwhelming emotions by checking in with yourself at the end of each day.
Mandatory Shifts & Overtime
The healthcare industry is shifting the burdens carried by physicians and specialists onto nurse practitioners. This trend has given rise to mandatory overtime, back-to-back shifts, and tough schedules that leave nurses drained. Nursing shifts were always hectic and extensive, but nursing specializations have expanded considerably in recent years.
Modern-day nurses have to work 12-hours or more, often asked to stay back after an exhausting 12-hour shift to overcome shortages.
Working long hours without enjoying clinical authority can prove demotivating and overwhelming for any professional. And nurse practitioners find themselves rotating between chaotic departments demanding additional hours to address patient needs.
You can overcome this challenge by pursuing higher education to cultivate a specialization. For instance, specializing as a family nurse practitioner (FNP) can help you build a flexible work routine. You will no longer have to work mandatory overtime or additional shifts as primary care services don’t require nightly duties. FNPs work standard 9-5 shifts and see different patients and families throughout the day.
Working Closely with Patients, Caregivers & Community Members
An FNP’s primary care responsibilities demand working closely with numerous people, including patients, caregivers, and healthcare practitioners. Treatment is influenced by several people, such as the patient, family members, healthcare assistants, and nurse practitioners. This interference of multiple individuals attempting to influence the treatment process creates scores of challenges for FNPs.
Time and again, FNPs have to exert their authority to control the treatment design and ensure patient adherence. In some cases, FNPs have to go against family decisions and perspectives to ensure patients access quality care. It takes time to build a strong foundation of trust with patients, family members, colleagues, and community members.
FNPs and nurse practitioners can overcome these issues by building strong interpersonal skills.
Final Thoughts
Opportunities come to those who prepare themselves for greatness. As a family nurse practitioner (FNP), you can overcome many challenges that shackle the career progression of nurse practitioners. You can build a healthy work-life balance with a specialization that allows you control over patient care and outcomes. The journey towards an MSN specialization is long, but it’s worth the effort.