Cardiologist & Pulmonologist hires

ICUMatador · May 14, 2015

I'm also interested in the cardiology aspect of this question!

littlepeopleRNICU · May 14, 2015

I know both, but in my region, it seems to be more ACNP.

Dranger · May 14, 2015

Our local pulmonology group hires ACNPs only.

Caridio probably a mix

Trauma Columnist · May 14, 2015

And in my neck of the woods, most cards have a mix of FNP, PA, same with pulmonology. Our nephrology practice has PAs, FNPs, CNSs.

BDWilliams09 · May 15, 2015

Cardiology will most often use ACNP. I have seen nephrology use FNP for outpatient dialysis but it all depends on where you want to work. If you want to see patients in primary care or work in a clinic you can do FNP or adult primary care. If you plan on working inside the hospital though you need your ACNP.

Trauma Columnist · May 15, 2015

@BDWilliams - I respectfully disagree. In my area (central IL) at the tertiary 900 bed hospital, FNPs abound in-pt. Our large (19 MD, 1 PA, 2 FNP, 2 CNS) practice utilizes all of us both in and out of the hospital - in fact we go to five hospitals in three systems.

I do realize that the ANCC Consensus Model dictates that unless you have specific in-pt training (during clinical) that it is preferred that FNPs do outpt care. Per the ANCC site:

"Scope of practiceof the primary care or acute care CNP is not setting specific but is based on patient care needs."

http://nursecredentialing.org/Certification/APRNCorner/APRN-FAQ/APRNRegulation-Consensus.pdf

There are many misconceptions about the Consensus Model and LACE. It is really important that we, as practicing APRNs know our scope of practice and stay within it.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · May 15, 2015

I don't think the fields of Cardiology and Pulmonology can be categorized exclusively as the domain of just one NP track. I think ANP's, ACNP's, and FNP's can all function in those specialties and I've seen the presence all of them in practice anecdotally. In the physician realm, both are Internal Medicine-based residencies followed by fellowships (meaning, these are adults only specialties with Peds entry only via a Pediatrics residency and Pediatric subspecialty fellowship).

When I was in ACNP school, over half of my classmates ended up working in Cardiology working both in-patient rounding and out-patient follow up. I did both a Cardiology and Pulmonology rotation in ACNP school. The Cardiology rotation included in-patient consults, primary Cardiology patients (interventional Cardiology patients), ED chest pain unit rotation, and out-patient follow-up. The NP's were a mix of ANP's, ACNP's, and FNP's.

My Pulmonology rotation was at a VA which included Adult ICU rotation with a teaching service (I was with a Anesthesiology resident and we were supervised by a Critical Care Fellow and Intensivist) and I also did out-patient Pulmonary Medicine with an ANP and most of what we did were COPD clinic (lots of veterans were smokers) and OSA clinic (following up on home CPAP patients).

Where I work, there are NP's in the Advanced Lung Disease Service (Adult Lung Transplant Service), they are mostly ACNP's but one or two I believe is an ANP. There are NP's in out-patient Cardiology, Advanced Heart Failure Service, and the Mechanical Circulatory Support Service (LVAD's, ECMO's) and they are a mix of ACNP's, ANP's, and FNP's.

We have a separate Children's Hospital where the majority of NP's are PNP-AC's and PNP-PC's.

halfpastjune · May 20, 2015

I live in IN and work on a cardiac unit and the two main Cardiology/Pulmonology groups only use ACNPs. The NPs are rotated on a weekly basis. So, one NP rounds the unit with the physician, handles admissions and discharges, takes/dictates the H&P, and carries the pager during business hours (when they round other units, like ICU, the RNs page the NPs with questions, as opposed to the docs). On the weeks that they are not rounding at the hospital, they are booked with outpatient appointments at the office.

The Cardiothoracic Surgeons do the same with their ACNPs, though theirs actually do surgery assists as well.

I'm in the Midwest (Southern IN). The ACNPs supposedly (rumors) make anywhere from $70,000-$130,000+, with those on the higher end (only a few) doing the surgeries and having 10-20 yrs experience under their belt (and more roles/responsibilities).

Best way to go that route is to start working on a cardiac unit asap. You'll deal with all three (above) practices and the doctors will know you, so it will be much easier to get your foot in the door for clinicals.