AFIT For Acute Care Nurse Practioner

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

I'm currently a med-surg nurse for the Air Force. I've looked into Geriatric/Acute Care NP programs, and they generally don't seem to require ICU experience. I'm interested in attending a NP program via AFIT and working in a hospitalist role for the Air Force after graduation. I've seen NPs fill this role, but many of them have a critical care background. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to do it with my background (which will likely be 3 years of med-surg and 2 years of PACU by the time I would hypothetically start grad school).

Acute Care Nurse Practitioner here. It's not impossible to go the route your considering. My background was critical care and I would recommend strengthening your ACLS/ATLS as well as completing a FCCS course. A lot of my job is ventilator management and invasive procedures/ Central line placement. Not sure you would get this on a Hospitalist Service. I work primarily with Intensivists and Pulmonary Critical Care docs.

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Do you work for the military? It seems like there are so few bases with real critical care units, that there wouldn't be much of a need for acute care NPs. I'm concerned that I'm going to do acute care NP and be thrown in a clinic.

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