What does a nurse practitioner do?

Patient care: Nurse practitioner operate under supervision of registered nurses and doctors. They provide general aspects of patient comfort and care but depending upon the jurisdiction do not generally give out medications or perform injections. They are a useful, albeit lower paid, part of the health care team.

Provide some care: A nurse practitioner (np) is usually a registered nurse (rn) who has additional training and experience in taking are of certain simpler medical problems and diseases, under the supervision of a physician. What a nurse practitioner can do depends on what the supervising doctor is comfortable allowing him or her to do. There are usually state laws that limit what np's are allowed to do.