CNM vs WHNP

[VickyCS 2001]

I have decided to return to school to get my advanced practice degree. I have a women's health & obstetric background. I have applied to WHNP programs and FNP programs for Fall 2015. However, lately I've been contemplating CNM. Anyone else on the fence?

[NicoletteAmber]

Have you found any additional information about that? I was told to apply to frontier as well. I'm just not sure I would want to do a labor and delivery job. I'm more interested in working for the VA Women's Health Clinic or a Women's Clinic in general mostly focusing on education and seeing patients. Any insight though is wonderful I hadn't thought about the difference in education and practice requirements for CNM.

[zmansc, ASN, RN]

Have you found any additional information about that? I was told to apply to frontier as well. I'm just not sure I would want to do a labor and delivery job. I'm more interested in working for the VA Women's Health Clinic or a Women's Clinic in general mostly focusing on education and seeing patients. Any insight though is wonderful I hadn't thought about the difference in education and practice requirements for CNM.

I'm not sure who your question is targeted towards. I have not found any additional information as it was merely a curiosity and I don't feel like reading my state's scope of practice for specialties I don't plan on getting. From my understanding the scope of practice for WHNP & CNM have high overlap, with CNM being more broad (delivery), but that's at a very high level, I'm not sure how each state sees it in detail, not to mention how the insurance companies and facilities in my area would see it. We don't have any WHNPs here, we have two CNM/FNP, as this combination allows them to take care of a much broader spectrum of patients. In fact, I would say the FNPs outnumber the WHNP in my cohort by about 20:1. I think people tend to be going either FNP or CNM, but I'm sure there are more accurate census numbers somewhere for the different specialties.

Since you have very specific interests (VA Women's Health Clinic or Women's Clinics in general), I would suggest talking to practitioners in those clinics and asking which path they believe would be most helpful and what would be the practical differences in your practice between a WHNP, CNM, & WHNP/CNM.