Some Questions From a Prospective ACNP Student...

Specialties NP

Published

Specializes in Critical Care- Medical ICU.

I have the opportunity to work closely with the NPs on my unit (ICU), and have a good idea what it means to be an NP there, but I just wanted to get a little broader perspective and see what things are like in other areas.

So for all the NPs out there (specifically acute care)

Do you enjoy what you do?

What area/ specialty to you work in and what is a typical day like for you?

Are you satisfied with the level of autonomy you have? And do you feel respected by other members of the healthcare team?

And lastly, how long were you at the bedside before you went for your NP? I have heard a lot of people advise that the more experience you have, the better an NP you will be. Opinions?

I really appreciate any and all responses!

Specializes in PICU.

If you do a search you will find a number of threads that touch on this topic. For example, I just looked for ACNP and here's a recent thread that came up:

https://allnurses.com/nurse-practitioners-np/questions-acnp-students-753775.html

This is a question that gets asked fairly regularly so you may get more information by looking through older threads.

Specializes in Critical Care- Medical ICU.

Thanks, I should have done a search first.

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

It's good to refer to that thread but it would also be nice to seek out perspectives from other ACNP's who are working in non-critical care settings. ACNP is not limited to critical care. My graduating class got jobs in a variety of settings: Cardiology, Neurosurgery, Acute Care Surgery (previously lumped in with Trauma Surgery), Transplant Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Hospitalist Service, and Pulmonary Medicine.

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