Cardiology Nurse Practitioner - Some info?

Trauma Columnist · Dec 1, 2012

Hi and welcome. I'm not a cardiology NP but work with several. One of them (FNP) runs a CHF clinic for a large hospital. The other sees pts in clinic but also rounds at the hospitals.

Don't know about salary but that is going to vary tremendously from one location to another. I know in my area, central IL - those of us that work for specialty practices get paid more than the APNs in the hospital.

Love&Care · Dec 1, 2012

Thank you for your reply!

How does an NP get a job doing both clinic/outpatient care as well as rounds? Are they employed by separate employers (kind of like 2 different jobs) or is it usually within the same employer? This is the kind of work I'm more interested in: mostly outpatient with hospital rounds as well so I'm curious as to how this works. Also, would FNP be the way to go with this then?

Trauma Columnist · Dec 1, 2012

my friends work for a private practice and this is just part of her job. one employer.

siaknikikoRN · Dec 2, 2012

Hi, I'm just wondering if anybody here is a nurse practitioner with a specialization in cardiology or know anything about the position?
What kind of duties do these kind of NPs have? Where can they work? I heard they are one of the higher paid NPs, what does a typical salary look like for this specialty?
Also, is ACNP or FNP more appropriate for cardiology?

Hi! I'm following an ACNP specializing cardiology. Her position is called Cardiology/Cardiovascular NP. She rounds all patients in the hospital with cardiology consults. She adjust meds, orders labs, performs stress tests, responds to code STEMI etc. I think her salary is between 95,000 to 110,000 a year.

Love&Care · Dec 2, 2012

Hi! I'm following an ACNP specializing cardiology. Her position is called Cardiology/Cardiovascular NP. She rounds all patients in the hospital with cardiology consults. She adjust meds, orders labs, performs stress tests, responds to code STEMI etc. I think her salary is between 95,000 to 110,000 a year.

Hi! Very cool. What area do you live in and how many years of experience does she have? I'm curious because I'm looking for NPs to shadow in cardiology right now. As an ACNP, is she allowed to do outpatient work as well? Or is ACNP limited to hospital work? I would think ACNP would be better education and depth wise in cardiology. Also, do you know how long she worked as an RN before going to NP school?

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Dec 2, 2012

Hi! Very cool. What area do you live in and how many years of experience does she have? I'm curious because I'm looking for NPs to shadow in cardiology right now. As an ACNP, is she allowed to do outpatient work as well? Or is ACNP limited to hospital work? I would think ACNP would be better education and depth wise in cardiology. Also, do you know how long she worked as an RN before going to NP school?

Are you interested in Adult Cardiology? To answer your question objectively you have to look at two things:

1. Anecdotal data. NP's working in Adult Cardiology come from numerous training backgrounds - FNP, ANP, and ACNP. Roles vary depending on how the practice is set-up (private practice group vs hospital-employed) and the field of Cardiology the NP is involved in (Interventional Cardiology vs Electrophysiology). Extent of responsibilities also vary (rounding in hospital + clinic, supervising myocardial stress tests, pacemaker interrogations, and in extreme cases performing cath's).

2. Nature of training. In my objective opinion, ACNP training best fits a role in Adult Cardiology. You will have in-patient rotations and out-patient rotations as part of your clinicals. You can tailor your clinical rotations based on your area of interest (i.e., have rotations in Adult Cardiology, ICU/CCU, ED - great combo for a Cardiology role). FNP and ANP training will expose you to primary care with little specialty rotations.

Personally, I wouldn't go with the notion that "FNP's are the only ones getting hired where I live". If your interest is in Cardiology and you have the RN experience and networking capabilities to secure a job in this field, then you should go with the NP training that will give you the best clinical exposure to the field.

