Best Pre-NP RN Specialty?

Published

Specializes in ICU.

I'll be graduating in a few months with my BSN! I plan to to go on to NP school (Adult Care) while working as a medsurg RN. Is medsurg a good background preparation for NP practice or is another avenue "better", e.g., ER, critical care?

Dave

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

For an adult NP specialty such as ANP, med-surg nursing experience would be sufficient in my opinion. There is usually a broad range of pathologies and medical problems seen in med-surg units to expose the prospective adult NP to a variety of treatment modalities used in these medical conditions that can supplement the NP training.

Adult ACNP programs are little bit different. Most programs encourage applications from nurses that have critical care backgrounds because there is quite a bit of this kind of content in the didactic and clinical portion of the program as well as the certification examination. However, that is not to say that you will not get admitted to such a program with purely med-surg experience.

What I've also seen is that in reality, when an NP position is posted, competition for the position can get really tight with some applicants having a variety of nursing experience ranging from out-patient settings, med-surg, ICU, and ER. Unfortunately, the NP who ends up getting the job will be the one who has the broadest range of RN experience that can contribute to the requirements of the NP role being filled. In addition, many NP employers in adult specialties such as cardiology express preference for NP's with focused experience in this particular specialty field.

So this leads to the question as to what the best clinical experience is in helping a prospective NP applicant in landing a job easily. That's a hard question to answer in general terms. However, if you know the particular market trends in your area as far as what kind of NP jobs tend to be available more frequently than others, then you can prepare and focus your nursing experience towards those NP roles in the hope that one is going to be available when you graduate. Best of luck to you.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

Thanks for the informative reply PinoyNP. It's hard to read the tea leaves while still being a student.

Dave

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

No problem DCDave. Hopefully, things will get more clear for you as far as what area interests you more or want to focus on and what jobs are available. By the way, it looks like we live in the same state.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I did 10 years in a level one truama center and 2 years in ICU prior to doing an adult health CNS.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion