Nurse Family Partnership

I do not work for Nurse Family Partnership but am a public health nurse in a similar program with a non-profit. Just wanted to say I love my job! I can't imagine doing anything else. I love getting to know my clients and to have enough time to really teach my clients what they need to know. I have a lot of autonomy with a great team that supports me and backs me up. If you decide to go for it, I hope you love it as much as I do.

I think the caseload is 25 max. And they do 2 or 3 visits a day. I don't work directly with our program, but they meet as a group monthly and have weekly one-to-one with the supervisor. I think that there is a lot of support for the nurses.

I'm NFP in a brand new agency, so right now I spend tons of time with my coworkers (and I adore them). Max caseload is 25 clients, each visit is 1 to 1.5 hours. When we shadowed an older agency, it seemed as though their nurses did 3-4 visits per day. I love my job, and cannot say enough good things about NFP. I have truly found my dream job. I look forward to Mondays, and I miss my clients in between visits.

Even when we get busy there will still be plenty of opportunity for coworker contact. The NFP model calls for weekly one-on-one meetings with your supervisor and weekly case conferences with the whole group. We make our case conference a breakfast and try to outdo each other with what we bring. We have become a very cohesive group and also have planned girls nights!

I'm NFP in a brand new agency, so right now I spend tons of time with my coworkers (and I adore them). Max caseload is 25 clients, each visit is 1 to 1.5 hours. When we shadowed an older agency, it seemed as though their nurses did 3-4 visits per day. I love my job, and cannot say enough good things about NFP. I have truly found my dream job. I look forward to Mondays, and I miss my clients in between visits.

Even when we get busy there will still be plenty of opportunity for coworker contact. The NFP model calls for weekly one-on-one meetings with your supervisor and weekly case conferences with the whole group. We make our case conference a breakfast and try to outdo each other with what we bring. We have become a very cohesive group and also have planned girls nights!

Hey Monkeybug,

I was wondering if you can answer a couple questions I have about NFP. What is a typical work week like? Does volunteer experience help or do I need OB or public health experience? (I'm a new grad working on a tele unit for 5 months).

Any cons to the job? (It sounds pretty amazing to me)

Thanks!

Hey Monkeybug,

I was wondering if you can answer a couple questions I have about NFP. What is a typical work week like? Does volunteer experience help or do I need OB or public health experience? (I'm a new grad working on a tele unit for 5 months).

Any cons to the job? (It sounds pretty amazing to me)

Thanks!

So far I've found zero cons to the job. Okay, maybe one. I do tend to worry about my favorite patients when I'm at home, and I never turn my phone off at the end of the day in case of my ladies needs me, but that's on me, not the job. Two hours a week are devoted to a group meeting where either 1 nurse will present a client to the group (for feedback, information, moral support, or just because you are proud of that patient) or we do something educational. I love when our group is all together. Then 1 hour a week is devoted to a one-on-one meeting with your supervisor, and that's one of the best parts of the job. It's all about positive relationships in NFP. The one-on-one is to address problems, but it's never, ever done in a demeaning or punitive way. It's about growing and improving as a nurse. So that's 3 hours of the week. You make your own schedule with clients (although that is highly likely to change, my calendar is done in PENCIL! ). Each client visit takes an hour to an hour and a half. It takes some time to prep for a visit, and then the paperwork requires time afterwards. You also have to figure travel time in to your schedule. I can usually comfortably do 3 visits in one day without feeling rushed.

I had about 15 years experience as a maternal child nurse, and I would be lost without that experience. One of our nurses only has about a year in OB, and that was years ago, and it does hinder her. Your client is asking you questions, and they want answers, they don't want to hear "I'lll go look that up." about every single thing. I know that there are really good NFP nurses with no OB experience, but I'm just speaking personally. I had no public health experience coming in to the job. I tend to feel a little out of my element when dealing with toddler issues, but by that time you've built a relationship with the client, so it doesn't make them wonder about you if you don't automatically know the answer. I wish I had more knowledge about rules of Medicaid, food stamps, and public housing, but that will come with time. If my client calls me and tells me she has some pregnancy-related medical issue, I can deal with it off the top of my head. It's when they tell you they need a dentist (not covered by Medicaid, I've discovered) or that they are about to be homeless within the week(and you can't find a shelter that will take a pregnant girl) that I feel ignorant, but I'm learning.

It is an amazing job. I feel like everything I've been through in my nursing career has led to this, and I can't imagine what I'll do if something happens to this job. It's an amazing program with years of evidence-based research to back up what it's doing, and it does good work.

On 2/1/2013 at 12:57 PM, monkeybug said:

So far I've found zero cons to the job. Okay, maybe one. I do tend to worry about my favorite patients when I'm at home, and I never turn my phone off at the end of the day in case of my ladies needs me, but that's on me, not the job. Two hours a week are devoted to a group meeting where either 1 nurse will present a client to the group (for feedback, information, moral support, or just because you are proud of that patient) or we do something educational. I love when our group is all together. Then 1 hour a week is devoted to a one-on-one meeting with your supervisor, and that's one of the best parts of the job. It's all about positive relationships in NFP. The one-on-one is to address problems, but it's never, ever done in a demeaning or punitive way. It's about growing and improving as a nurse. So that's 3 hours of the week. You make your own schedule with clients (although that is highly likely to change, my calendar is done in PENCIL! ). Each client visit takes an hour to an hour and a half. It takes some time to prep for a visit, and then the paperwork requires time afterwards. You also have to figure travel time in to your schedule. I can usually comfortably do 3 visits in one day without feeling rushed.

I had about 15 years experience as a maternal child nurse, and I would be lost without that experience. One of our nurses only has about a year in OB, and that was years ago, and it does hinder her. Your client is asking you questions, and they want answers, they don't want to hear "I'lll go look that up." about every single thing. I know that there are really good NFP nurses with no OB experience, but I'm just speaking personally. I had no public health experience coming in to the job. I tend to feel a little out of my element when dealing with toddler issues, but by that time you've built a relationship with the client, so it doesn't make them wonder about you if you don't automatically know the answer. I wish I had more knowledge about rules of Medicaid, food stamps, and public housing, but that will come with time. If my client calls me and tells me she has some pregnancy-related medical issue, I can deal with it off the top of my head. It's when they tell you they need a dentist (not covered by Medicaid, I've discovered) or that they are about to be homeless within the week(and you can't find a shelter that will take a pregnant girl) that I feel ignorant, but I'm learning.

It is an amazing job. I feel like everything I've been through in my nursing career has led to this, and I can't imagine what I'll do if something happens to this job. It's an amazing program with years of evidence-based research to back up what it's doing, and it does good work.

Wow! Thank you for this info!