Love&Care · Dec 3, 2012

Are you interested in Adult Cardiology? To answer your question objectively you have to look at two things:
1. Anecdotal data. NP's working in Adult Cardiology come from numerous training backgrounds - FNP, ANP, and ACNP. Roles vary depending on how the practice is set-up (private practice group vs hospital-employed) and the field of Cardiology the NP is involved in (Interventional Cardiology vs Electrophysiology). Extent of responsibilities also vary (rounding in hospital + clinic, supervising myocardial stress tests, pacemaker interrogations, and in extreme cases performing cath's).
2. Nature of training. In my objective opinion, ACNP training best fits a role in Adult Cardiology. You will have in-patient rotations and out-patient rotations as part of your clinicals. You can tailor your clinical rotations based on your area of interest (i.e., have rotations in Adult Cardiology, ICU/CCU, ED - great combo for a Cardiology role). FNP and ANP training will expose you to primary care with little specialty rotations.
Personally, I wouldn't go with the notion that "FNP's are the only ones getting hired where I live". If your interest is in Cardiology and you have the RN experience and networking capabilities to secure a job in this field, then you should go with the NP training that will give you the best clinical exposure to the field.

Thank you so much. Your post was so helpful! Adult cardiology is my area of interest and I know by going ACNP I can only see adults. However, if by chance I ever wanted to do children with an ACNP certification, how could I make that work?

You mentioned interventional vs electrophysiology. I've looked into both of these and have done my research about what they are. If I want to choose one of these fields to focus on, how would I do that? Would I just do the ACNP programs with a broad focus in cardiology or would I narrow my studies down to either interventional or electrophysiology. Or is there some kind of certification I have to get after obtaining my degree?

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Dec 3, 2012

Thank you so much. Your post was so helpful! Adult cardiology is my area of interest and I know by going ACNP I can only see adults. However, if by chance I ever wanted to do children with an ACNP certification, how could I make that work?

Cardiology is one of those specialties where you either only see adults or only see children. Physicians train separately in Adult and Pediatric Cardiology so the chance of you working in a practice that sees both is very slim. If your question is "what happens if I work in Adult Cardiology and find that I don't like it and want to work in Family Practice?", then you can not do that as an ACNP. You will have to get a post-master's FNP if that's what you want to do.

You mentioned interventional vs electrophysiology. I've looked into both of these and have done my research about what they are. If I want to choose one of these fields to focus on, how would I do that? Would I just do the ACNP programs with a broad focus in cardiology or would I narrow my studies down to either interventional or electrophysiology. Or is there some kind of certification I have to get after obtaining my degree?

To set things straight, ACNP curriculum broadly covers all organ systems in providing care to adults. Clinicals can be tailored to your goals but many programs require a rotation in Internal Medicine and ICU for every student to get a broad exposure to many adult acute care conditions. You may then ask for rotations in Interventional Cardiology or Electrophysiology depending on whether these are available through the school or you can find a preceptor yourself. Many NP's who work in Cardiology had backgrounds in Cardiology as RN's either in CCU or telemetry units and already have a great deal of understanding of concepts in both fields of Cardiology.

Medic2BSN13, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2012

For what its worth, I use to work in a cardiology office where two ANP's and a PA were employed. Generally speaking, the PA/NP's were used to supervise the cardiac stress testing or see patients in the clinic. No hospital rounds or night/weekend call. They were scheduled for four ten hour days each week. I must say, it looked like a pretty nice gig, but they ran a ton of stress tests each day. I have no idea what their salaries were, but I would be suprised if they were less than $80,000 - $90,000 per year.

Cardiology is an awesome specialty, but there were a lot of changes happening related to reimbursement for sercives when I left a year ago. I would consider getting back into cardiology as an NP, but I would likely go the ACNP route. Hope this helps!!

Love&Care · Dec 11, 2012

Hey everyone, thank you so much for all of the info. Very helpful!

Now, I'll be graduating soon to get my RN and I plan on going straight to NP school afterwards because my whole reason for going to nursing school was to become an NP. But I'm probably going to work for a few months first. So my question is, how do I go abou getting an RN job in a cardiac unit to get experience? Also, how would working in a cardiac unit mesh with going to school and having a family? I plan on getting married soon and having a family. Will all of this be possible? How busy/intense is it to work in a cardiac unit as an RN while going to school and having a family?

If I do my clinicals in NP all in cardiology, will this be seen as "experience" by employers?

nirj · Jan 9, 2013

Hey, I don't have answers to your questions at this time but I do want to say that we both share the same interest! I love Cardiology and I am open to any options that will ultimately help me work in this field! I recently passed NCLEX and got a job (not in Cardiology but ok) I plan to get few years clinical experience and then enroll in ACNP program! Best wishes to you :)