ANP vs ACNP

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I have a question.... I was just informed that even though I just hired into a hospitalist group as an Adult NP, I will have to "jump the hoop" in a few years and have to go BACK to school to get my Acute Care NP certification to continue working in an acute care setting! No one ever told me this, and the Hospitalist Group who hired me KNEW I was an ANP. Their only request was that I be certified through ANCC, not AANP. I live in Ohio. Has anyone else heard this, or am I just not up to date?

Thanks!

Barb

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Has to do with the Consensus Model that gives rise to FNPs and ANPs doing primary care and ACNPs doing inpt care.

Interesting - there seems to be so much fear that this will happen, and the academic community certainly threatens it, but I haven't heard of that many cases where someone in practice is actually forced to go back and add to their certification. When I express these worries to those in practice they really shrug it off and say "well, you're going to get trained for your job whatever it is, and they just want you to have your NP license"...... Thank you for sharing what's going on in your neck of the woods.

I'm still wondering what's going to happen with the outpatient specialties.....e.g. cardiology office NP who may or may not round in a hospital. I see FNPs and ACNPs in those offices here, and I wonder which side of the fence this whole thing will eventually settle on. I totally get asking for ACNP for a hospitalist position or someone placed on an inpatient unit. Likewise the ANP or FNP in primary. It's the in-between that no one seems to have figured out yet. I put my eggs in the FNP basket, but I know that depending on what job opens up when I'm done I may be heading back for that extra year of ACNP clinical.

Specializes in PICU.

I know some (many?) children's hospitals are either only hiring acute care PNPs or are requiring their primary care PNPs to go back for their acute care PNP certification.

Interesting - there seems to be so much fear that this will happen, and the academic community certainly threatens it, but I haven't heard of that many cases where someone in practice is actually forced to go back and add to their certification. When I express these worries to those in practice they really shrug it off and say "well, you're going to get trained for your job whatever it is, and they just want you to have your NP license"...... Thank you for sharing what's going on in your neck of the woods.

I'm still wondering what's going to happen with the outpatient specialties.....e.g. cardiology office NP who may or may not round in a hospital. I see FNPs and ACNPs in those offices here, and I wonder which side of the fence this whole thing will eventually settle on. I totally get asking for ACNP for a hospitalist position or someone placed on an inpatient unit. Likewise the ANP or FNP in primary. It's the in-between that no one seems to have figured out yet. I put my eggs in the FNP basket, but I know that depending on what job opens up when I'm done I may be heading back for that extra year of ACNP clinical.

Our institution recently told any non-ACNP that worked more than 50% of their time in the ICU that they had one year to get their ACNP. They are looking at other areas to move to next.

Specializes in Urology, Nephology, Internal Medicine.

The AANP and AANC are merging. This supposedly is awaiting a final vote from the AANP members. The recent Advance NP & PA magazine had the completion of the merger for mid to late November 2012. So you will not have to get recertified by AANC. Now that being said you may have to have some acute care training which I believe is being done via portfolio in some areas. Hope this helps.

I have a question.... I was just informed that even though I just hired into a hospitalist group as an Adult NP, I will have to "jump the hoop" in a few years and have to go BACK to school to get my Acute Care NP certification to continue working in an acute care setting! No one ever told me this, and the Hospitalist Group who hired me KNEW I was an ANP. Their only request was that I be certified through ANCC, not AANP. I live in Ohio. Has anyone else heard this, or am I just not up to dateBarb
I just checked the Advance website but it says the merger is between the Academy and the College of Nurse Practitioners. It will have no effect on AANP certification and is wholly separate from ANCC. I wish they'd merge and make certification less absurd though.
Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Yes and the Consensus Model brings in a whole new dimension of confusion.

Specializes in Critical Care Transport.

I have also recently been thinking about pursuing an advance degree after obtaining some experience and this debate has been on my mind as well. My intuition is similar to what many other posters have stated in that ACNP's are used more for inpatient but can cover clinic as well. ANP's act as more of a PCP.

Personally, I find the ACNP route to be more to my liking, but no programs are available in my area. I will likely be moving when the time comes, if I decide to do so or resort to an online program. Though I have had a few online classes and disliked all of them.

I was recently offered a position with a hospitalist group, the ACNP was never brought up in our discussion. I wondered about that when I was offered the job. Using nurse practitioners in our hospital is new to our facility. If you don't mind sharing what your job description entails and what types of patients you will be rounding on, etc. Thanks.

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