Preventive health care is a major focus of health-care reform because it has potential to lower the overall cost of medical care by reducing the incidence of chronic, long-term health problems. The new emphasis on preventive health care is creating job opportunities in schools, workplaces and medical clinics.
Preventive care starts with teaching healthy people how to stay that way. Job opportunities in this field include working as a school nurse to educate children about the dangers of tobacco and unhealthy foods; working for a company's wellness program to educate employees about healthy work habits; and working for local government as a community health educator. For instance, King County in the state of Washington employs a community health educator to oversee its Children's Health Initiative. This Initiative focuses on preventive care for pregnant women and children.
The Affordable Care Act includes funding for a Prevention and Public Health Fund, designed to increase access to preventive care by training more nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Physician assistants work under the supervision of a doctor, while nurse practitioners may work with a doctor or may operate primary care clinics of their own. Both physician assistants and nurse practitioners can consult with patients to determine if they have any risk factors for chronic medical problems, and can conduct tests to detect disease early while it is still manageable.
Preventive health care can benefit patients who are already sick by ensuring that the condition does not recur or become worse. For instance, if a nurse determines that a patient has high blood pressure, he can advise the patient on lifestyle changes that help him to manage the condition so it doesn't lead to a heart attack. While some of the new positions in preventive care can be filled by community health educators or physician assistants, the American Nurses Association estimates that nurse practitioners can perform most preventive health-care jobs and are most likely to benefit from the increased focus on preventive care.
Becoming a Nurse Practitioner
All nurse practitioners are also registered nurses or RNs, so if you want to become a nurse practitioner to work in preventive health care, you will first need to become an RN. Most nurse practitioners receive their training through master's level graduate programs such as the Mayo Clinic's Nurse Practitioner Clinical Residency Program in Minnesota. According to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, the average salary for this profession was $95,000 as of 2012.
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