All the degrees, no job

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I graduated with my FNP and DNP in 2015 and am still looking for a job. I am in a city where there are many nursing schools and therefore I am thinking that the market is just completely saturated. I have been a nurse for 14 years and have worked ICU for 12 and ER for the last 2.5 years. Thank goodness this is steady work. Ive gotten my certification and my COA and CTP-E from the Board of Nursing. I have applied to at least 5-10 jobs a week and cannot even get a call back from places. I wanted to apply for NP jobs where I can eventually lead me into utilization of my DNP.At this point I will take just about anything. I am considering applying for a retail clinic job just to get some experience under my belt? I cannot believe how well these clinics pay and it seems like way less stress than any other job for a new grad............Any thoughts???

Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

Regarding being paid more because of degree-not likely but it would depend on the candidate's negotiating skills

And what they bring to the practice.

I think doctoral level people in the future

Will have to distinguish themselves to be paid at higher rates.

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Regarding being paid more because of degree-not likely but it would depend on the candidate's negotiating skills

And what they bring to the practice.

I think doctoral level people in the future

Will have to distinguish themselves to be paid at higher rates.

This does not go only for doctoral level 'people'... It goes for everyone on the job market. Your attempt to establish a parity between MD/DO and NP is comical...

All NP organizations have to do is to fix that DNP debacle so people can take the degree seriously... DO schools had similar issues, then they fixed their issues and the rest is history.

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Specializes in Outpatient Psychiatry.
This does not go only for doctoral level 'people'... It goes for everyone on the job market. Your attempt to establish a parity between MD/DO and NP is comical...

All NP organizations have to do is to fix that DNP debacle so people can take the degree seriously... DO schools had similar issues, then they fixed their issues and the rest is history.

You make a valid point with your DO comparison. I've made similar. At one time, osteopaths were considered unqualified hacks. Today, they stand with MDs (although still chastised among gunner premeds lol), and yet now osteopathy is a bit anti-nurse development. We're an economic threat despite all those that argue "safety."

I think we could do things as a profession to boost our status among our professional colleagues, and I think we should. However, the path to Dr. NP will be harder although the path to NP should be more rigorous anyway.

Nonetheless, everyone should be reimbursed based on ability to bill as well as operative ability. If I were a hack, I can see the company giving me less of what I make. If I did other administrative junk I could see the need to get another 5% or so, yet the merits of a diploma in our line of work aren't substantial. In the end, our income is a product of billing, and a DNP won't let us bill more.

For the physician, their training costs are excessive. They do get minimally reimbursed more. Unfortunately, that added 15% (or what have you) merely subsidizes (and perpetuates) that increased training cost. In the end, I believe if they were reimbursed less, in a generation, we'd see their training costs decrease.

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Our status will never rise, because of the women on the bodies of the credentials boards will never admit they are mental ill. No, I'm not sexist, but if you look at them, its all women.

Like they would ever admit to the AMA (mostly men) that they have some jack squat setup.

We all know nurses know it all and are never wrong right?

Plus if programs like you know got harder, everybody would still apply to the easiest one, thus the one making the right move would go broke.

I mean hell, who wants to actually learn science right?

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Specializes in CEN, SCRN.

You guys got me stressing now. I start my DNP in the fall...

It's a core 1 year didactic front loaded for all tracks which then split off into individual clinical tracks for year 2. They make you go through the theory and nursing courses as an entire cohort before continuing on to what you really applied for, the APRN.

The DNP capstone recommendations are pretty much aligned with my normal every day work as a program coordinator. I see the DNP as an added on benefit of the program I was accepted to. I'll have it in my back pocket for the off chance I want to later leave the bedside again and go back to an administrative position or teach full time.

I'm trying to stay positive about it all. Maybe my perception is different because of the way my program is set up. Either that or I am just being naive. I dunno. I've literally taken every step on the academic and clinical ladder starting as a high school dropout and teen auxilian to where I am today. I have a hard time seeing how doing an extra 3 semesters for a DNP versus an MSN is going to negatively impact me in the long run.

I hate the nursing theory bs like everyone. I fully understand that nursing diagnoses are a half cocked attempt by a bunch of blowhard geriatrics to make our profession feel validated and more important than necessary. I get this, but at the same time if those are the hoops I have to jump through to once again become an independent practitioner and gain back my paramedic and corpsman skills, then so be it. I'm in it for the long haul and I can't affect change if I sit on the sidelines and just ***** about it.

