Have you ever met someone who regretted getting their NP?

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Just wondering about this. I'm a second-career floor and ER nurse with only a couple years of experience. The NPs I encounter *seem* fairly content with their choice to advance on to NP, but then again I hear some of the same complaining about patient population, pain in the butt rules and regs that come from the floor nurses. Is the grass really greener as an NP? I know I would have to put in so much time, work and money toward getting the degree. I'm contemplating --- would it be worth it for a 40 yr old to attempt?

My other option involves getting out of healthcare all together.

Hi there Cola89,

Im back in school for FNP. Im just curious why your only alternative to NP is to get out of healthcare entirely? Have you thought about other specialties besides the floor/ER?

I work as a floor nurse now, and when Im done with school I will have been on the floor for 7years. I cant wait for the change. Ive also thought about just changing where Im working, instead of going back to school. I just don't think that would satisfy me. Im nervous about the new role, but excited. All the NPs in my area (that I know personally) love being a NP exponentially more than floor nursing.

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Specializes in NICU.

Nope. I work in NICU and have never met another NNP that was dissatisfied. Life is so much better as a NP than as a RN, at least in my personal experience. There are some things that I miss about bedside nursing, but I would never trade it up. I also got a $30k raise going from a RN with 6 years experience to a new grad NNP ($65k to $95k), so that was also nice.

Folks need to do their research when going into NP fields and what the market is like in order to have realistic expectations in regards to salary and what the role is like. If you have 20 years experience as a RN, then yeah, your status as a new grad NP probably won't be paid more, maybe even less. But if you have 20 years as a NP, pretty sure you'll be making more than a RN with 20 years experience.

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My decision to abandon the NP/PA route was not based on potential salary gains, it was based on job-shadowing Hospitalists in those roles.

They had their heads buried in the computer 40 minutes for every 6 minutes of actual patient interaction.

However, if I have one regret, I do still regularly kick myself for not pursuing my CRNA so many years ago. And it's not because of the money. Way back when, during OR rotations in nursing school, I found myself fascinated with it.

I wish I had gone that route.

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The whole reason for giving us nurses advanced practise roles was to reduce expenses by cutting out MD's as much as possible.

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I have a family member who was able to become a CRNA with a BSN, 20 years ago through a pilot program in a large teaching hospital in Alabama. Her career choice has been an excellent one! And I hate all the time in front of the computer. It was horrible when I was working and I hate even more now that I am a patient. Our system has become the Spanish Armada. It has become very stressful to even go to a doctor's office.

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Hi there Cola89,

Im back in school for FNP. Im just curious why your only alternative to NP is to get out of healthcare entirely? Have you thought about other specialties besides the floor/ER?

I work as a floor nurse now, and when Im done with school I will have been on the floor for 7years. I cant wait for the change. Ive also thought about just changing where Im working, instead of going back to school. I just don't think that would satisfy me. Im nervous about the new role, but excited. All the NPs in my area (that I know personally) love being a NP exponentially more than floor nursing.

Hi gmjohnson6,

Thanks for your response. I have also given some thought to teaching, but other than that, I'm not sure how else I would like to build upon my nursing degree. Sometimes, I get a little frustrated with the rat race healthcare seems to be. So, I might just get out of the whole realm -- I kinda miss the old, pre-nurse me. I was much less stressed. Far less cynical.

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Specializes in Cardiology, Research, Family Practice.
Yeah shoulda i shoulda done med school instead and earlier

I hate saying this bc I know this site is viewed by many MDs and MD students, but I feel the same. I just didn't know what I didn't know when I was younger.

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I'm not sure if I know an advanced practice RN that regrets the decision to enter advanced practice, but I know plenty that I regret their having entered. Their motives include a bump in salary, prestige, dissatisfaction with not being the 'boss'....the list goes on. What is not a reason of theirs is intellectual satisfaction and actualizing ability and intellect in a challenging setting that will be challenging for the rest of one's career.

Petty motives for entry become very evident in lack of professionalism, poor work ethic and the lack of ability to keep pace with their peers intellectually, clinically and professionally. They make the rest of us look bad and I resent them.

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Can I ask why? I would have rather been an MD than a nurse. I deeply resented the countless hours spent on nursing care plans and then the limitations and the repressive environment and culture of nursing.

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Specializes in NICU.

I'm not sure if you were asking folks who did not regret going to NP school, but I'll walk you through my process to where I am today as a NNP.

I originally wanted to be a physical therapist when I was 18. I have no idea how this got into my head. I did shadow someone for a few days and realized it was not for me. I never really strongly considered medical school because I also felt that I wasn't smart enough to be a doctor (totally not true, but fears of a young 18 year old clouded my judgment). I ended up doing nursing school because I researched it and knew that I would have a lot of different opportunities for different jobs. I also kept in the back of my mind that I could change careers to something else health care related later on (I briefly considered doing a post-baccalaureate for med school pre-reqs in my early 20s).

Was in nursing school (and honestly had no understanding of how lucky I was to just get into my undergrad program from the get-go) and during my senior year, I did a peds rotation and realized that I could take care of babies for a living and I was hooked. I (also in my naivety) didn't realize that there was such a thing as a unit solely devoted to sick babies. I did my senior practicum in the NICU and went on to be a new grad at a large tertiary center. Soon after starting I knew I wanted to be a NNP. Ended up getting it after 6 years of RN experience and now work as a NNP.

Seeing my role and having a better understanding of the MD/DO role now, I absolutely love my role. I get a lot of autonomy and perks of being a provider, but do not work the long hours of a MD/DO nor do I have the student loan debt or the long training including many sleepless call nights for years on end (to become a neonatologist, you have to do a 3 year peds residency + 3 year neo fellowship)- I would still be in training at my age.

Instead, I make nearly six figures if I do no overtime, I have a years worth of salary saved in retirement with minimal student loans (in comparison to the MDs, still have $32k left in grad school), I work strictly 36 hours a week (I come home late maybe once or twice a month), and I get the benefits of being at an academic center where all the latest research is and free education conferences without having the administrative stuff that goes along with being an academic neo of trying to find funding for one's projects and taking call a couple of times a month, doing service time where one works 50 hour weeks if not more, not including call time. In short, I feel that I am able to lead a happier, more stable life- for my personality.

Note the italicized text. There are some folks for whom medicine is where their heart is all the time and don't see any problems whatsoever with what I wrote above because they love the job so much. I think you would find quite a few surgeons that would take a pay cut if they had to in order to keep doing what they love doing. That is the large majority of their life, even after they finish their training. There is nothing wrong about this at all. People should chase what they love and if they can make a good living out of it- more power to them. It's just not for me. I love the balance of having more autonomy as a nurse practitioner while still only working a set number of very reasonable hours so I have ample personal time, not to mention making a good income to boot.

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Many nurses take the NP route to escape the floor and think it will be easy peasy to sit back as an NP. I don't now of anyone who regrets the decision, but a few who did not really understand what they were getting into....

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Specializes in Family Practice.

Wow, see that is one situation I do not want to be put in. To be at some facilities mercy or have them dictate what they are going to pay me. I am a NICU nurse and have been asked why I do not pursue being a NNP! That is the reason you have mentioned. I hate hospitals!!! I love those babies though. So I get my satisfaction doing Peds as a FNP.

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