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How to Kickstart Your Nurse Practitioner Career

Your Guide to AANP's Latest Reports, Resources and More

Excel at the beginning of your professional role with help from your nurse practitioner organization.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) come from many backgrounds, but all are united in having successfully completed the rigorous steps necessary to become certified and able to practice with a specific focus. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) — the largest and only full-service national professional membership organization for NPs of all specialties — is here to help NPs make the most informed decisions around compensation to launch a successful and long career in health care.

Member Benefits for the New NP

AANP is here to support all NPs in advancing their careers. To that end, many of the resources provided by AANP are free to anyone, and include important visual downloads on topics like malpractice insurance and details of NP practice information by state. Other free tools provided by AANP include a guide to employment negotiations; clinical practice briefs on obesity and breast cancer screening; and handouts on educational content.

However, AANP’s most robust tools for NPs embarking on their careers are available only to members. Using the JobCenter, AANP members can browse for open positions by job setting and state, as well as access career advice on topics like interviewing, leadership, personal branding and more. Members also save $75 on American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board applications; discounts on AANP conferences; and save on continuing education (CE) — one CE class a month is free for members through the Course of the Month program.

AANP encourages new NPs to sign up at the Career Starter Membership tier — which is only available for one year and costs $95 (a discount of $55 dollars from the regular NP membership rate) — while students studying to become NPs may sign up at the rate of $55 per year using the Student Membership option.

New Reports on Practice and Compensation

An additional major benefit AANP offers to all NPs — at a cost to nonmembers but free to AANP members — is access to the 2024 AANP Compensation Report. This report is especially useful to new NPs deciding where to practice, and even in what specialty. As AANP CEO Jon Fanning, MS, CAE, CNED, notes: “This report is the most comprehensive single resource available on NP compensation — providing information on compensation by geography, clinical focus area, work setting, years of experience and other NP characteristics. This report summarizes data that NPs can use to successfully negotiate contract and employment terms, including total compensation, hourly wages, base salary, on call expectations and benefits.”

Over 10,000 NPs from all 50 states contributed to this report, and the information provided explores NP compensation and benefits by region, clinical focus area and years of experience. These compensation insights are especially important for NPs who are considering changing workplaces or making a move to another part of the country, but will be useful for any NP interested in the latest labor trends or how NP pay differs across the U.S.

Another valuable report provided at a cost to nonmembers but free to AANP members is AANP’s 2024 Practice Report. This report includes findings like the top conditions treated by NPs and the top medications prescribed by NPs, and where NPs most frequently learn about new medications. About this report, Fanning and Vice President of Research Kate Bradley, PhD, MBA, write: “This report is a unique and comprehensive resource summarizing data on NP characteristics, treatment and prescribing patterns as well as patient characteristics. This information is critical to understanding the day-to-day practice of NPs and their important role in our health care system.”

This report comes in three parts: demographics, educational attainment, certification and employer arrangements for practicing NPs; patient age, insurance and percent facing poverty, NP services and conditions commonly treated; and prescribing practices of NPs, including by clinical focus and patient volume. Readers will learn what communities NPs serve, how many prescriptions NPs write a day and other important facts about the NP role. The information provided in the report can help NPs at any career stage consider their career choices in the context of the NP role as a whole.