Apologies for the 10 direction rant. I'm tired.

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Specializes in Outpatient Psychiatry.

I don't think anyone has suggested limits placed by a DNP. Negative impact = cost.

Positive impact= ?

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Specializes in CEN, SCRN.

Positive impact =

options for future career changes or opportunities

potential for more credibility depending on the work environment

better understanding of administrative and ethical considerations

terminal degree

Everyone has their own opinions of the degree's worth depending on their personal and professional situations. Your outlook on the DNP might not apply to me because of where I work or my personal goals for my professional life.

I agree that the DNP should be a fully clinical degree based on advance practice instead of a catch all for all terminal degree options. Unfortunately this is the way the AACN wants it done. I'm disheartened by the pessimism in this thread because many are trying to apply their personal opinions as fact. Not all DNPs come from Walden or Phoenix. Not all facilities or agencies feel the DNP is a worthless, undifferentiated degree from an MSN.

Again, I may be speaking totally out of naïveté since I don't start until the fall, however much of the pessimism I've seen has come from others like me who don't have the degree or haven't been fully through a program. If you don't see value in the degree, that's cool. To each their own. For me though, I see that the benefits are worth it to me. If I find that much of it is BS, then I can help to make it more of a worthwhile degree once I complete it and help to shape future practice.

I relate this conversation somewhat to the people who complain about politics but don't take the effort to vote or be active in the process.

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

The DNP is likely the future. I worked one place that had a DNP PMHNP cover weekends and the nurses were under the impression that since he was a doctor he could prescribe pain meds within his scope of practice. He didn't but this was the common thinking.

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Specializes in Outpatient Psychiatry.
The DNP is likely the future. I worked one place that had a DNP PMHNP cover weekends and the nurses were under the impression that since he was a doctor he could prescribe pain meds within his scope of practice. He didn't but this was the common thinking.

That he could prescribe Schedule II? Or just any pain meds?

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

I think they meant any pain meds stronger than Tylenol which was part of the standing orders. I always referred for eval to the medical docs covering. Or ER if indicated.

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Specializes in Reproductive & Public Health.
The DNP is likely the future. I worked one place that had a DNP PMHNP cover weekends and the nurses were under the impression that since he was a doctor he could prescribe pain meds within his scope of practice. He didn't but this was the common thinking.

Really? I can prescribe whatever I need to, as long as I have the training to do it safely and it is not outside of my facilities' protocols. But I would guess MHNP aren't working in a field where narcotics are frequently given, so it makes perfect sense that he would not prescribe it.

I think they meant any pain meds stronger than Tylenol which was part of the standing orders. I always referred for eval to the medical docs covering. Or ER if indicated.

Why should a PMHNP, DNP or no, be limited to administering standing orders? That seems an odd use of their training. I must be misunderstanding.

And as an aside (hopefully a redundant one), a DNP degree has exactly zero effect on your prescriptive privileges as an APRN.

ETA- i figured it out. Please excuse me :bag:

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I just don't see the use of it. It provides no economic benefit really outside of academics. But this can be said of many PHD degrees in many fields too. in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc, the masters level degree serves most people as well and if not better than a PHD. So really there may not be anything wrong with the DNP, but it should not be touted as a purely clinical or applicable degree. How can it be clinical if most of the classes are leadership and ethics and whatever based.

A lot of people never seem to realize if you really want to learn stuff then pick up some books off of amazon and read. You can probably achieve a better education that way, and if credentials are not explicitly required, it is a much cheaper route.

We get the MSN so we can practice our APRN privileges, the DNP does not add to our authority. I would not be so against it if it was not so obviously seen as a money grab for colleges. My old college started a DNP program and they blow up my phone and email asking me to do it. If they are so beggingly looking for applicants, it is probably not worth my time or yours.

I actually chose to go to the medical school instead at my old school and start in a month or so. Not to become higher, or mightier than though, but mostly to acquire a better education, with which comes much greater autonomy and a HUGE pay increase if i stick to my specialty (ER). Like, 300k more per year.

300K more per year = worth it

DNP= no more K per year = not worth it.

All the power to those who want to go for the DNP though, it just does not seem to be economically feasible for MOST people, unless you are set on teaching or the like.

We are not hating on it because others choose to further educate themselves, we just do not deem it worthy of the time or money investment.

One can make a degree out of everything, but if the political force of lobbying is not backing it, it aint worth a dime.

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