Glossary
Nurse Practitioner Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential nurse practitioner terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key nurse practitioner vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in nurse practitioner training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- APRN
- Advanced practice registered nurse.
- Board certification
- National specialty exam.
- Chronic disease
- Long-term illness.
- Clinical hours
- Supervised practice in school.
- Collaborative agreement
- Required physician partnership in some states.
- DNP
- Doctor of Nursing Practice.
- FNP
- Family nurse practitioner.
- Practicing without physician oversight.
- MSN
- Master of Science in Nursing.
- Preceptor
- Clinical mentor during training.
- Right to prescribe.
- Preventive care
- Screenings and vaccines.
- Primary care
- First-contact, ongoing care.
- Scope of practice
- What an NP may legally do.
- Telehealth
- Care by video.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Nurse Practitioner practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Nurse Practitioner training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.