Can an NP work as an RN?

Sure... but you'll suffer a blow income wise. If I had my NP, I would pick up extra hours as an NP and not an RN.

ghillbert said:

Of course. However, as long as you are still a certified NP, you are held to that higher standard in terms of liability.

Why in the world would you say you are held to a higher standard of liability when you are practicing as a bedside nurse? If you are working the bedside, your role is defined by your place of employment; you can't put in orders on your patient as you're not licensed for that role at that time...you are held to the same standard as every "reasonable and prudent" nurse working at the same time.

tpmotley said:

Can an NP work a second job or pick up hours (evenings/weekends) as an RN in a hospital or other setting?

You certainly can..you are still licensed as a RN. I've got many friends who are NP's who do it and make just about the same amount of money as their regular jobs since they are working per diem (pays a higher rate).

I got few on my floor who works as NPs full time (other place) and then per diem RN on weekends! I don't know why they need that much money but they are doing it! One just graduated and passed the exam but she is waiting for the right NP job she said =)

I have worked with several APN's who picked up floor work on the side. As far as losing money, I disagree. Many of these APN's worked contract or PRN positions without benefits. They actually made great wages on top of the wages from their day job. Pretty good deal IMHO.

nyreaRN said:

I got few on my floor who works as NPs full time (other place) and then per diem RN on weekends! I don't know why they need that much money but they are doing it! One just graduated and passed the exam but she is waiting for the right NP job she said ?

Does make you wonder if anyone has learnt anything from their education or the recent financial situation.

highlandlass1592 said:

Why in the world would you say you are held to a higher standard of liability when you are practicing as a bedside nurse? If you are working the bedside, your role is defined by your place of employment; you can't put in orders on your patient as you're not licensed for that role at that time...you are held to the same standard as every "reasonable and prudent" nurse working at the same time.

You are right- you can't put in orders on your pt. But in terms of assessment and other areas you are held to the standards of the highest license you have. So if you are working as an EMT and also have an RN license, you would be held to the standard of RN. You may only be able to work at a BLS level while working as an EMT but your assessment, reporting and decision making would be judged as "reasonable and prudent" for an RN, not an EMT.

Similarly, if an RN is working in the role of a CNA (this sometimes happens in SNF's because they don't want to cancel the RN for a shift due to retention issues--they would rather assign them to be a CNA and cancel the CNA) they are judged at the level of an RN as far as assesement and decsion making goes.

I would check with your state board to see what will be expected of you in that role. We had some issues several years ago with RN's staying over for 4 hours as an aide or even picking up extra "bonus" shifts as aides because we were so short staffed, (we were paid our RN salary plus the bonus). It didn't work so well, and our legal dept made us stop it. We were told that as a lisc professional, on the clock in the hospital, that we were still held to the standards that the nursing board set for us as RN's.

The problem with that came with being assigned to 20pts as an aide rather than 7 as an RN, we were given very limited report and had very limited knowledge of our pts vs what we would have had as the RN in charge of these pts. Our argument was that there was an RN assigned to these pts as well, and as long as we acted, and charted as the aide would, including keeping the RN aware of changes etc. that we wouldn't be responsible for any decisions made based on the info we provided as an "aide". The legal dept didn't see it that way. We ended up having to just do total care when we didn't have enough aides and giving each RN a smaller number of pts.

We have at least one PhD nurse that works on our unit.

I know of one NP who picks up hours as a staff nurse in the ED sometimes for extra cash.

I have an advanced practice degree (MSN as an adult health CNS), and work as a clinical instructor, but still work very occasionally PRN as a staff RN. I know a few NPs who do the same thing. For most of us the reason is because we still like to do regular old bedside nursing still once in awhile, just not full time.