A fnp as a hospitalist?

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I am a new grad and got an offer today for a hospitalist position 7on/7off in a 326 bed hospital a metro area, the offer is good and I am really interested however as a new grad I am not sure if this is a good career move. I worked as an ICU nurse but, I have no experience writing ICU orders and when I ask if an internsivist was going to be around I did not get a straight answer from the physician, any thoughts! Its true I need a job but I also want to follow the rules.

I do a night shift 7 7 gig it's pretty intense. It's fun though and you get to learn a lot. Been doing it a year or so. Legally it is not out of our scope.

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Specializes in ER.

Sauce what state do you practice in?

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Kentucky

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The scope of practice really depends on what is said by BON or the related regulating board in each states. This is the similar issue as FNP working in psych. I would contact or read the scope of practice defined by you state board. I know that Texas is very strict regarding this. According to BON in texas, "advanced practice registered nurses must practice within the role and population focus appropriate to their educational preparation." However, in most and many states, the scope of practice is loosely regulated so it is "legally" acceptable to practice out of education preparation.

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Every time someone brings up the issue of an FNP working in the hospital there is this cry of consensus model. Well, the consensus model was suppose to be effective in every state by now and it has not happened and does not appear to be happening anytime soon. Plus, there are not enough acute trained NPs to fill all the open positions in every state. Maybe down the road there will be a day when IP positions are filled by mostly acute care trained NPs but that day is a good way off.

I personally would prefer to see a blended program provided to all NP students that is based on clinical skills and providing training for inpatient and outpatient with the option of selecting a subspecialty (OB, Cards, Derm etc). Therefore upon completion you could work anywhere with some specialty training in a particular area of interest.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, Cardiac/Renal, Ortho,FNP.

Hmmm...most of the time I saw the hospitalist NP just rounding for the doc's and a physician does the initial intake. The orders are probably a pre-defined order set. I'm not so sure I'd be run off...ask them and another mid-level. The out of scope thing might be a state issue and is worth checking. I almost worked in the hospital as a specialty ortho NP, I'm FNP, so it might depend on the state practice act. It would be good experience. Being an ICU nurse you KNOW what the nurses want and when, that makes you more valuable IMHO. Do you have to run the codes?

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My first ICU job we had NPs running the 48 bed ICU. They rounded on all the patients assigned to the intensivist, placed all the lines and intubated as needed. Also, any codes in the facility they responded to and ran the codes. The MD would round with them at some point during the day shift but they were all solo at night. If needed, they could page the Intensivist or get advice from one of the ED physicians. The whole system ran very smoothly.

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