Best floor to work on for an aspiring Nurse Practitioner

Bruce_Wayne, ASN, RN · Jan 4, 2011

To answer your question my guess would be ICU, a lot of programs I've looked into specifically require a year or more of ICU experience, any other experience doesn't count towards their programs.

kakamegamama · Jan 4, 2011

I am in a post- master's FNP program. My clinical experience is PP, AP, NICU, and Newborn. I've also worked taking care of patients across the lifespan in clinic situations. So, explore programs you are interested in for your NP and ask them. That could save you time and lead you in the right direction for practice. NP skills are not necessarily the same as nursing skills (psychomotor wise that is). Best wishes to you!

dskrninpa · Jan 4, 2011

A medical step-down probably has the most diverse patient population.

dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I · Jan 4, 2011

I say ER, but have no particular reason to believe it's what you need. You'd get to see a lot, and with any luck you might get a nice nurse like me to work with.

apocatastasis · Jan 4, 2011

You need to specify what kind of NP you want to be.

I'm a psych NP student but we have a year of advanced health assessment and primary care rotations. I worked in ICU for over a year and have been working in a high-volume, moderate acuity ER for 3 months. ICU is great for chronic disease processes and getting to know your drugs. ER is great for the wide variety of emergent and non-emergent situations... gunshot wounds, respiratory failure, urinary tract infections, heart attacks, mania... you name it, it gets seen in the ER.

StephRN08 · Jan 5, 2011

It depends on what type of NP you want to become. I have a few good friends that are NP's or in NP school... one is an acute care NP specializing in transplant and she worked in a liver transplant ICU, one is an adult NP with an additional post-MSN certificate in women's health and she worked on a gyne oncology unit and antepartum, and two others are in pediatric NP programs and worked on pediatric med/surg units.

Just FYI, the DNP is a Doctorate of Nursing Practice. It is a specific role as it is intended for all advanced practice nurses - NP's, clinical nurse specialists, CRNA's, and nurse midwives. Many programs will be replacing their MSN programs in these areas with a DNP.

PAERRN20 · Jan 5, 2011

ER, because you can pick the brains of the MD and NPs/PAs! Also, ER has the most diverse patient population of any area in the hospital.

If you're looking to get into education with a DNP, I'd imagine ICU or even med-surg would be good for that.

aliciaj456 · Jan 5, 2011

Great advice! I guess I'm not sure what type of NP I want to be yet. I think I'll start out in the ER or ICU or even medsurg so that I can get to experience everything. Thanks again!

GM2RN · Jan 5, 2011

I've also looked into a number of NP programs and haven't seen any, with the exception of the CRNA, that specifically requires ICU experience. The ones that I've seen only require nursing experience but aren't picky about where it is.

I would also suggest the ED because of the wide vaiety of illnesses you will see, but med/surg ICU would be good too.

Spacklehead, MSN, NP · Jan 5, 2011

I agree, it all depends on what type of NP you want to be. I am a FNP and worked in the ED for close to 10 years as a RN. It provided me with the perfect background because a lot of the cases you see in the ED can be seen and worked up in a family practice office, also. It also gives you insight to the types of patients you would want to refer out to urgent care or the ED who present to the doctor's office. Lastly, patients presenting to the ED do not automatically come with a diagnosis, so it's great to see what types of studies are ordered and how assessments are done to get to a workable diagnosis.

I would suggest ICU nursing if you wanted to become an ACNP. However, for you typical family nurse practitioner, the ED (in my humble opinion) is your best bet.