The Ins and Outs of Being a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner

With excerpts from Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Certification Intensive Review: Fast Facts and Practice Questions, by Amy R. Koehn, PhD, NNP-BC, Editor

Thinking about the next step in your career? The nursing profession is a robust field, with certifications running the gamut of clinical, managerial, and educational specialties. But which is the best choice for you? Here, we’ll take a deep dive into what it means to be a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP).

Neonatal Nurse Practitioner: What Does It Mean?

If you are a registered nurse with a special interest in infants and toddlers and their families and caretakers, then you may wish to advance your education to find career fulfillment as an NNP. In this role, you’ll care for high-risk newborns, infants, and toddlers using advanced skills in physical and psychosocial assessment and diagnosis. Most states require national board certification to practice as an NNP. Of the roughly 205,000 NPs practicing in the United States in 2016, 3% (6,150) were neonatal NPs.

What Does an NNP Do?

You’ll likely work in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) caring for the sickest of children and their families. Besides premature infants, you’ll oversee the care of children ages newborn to age 2 with serious conditions such as congenital heart abnormalities, heart failure, acute upper and lower respiratory illnesses, infections, and anemia.

You’ll need expertise in a range of advanced practice skills, including:

• Assessing patients and diagnosing a variety of conditions


• Understanding what diagnostic studies to order and how to interpret them


• Determining which medications to prescribe and correct dosing


• Ability to resuscitate, intubate, and stabilize the smallest of patients


• Recognizing when a patient needs to be referred to a specialist

What Type of Person Is a NNP?

Because NNPs often work in the intense environment of the NICU, you need to be calm under pressure. You need to be comfortable caring for fragile neonates and be able to respect parents’ decisions even when you do not agree with them. And of course, you need a high amount of compassion and patience.

How Do I Become an NNP?

You’ll need to earn at least an MSN degree from an accredited NNP program. About three-quarters of NPs have a master’s degree, with about 11% having a doctorate. Master’s programs, which are generally 2 to 3 years long, and DNP program, which can take up to 4 years to complete, typically have relationships with major medical centers that are equipped to care for critically ill newborns, infants, and toddlers. Previous experience in the NICU is usually a requirement for admission to an NNP program. Once you earn your advanced degree, you’ll need to pass the national certification exam to become licensed to practice.

Are You Preparing for the Exam?

Master the test with Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Certification Intensive Review: Fast Facts and Practice Questions. This 494-page volume provides a thorough review of the content that will be on the exam. More than 300 exam-style questions and answers with rationales are included in each chapter plus a full-length practice exam will help you assess your readiness.

Resources

AANP. Are You Considering a Career as Neonatal Nurse Practitioner? (April 20, 2020). Retrieved from https://www.aanp.org/news-feed/are-you-considering-a-career-as-neonatal-nurse-practitioner

Daily Nurse. Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. (February 17, 2016). Retrieved from https://dailynurse.com/neonatal-nurse-practitioner/

NANN. (2014). Advanced Practice Registered Nurse: Role, Preparation, and Scope of Practice. Retrieved from https://nann.org/uploads/Membership/NANNP_Pubs/APRN_Role_Preparation_position_statement_FINAL.pdf

NANN. (2014). Education Standards and Curriculum Guidelines for Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Programs: Position Statement #3059. Retrieved from: http://nann.org/uploads/Membership/NANNP_Pubs/2014_Education_Standards_FINAL.pdf

Staebler, S., Bissinger, R. 2016 Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Workforce Survey, Advances in Neonatal Care. 17(5) 331-336 doi: 10.1097/ANC.0000000000000433

AANP. (2019). 2019 AANP National NP Sample Survey: Compensation. Retrieved from https://www.aanp.org/practice/practice-related-research/research-reports