Nurse midwife/family NP

[Steph357]

Hi everyone!

I am a BSN nursing student currently in my OB rotation. I am absolutely in love with it!! I've started looking into CNM/FNP careers and the more I find the more I think I'll just love that field! However, I also want to have a family of my own in the next 5-10 years. I'd love to hear from any CNM/FNP's about what hours you're typically working and in what setting, as well as take home salary (after taxes) if you'd be willing to share!! I am more interested in typical work week than typical pay so if people aren't comfortable sharing that info that's totally fine! I just have lots of loans to pay off and would like to have an idea of how much I'll be able to put toward those

[aprnKate]

If you plan to have a family... just be mindful that CNMs are on call a lot. I'm a FNP and have considered getting post masters CNM but then I saw a colleagues schedule and her schedule is 12 hour shifts and she is on call after her 12 hour shift. she does get called in quite a bit. I'm a FNP and i'm happy with having a no call schedule

[pro-student]

Most dual CNM/FNPs end up practicing mostly as one or the other. You might land a job as a midwife in a group practice or hospital and the FNP training will give you some more training/experience handling primary care issues (although all midwives are supposedly trained in primary care of women). Or you may find a job as an FNP and just be way more knowledgeable about women's health than the average FNP. In theory, your scope of practice is essentially that of the classic family doctor being that you could see all members of the family including handling pregnancy and childbirth. In actuality, most practices would not know what to do with someone who wanted to practice full scope family practice and midwifery. To have a reasonable quality of life as a midwife, you want to be a practice that has a good number to share call with. Most practices like that generally do not see many men or children. You can try community health centers but, in my experience, most would still not to know what to do with that scope of practice since they usually have different providers doing OB and primary care. It's a shame because it really is a great model of care but unfortunately even in family medicine, OB is abandoned by many physicians.