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Nurse Practitioners

SOC 29-1171.00Job Zone 5 · Extensive Preparationv.26.05

Context coveredThis framework covers Nurse Practitioners practicing across primary care, acute care, specialty, and community health settings, from supervised entry-level clinical roles through executive leadership and health system-level practice influence.

Sources:O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.SkillsCrosswalkSkillsCrosswalk — O*NET enrichment + adjacency index. Opens in new tab.
Emerging
Entry / Apprentice
  1. Patient health records — document initial care plans and baseline prognoses under the supervision of a preceptor in a primary care or acute care setting.
  2. Treatment plan components — identify and apply established standards of care and professional practice guidelines under direct clinical guidance.
  3. Patient health education materials — select and present foundational information to promote health and reduce risk factors under supervised practice.
  4. Patient histories and symptom data — collect, organize, and report clinical findings to a supervising provider for diagnostic review.
  5. Complex or comorbid patient presentations — recognize clinical indicators and escalate care needs appropriately to collaborative care team members.
  6. Medication dosages, routes, and frequencies — calculate and propose prescriptions based on patient age, gender, and weight under attending oversight.
  7. Chronic condition management protocols — apply evidence-based guidelines for conditions such as hypertension and diabetes under structured supervision.
  8. Electronic health record systems — enter, retrieve, and manage patient clinical data accurately using medical software platforms.
  9. Clinical diagnostic information — interpret basic laboratory and imaging results to support differential diagnosis development with preceptor guidance.
  10. Active listening and social perceptiveness skills — demonstrate during patient interviews to gather accurate subjective data in supervised clinical encounters.
Developing
Mid-level / Established
  1. Comprehensive patient health care records — maintain detailed, accurate, and timely documentation of evolving care plans and prognoses with minimal supervisory review.
  2. Evidence-based treatment plans — develop and implement plans grounded in scientific rationale and current clinical guidelines across routine patient panels.
  3. Patient risk reduction counseling — deliver targeted health promotion and disease prevention education adapted to individual patient circumstances in outpatient settings.
  4. Patient histories, physical findings, and diagnostic data — analyze and synthesize independently to formulate appropriate diagnoses for stable and familiar case types.
  5. Episodic and acute conditions — diagnose and manage with growing confidence, coordinating with physicians or specialists when clinical complexity warrants.
  6. Prescription regimens — determine and authorize medication dosages, routes, and frequencies within full prescriptive authority, applying pharmacokinetic reasoning.
  7. Chronic disease management — monitor, adjust, and maintain longitudinal treatment for conditions such as diabetes and hypertension across a defined patient caseload.
  8. Clinical decision-support software and database tools — query and interpret resources to validate diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in routine practice.
  9. Time management and caseload prioritization — organize patient scheduling and care tasks efficiently across a full clinical day in a community health or specialty setting.
  10. Written clinical communication — produce clear referral letters, consultation summaries, and care coordination notes using word processing and office suite tools.
Proficient
Senior / Expert IC
  1. Complex, unstable, and comorbid patient presentations — diagnose and manage autonomously, leading collaborative care with physicians, specialists, and interdisciplinary teams.
  2. Individualized treatment plans — design and refine plans across the full scope of NP practice, integrating scientific rationale with patient-specific factors and cost considerations.
  3. Advanced patient education interventions — develop and execute tailored counseling strategies that address health literacy, behavioral risk factors, and chronic disease self-management.
  4. Comprehensive diagnostic reasoning — interpret multi-system clinical data, laboratory results, and imaging independently to generate accurate differential diagnoses for non-routine cases.
  5. Emergency and high-acuity conditions — assess, stabilize, and initiate evidence-based treatment under urgent conditions in emergency department or inpatient collaborative environments.
  6. Pharmacotherapy decisions — prescribe based on comparative efficacy, safety profiles, and formulary cost-effectiveness within full legal prescriptive authority across diverse patient populations.
  7. Longitudinal chronic disease programs — oversee and optimize population-level management of conditions such as heart failure and type 2 diabetes using outcomes monitoring and protocol adjustment.
  8. Inductive and deductive clinical reasoning — apply systematically to resolve ambiguous or rare presentations, drawing on biomedical science and clinical experience.
  9. Interprofessional coordination — lead care conferences and cross-disciplinary communication strategies to ensure seamless patient transitions across care settings.
  10. Clinical data analysis and reporting — use spreadsheet and database software to track patient outcomes, identify trends, and inform quality improvement actions.
Advanced
Lead / Principal / Executive
  1. Organizational clinical practice standards — establish and champion evidence-based protocols, prescribing policies, and care guidelines across a health system or large practice network.
  2. NP workforce development — mentor, precept, and design structured training programs that elevate clinical competency and professional practice for emerging and developing practitioners.
  3. Strategic treatment frameworks — lead system-wide adoption of advanced practice models that integrate scientific innovation, value-based care principles, and patient safety imperatives.
  4. Health promotion and population health initiatives — design and direct community or institutional programs targeting disease prevention, health equity, and measurable risk reduction outcomes.
  5. Diagnostic quality improvement — analyze aggregate diagnostic accuracy data and lead interdisciplinary initiatives to reduce error rates and optimize clinical decision-making across the organization.
  6. Prescribing governance and formulary leadership — guide organizational medication policies, controlled substance stewardship programs, and pharmacotherapy standards in alignment with regulatory requirements.
  7. Chronic disease center of excellence — build and lead multidisciplinary programs that set regional or national benchmarks for outcomes in complex chronic condition management.
  8. Executive-level clinical communication — represent the advanced practice nursing perspective in board-level discussions, policy negotiations, and accreditation processes using high-stakes oral and written communication.
  9. Health informatics strategy — direct the selection, implementation, and optimization of medical software, EHR platforms, and clinical decision-support systems to advance care delivery goals.
  10. Cross-sector collaboration and advocacy — influence legislative, regulatory, and professional bodies to expand NP scope of practice, improve patient access, and shape healthcare workforce policy.

