Feeling very disheartened...please help!

Specialties NP

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Specializes in Family Practice, Primary Care.

So, some background: I'm currently an NP working in IL. I'll have been an NP for 2 years this coming May.

My first year in practice I worked at an NHSC site doing primary care and while I loved it, the pay was awful and I couldn't support a family on it, and the commute was 1.5 hours so I ended up taking a per diem position at Walgreen's and working at my new M-F job so I could make more money and be closer to home.

I currently work in a SNF seeing patients. The problem is that every patient has a different attending, and the attendings want me to call them before putting any orders in, which makes me feel like an RN. I don't feel like I'm being an NP at all. Sometimes the attendings recommendations will be completely inappropriate too, or they won't even know the patient or have even come in to admit the patient, and sometimes they only round once a month or less. My per diem job at Walgreens is equally as depressing since the vast majority of encounters are with patients who don't even really need medical care of any kind.

I am feeling very disheartened and depressed. I love the patient population I work with and all the staff at the SNF. I loved doing primary care too and was fully independent there, but the commute and money made it unsustainable unless I wanted to live in a box or work 7 days a week. I don't know what to do...I feel so useless as an NP at the SNF since RNs could be doing the exact same thing I am doing. My husband and I plan on moving back to New England once he is done nursing school next May, which gives us 13 more months here. I don't want to look for a new job because then I'll look like a job hopper, but when I was in NP school in Maine the preceptors I worked with, both MD and NP, were very appreciative and pro-NP whereas here it seems like I am the gum underneath their shoes. I honestly had more independence and respect as an NP student than I do now. And I hear Massachusetts is an awful place for NPs to practice too which means we can't live there when we move back to New England.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Hi there - sorry you are having such a difficult time. I'm in central IL and have no issues like you are describing.

Can you hang in there until your husband graduates? Maybe take a locums job in the meantime?

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Specializes in Family Practice, Primary Care.

My worry would be that taking a locums job would make me look like a job hopper. I could easily work my per diem Walgreen's job and pick up shifts as a staffing agency as an RN and make the same money I am making now but I am worried that when we do move it'll be hard to find a job since I'll look unreliable.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Locums jobs are known to be temporary so you just tell prospective employers that you decided to take a locums jobs for the short time prior to your move back east. Now, however, you are ready and able to commit to a permanent job and all this varied experience makes me a very well-rounded candidate.

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Specializes in allergy and asthma, urgent care.

I can understand why you're so frustrated. I agree with Trauma...take a locums job and get some useful experience until you move. Can you increase your hours at Walgreen, or maybe find something at an Urgent Care center? What about Medicare home assessments? Then at least you're still working as an NP and gaining different kinds of experience.

MA is really not a horrible state to practice in. We're not a fully independent practice state, but there are lots of jobs for an experienced NP. Cost of living is pretty high, and that can be a deterrent. RI is a good state to practice in-pay is high and they're a full practice state, along with other NE states.

Feel free to PM me if there's anything I can help you with.

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If I saw locums positions on your resume I wouldn't think "job hopper" at all. I would think you got some great experience and utilized your limited time in your current state to gain maximum experience. As far as MA....gosh I was at a conference there last summer and they made it sound like they were completely independent and just busting at the gut they were all so happy! What gives with that ?

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Specializes in Family Practice, Primary Care.

From the AANP website it didn't look too good. It was colored as a red state. AANP - State Practice Environment

My resume would look something like this though, which worries me:

Locums job: Now- May 2016

This job: October 14-March 15

Per diem job: June 14- May 16

Primary care job: June 13- June 14

I had 2 RN jobs during grad school and stayed at both for 3 years so I definitely have consistency there but the above looks so shaky to me, especially since I read somewhere on here that staying less than 2 years at a job looks bad to future employers.

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I don't put a lot into that practice map. Texas is in red too and it's no big deal. I guess I see the 80 hrs a week it would require for me to run my own practice and I have ZERO desire for that.I've been an NP for five years now and I work with an MD and do my own thing, prescribe, treat...::shrug:::: absolutely no big deal to me.

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Specializes in FNP.

Don't worry about looking like you're job hopping. I think this is expected with new careers. My first two years I had 7 jobs and each new interview I went on discussed how much experience I had, and I really did learn a lot from each different job about the different specialties and about myself.

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