California NPs

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Greetings everyone. I will be graduating this December with my FNP from Texas.

I am considering moving my family and myself to the Bay Area of California and wanted to get some input from NPs that are working there now. I have extensive experience in cath lab and will do a travel assignment as an RN until I can get my credentials for NP.

I have read a lot of information and just wanted to get some information from the actual state of NP practice from those that work there.

Thank you and I look forward to your responses.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

I live and work in the Bay Area. Any particular questions you have?

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Thanks for the quick response Juan.

1. I was just curious on utilization of FNPs, do any work in the hospital at all. I see that you are an ACNP, and I am sure that things are different depending on the facility. But I guess my ideal position would be to work in either primary care clinic or work in the cath lab as a nurse practitioner. Do you see many FNPs working as hospitalists/cath lab NPs.

2. Also do you have a salary range for a new graduate nurse practitioner?

Thank you so much.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

1. I've worked in 3 different hospitals here having had the same full time NP position I started when I moved as well as 2 other hospitals where I worked as a Per Diem NP. In the ICU's, only ACNP's are hired but I've seen those with primary care training working in other hospital-based surgical subspecialties such as Neurosurgery, Transplant, Cardiothoracic, and various other offshoots of General Surgery. I've not met a Cath Lab NP but that doesn't mean they are not present in the area. I've seen job postings where I work for a Cardiology clinic position and the requirements do not specify ACNP vs FNP...just NP.

2. I can only go by what the rate is where I work which determines salary based on years of nursing experience including years as an RN. Per our facility's rules, a new grad NP starts as an NP I for 6 months. NP I starts at around 67/hr (no RN and NP experience) to as high as 87/hr (maximum years of RN and NP experience).

Hospital system based NP's (even those who work in a clinic) are typically unionized and that is the case with the bigger employers such as UCSF, Stanford, Kaiser, and some Sutter Health facilities. County facilities also hire NP's some with really good hourly rates such as San Francisco DPH and Alameda County Health System. They tend to not hire new grads.

3. There are a number of private practice primary care positions. I'm not sure how much they pay.

4. The important caveat I want to stress is that living in the Bay Area is very expensive.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

Case in point is this County NP position which is pretty good as far as pay:

Announcement: 2328 Nurse Practitioner - City and County of San Francisco

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Thank you for the excellent reply. Your point on the cost of living is definitely important, as I have done some travel nursing in the area and looked at some of the housing options there currently. Again thank you for the thorough response.

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I hope you already have a California RN license because CA is not part of the compact. I have a TX RN/FNP license. I was a traveling NP and it took me 9 months to get my RN and FNP license and then another 3 months for my furnishing license. I still have my CA license but I have never worked in CA but mainly because it took so long I just went for other traveling jobs and now I am happy with my perm job here in AZ

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Thank you for the response Kate. Fortunately I have my California RN license. Did you end up working in California as an NP if so did you enjoy it? Also, speaking of Arizona, I have been thinking about applying there. How is the school system where you are and what city if you don't mind sharing? Thank you for your input.

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