I once was in a family nurse practitioner program, but dropped out as it wasn't for me. For one thing, working more than fulltime and graduate school is a hard mix. Another thing, I noticed a lot of the cardiologists in my hospital are using ADN nurses as their "FNP's" (just don't call them that). Their nurse comes to admit the patient for the doc, writes the orders, initiates the progress note, history and physical, compares initial labs, EKG's, etc. This was quite a startling discovery and very discouraging for me. Why even bother with all the rigorous studies to obtain FNP status, if ADN nurses are able to do essentially the same thing? Another thing, FNP's in my area only make around $60 a year (if they're lucky)--I almost make that much now. FNP workload is ridiculous (followed one around during my practicum for RN-BSN, so I know--this FNP later stopped practicing and is now teaching at the university). I want to get into a good graduate program, just don't know which one yet. A lot of the nurses around the unit want to become a nurse anesthetist. This really is not for me either--this program requires that you can't work at all for 2 years while in school and very, very competitive just to get into the CRNA program.
Any ideas on grad school? Can be a field outside of nursing. Something mellow would be nice. Just need some brainstorming.
