Tell me about being a nurse practitioner

In My Humble Opinion
1

I used to work in It. Well… you know the rest. Even during the boom times, I wasn’[t really happy in the field. After being laid off well over a year ago, I have been struggling for career change ideas that would be a good fit for me.

Last week, I took my daughter into the doctor’s office for a cold and got to see a nurse practitioner instead of the doctor. A light went off in my head. That is a job that might be a great fit for me. From what I understand, it is very similar to being a primary care physician except you don’t go to school nearly as long, don’t get paid as much, and aren’t qualified to deal with the really tricky problems alone.

I have learned that you need a masters degree in nursing to be a nurse practitioner. There are at least two programs in the Boston area (Boston College and Northeastern) that will take someone with a degree other than nursing and put them through intense RN full-time training for a year and then graduate level education for another year or so. You are then qualified to take the nurse practioner exam.

Does anyone have any first or second-hand experience with either nurse practitioner training or the job itself?

What is the maximum amount of money that I could expect to make?

Are there any huge drawbacks to the field? Benefits?

I am basically looking for any additional experience or input that you may have.

2

Nursing has its ups and downs.

A few years ago, there was an over supply of nurses, today there is a shortage.

In a few years, there may again be an oversupply, lots of hospitals are bringing in Phillipinos(free trade bump!!!), so who is to say if there will be any jobs for native born americans in 3 years, or what the pay will be. Also, you are late in thinking that nursing is an open area, there is a flood of young people going into nursing today at the colleges by me because today there are jobs, but when they graduate in 2 -3 years, they might all cause an over supply - who knows?

Nursing school today is very hard, very, very, very hard, why not just go to medical school and become a doctor?

The pay of a doctor is more than 20 times that of a nurse, the schooling is only another couple of years, you can set your own hours if you are in private practice, and you can always get a job as a doctor. One reason why there is a nursing shortage today, is because most young women (who get good grades), are bypassing nursing school, and just going to medical school instead.

Some hospitals by me, and some home care services, just recently downsized(got rid of older higher paid nurses), so they could replace them with much cheaper young fresh out of school nurses and Phillipinos who get paid at rock bottom rates. I know several excellent older nurses who were “let go” and replaced by beginner nurses. The medical field is no different than the corporate field when it comes to getting rid of higher paid help and replacing them with younger or cheap foreign labor.

A female nurse can work anywhere, lots of doctors offices hire them as well as clinics, but most private smaller facilities dont want male nurses since female nurses are more versatile with more patients.

Most male nurses are employed in hospitals, which means that you may be working lots and lots of hours each day, without breaks, and on your feet all day or all night. As a new nurse, you wont get your choice of hours, nor holidays off.

The pay can be as little as $10 for LPN’s, to $20-60 for new to experienced RN’s depending on the area and where you work .

(The pay of a doctor is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars)

3

Thank you for the reply. However I am more interested in being a nurse practitioner rather than a straight RN although that will be part of the training. Anyone have experience with nurse practitioners in particular?

4

I’ve worked with my share. This is only my opinion, nothing more.

In Canada, nurse practioners often specialize in acute care, emergency, pediatrics, cardiology, palliative care, etc. Or they try to be like a family doctor light.

Those who specialize often do an excellent job, as good as (or better than) a doctor in their limited area. Nursing in general has a great many rewards and frustrations.

Most folks do not appreciate it is generally more difficult to do many things than a few things. Despite the length and difference in formal years of training, most medicine is learned on the job. Most don’t appreciate a good family doctor uses and knows far more medicine than someone doing a restricted specialty. It is not at all easy to be a family doctor, nor a family doctor light. The NPs I see do well when they play an important but restricted role – cardiac rehab, pediatric ICU, obstetrics, etc.