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OaSIS 2025 Version 1.0
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31302.00 – Nurse practitioners

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with additional education, advanced knowledge and nursing experience, and a specialty of practice. They provide a range of health services to patients and deliver preventive and continuous care toward the management of patients' health. Nurse practitioners work in conjunction with physicians and collaboratively with other nursing colleagues and health-care providers, or they may work independently. Nurse practitioners may specialize in primary healthcare or acute care.

Overview

Example job titles

  • Advanced practice nurse
  • Extended class registered nurse
  • Nurse practitioner

Core competencies

  • Critical Thinking, Decision Making and Problem Solving to make informed and accurate decisions, analyze and solve complex health problems, evaluate the effectiveness of treatments and collaborate effectively with healthcare teams to ensure high-quality patient outcomes
  • Social Perceptiveness to enhance patient communication, accurate diagnosis, teamwork, patient education, cultural competence and handling sensitive situations
  • Problem Identification and Inductive Reasoning to tailor care, collaborate effectively and optimize patient outcomes across diverse healthcare settings, including primary care and acute care specialties
  • Written Comprehension to thoroughly understand medical literature, patient records and healthcare guidelines to facilitate accurate interpretation of complex information and making informed decisions
  • Attention to Detail to ensure accurate assessment, precise medication administration, meticulous documentation and thorough monitoring of patient status
  • Knowledge in Physical Health to understand symptoms, develop effective treatment plans, promote preventive care, monitor progress and provide comprehensive care

Main duties

This group performs some or all of the following duties:

  • Examine patients and take their medical histories and consult with physicians and other medical practitioners to evaluate patients' physical and mental health
  • Order laboratory tests, X-rays and other diagnostic procedures
  • Inoculate and vaccinate patients
  • Advise patients and their families on health care including health promotion, disease, illness and accident prevention
  • Collaborate with members of an interdisciplinary health team such as family physicians, therapists and nutritionists to plan, implement, coordinate and evaluate patient care in consultation with patients and their families
  • Perform a patient advocacy role
  • Prescribe and administer medications
  • May co-ordinate or manage primary patient care.

Additional information

  • There is little to no mobility between nurse practitioner specializations without further training.

Similar occupations classified elsewhere

Exclusions:

  • General practitioners and family physicians (31102)
  • Managers in health care (30010)
  • Other professional occupations in health diagnosing and treating (31209)
  • Physician assistants, midwives and allied health professionals (31303)
  • Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (31301)
  • Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (31100)
  • Specialists in surgery (31101)

NOC hierarchy breakdown

NOC version

NOC 2021 Version 1.0

Broad occupational category

3 – Health occupations

TEER

1 – Occupations usually require a university degree

Major group

31 – Professional occupations in health

Sub-major group

313 – Nursing and allied health professionals

Minor group

3130 – Nursing and allied health professionals

Unit group

31302 – Nurse practitioners

Occupational profile

31302.00 – Nurse practitioners

O*NET in-it

This page includes information from the O*NET 27.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Employment and Social Development Canada has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.