AI-at-Work Competency Framework

Sources:Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab.Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab.WEF Skills TaxonomyWEF Skills Taxonomy 2021 — Building a Common Language for Skills at Work. Opens in new tab.

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  1. Emerging
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Pathsmith™ Durable Skills Framework

Sources:Pathsmith™ Durable SkillsPathsmith™ Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
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Show O*NET source anchors71 anchors · skillscrosswalk.com

O*NET enrichment · skillscrosswalk.com

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Source anchors that ground each statement

Related titles
ACNP (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner) · Adult Nurse Practitioner · Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) · Advanced Practice Provider · Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) · ARNP Specialist (Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Specialist) · Cardiology Nurse Practitioner · Certified Nurse Practitioner · Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner · CPNP (Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner) · Dermatology Nurse Practitioner · Electrophysiology Nurse Practitioner
RAPIDS apprenticeships
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O*NET skills
Complex Problem SolvingActive ListeningCritical ThinkingReading ComprehensionMonitoringSocial PerceptivenessActive LearningWritingSpeakingJudgment and Decision MakingService OrientationScienceCoordinationLearning StrategiesTime ManagementPersuasionSystems EvaluationInstructingMathematicsNegotiationOperations AnalysisSystems AnalysisManagement of Personnel Resources
Knowledge domains
Medicine and DentistryEnglish LanguageBiologyPsychologyCustomer and Personal ServiceTherapy and CounselingEducation and TrainingSociology and AnthropologyMathematicsChemistryAdministration and ManagementComputers and ElectronicsPublic Safety and SecurityCommunications and MediaLaw and Government
Abilities
Written ComprehensionInductive ReasoningProblem SensitivityDeductive ReasoningNear VisionWritten ExpressionOral ExpressionInformation OrderingOral ComprehensionSpeech Clarity
Work styles
Attention to DetailDependabilityIntegrityEmpathyCooperationCautiousness
Technology
Medical softwareData base user interface and query softwareSpreadsheet softwareInternet browser softwareOffice suite softwareElectronic mail softwarePresentation softwareDocument management softwareWord processing software
Tasks · seed anchors for statements
  1. Maintain complete and detailed records of patients' health care plans and prognoses.
  2. Develop treatment plans, based on scientific rationale, standards of care, and professional practice guidelines.
  3. Provide patients with information needed to promote health, reduce risk factors, or prevent disease or disability.
  4. Analyze and interpret patients' histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
  5. Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
  6. Prescribe medication dosages, routes, and frequencies, based on such patient characteristics as age and gender.
  7. Diagnose or treat chronic health care problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
  8. Prescribe medications based on efficacy, safety, and cost as legally authorized.
CIP education codes
51.380251.380351.380551.380651.380851.380951.381051.381151.381251.381351.381451.381551.381651.381851.381951.382051.382151.382251.382451.389960.070160.070260.070360.070460.070560.070660.070760.070860.070960.071060.071160.071260.071360.071460.071560.071660.071760.071860.071960.072060.072160.072260.072360.072460.072560.072660.072760.072860.072960.073060.073160.073260.073360.073460.073560.073660.073760.073860.073960.074060.074160.074260.074360.074460.074560.074660.074760.074860.074960.075060.075160.0799

Sources: O*NET v30.2 (CC BY 4.0), SkillsCrosswalk.com, LER.me®, Anthropic Economic Index, SAFI (Jadhav & Danve, 2026), WEF Skills Taxonomy 2021, Pathsmith™ Durable Skills Framework. © 2026 EBSCOed.