Do you ever feel like you 'settled' for being an APNP instead of an MD?

Specialties NP

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Hello,

This is my first post, so please be patient with me.

When I first started college, I was determined on becoming a physician. However, I didn't do so well my first year of college, so I knew I wouldn't make a competitive medical school applicant. Fast forward 4 years later. I am currently in Nursing school, set to graduate next year. I have near perfect grades, and have a CNA job at a hospital. My dream nursing job is to become an ACNP, specifically Trauma Surgery.

My question for any nurse practitioners out there: Do you ever feel like you 'settled' for becoming an APNP instead of becoming an MD? Do you feel like the physicians respect you? Do you have and maintain your autonomy?

Dear Prelift,

What is "NANDA diagnoses"? I've been an NP for over twenty years and I have never heard this term.

Specializes in ICU.

Even if you feel like you settled so what, maybe you did however time to move forward and help progress the profession. I am not a NP. Thought about it.

I want do do trauma surgery too ! haha I never meet other nurses that have the same interest as me. So cool to see you posting! Good luck ! I also complete my degree in 18' entry MSN-RN then off to DNP. I however didn't realize I wanted to work in medicine until I worked side by side a plastic/reconstructive surgeon for 5 years.

I want do do trauma surgery too ! haha I never meet other nurses that have the same interest as me. So cool to see you posting! Good luck ! I also complete my degree in 18' entry MSN-RN then off to DNP. I however didn't realize I wanted to work in medicine until I worked side by side a plastic/reconstructive surgeon for 5 years.

That's wonderful! Can I ask you a question? Have you worked in the ER/Trauma or OR? I am trying to figure out what would be best to learn the most prior to becoming an APNP in trauma surgery.

Please show me where I said nurses should replace physicians. I was commenting on your attitude and condescending manner. Are you a physician? Have you had a problematic encounter with an NP that caused you to have this attitude?

He/she is a nurse practitioner that is currently a medical student as well. I've seen the poster's other comments. Some are humorous, some disrespectful.

I am currently going for psychiatric MD, because I have the money to pay all the debts that I will accrue after I finish school. The pay and responsibilities are in line with what I want.

Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, Cardiac/Renal, Ortho,FNP.

Not quite sure this is a real good comparison. What makes you think a nurse really wants to be a doctor? They are different roles and require different skills, strengths, and likes/dislikes. MD/DO's aren't any smarter by default. There are brilliant APRN's and some really stupid physicians. Yet both groups have upper and lower tier practitioners. Although you will be hard pressed to find a physician to admit that. Equally, I'm shocked that nurses feel as though they accomplished something inferior by not choosing to be a physician. It's higher pay, higher status but practicing medicine is all consuming and some regret ever doing it. Nursing has an extremely broad range of employment so don't feel like you may have missed out on something. Nurses and physicians work on the same canvas much like Van Gogh and Picasso, however, they are very different. Spend some time figuring out where YOU fit in. If you feel you can't do med school but want to work in a medical model then PA might be right for you. But if you feel you want the chance, not guarantee, to practice independently some day in another capacity than MD/DO then NP might fit you. If you think you will

always "regret" not having those initials after your name or having the last word (debatable) then you might want to go back to the drawing board, bite the bullet and go to med school, how ever and where ever you can do it. In reality, in my capacity now as an NP I really don't ask a physician to make my decisions at all, they just check me which is actually kind of nice to have a back up. I'm years past getting all "puffed up" having people call me doctor or anything else, I just want to be called right in my decisions and know I have the skills to handle what walks in my door. Okay, I wouldn't mind getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do my same job, too, but besides that I'm satisfied.

I am working on my NP right now. I absolutely would have LOVED to go to medical school. It's not that I just HAD to be a doctor. I just love learning. I am absolutely obsessed with medical knowledge. If someone gave me a free ride today I would drop everything and go just to have the chance to learn everything in depth. But here's the deal. I grew up in a not-so-great situation. I married young to get out. I was only 20! I had to work FT and go to school and help put my husband through school, too. Along the way I had two kids. Somehow I managed to get an Associate degree in Education and later a Bachelor degree in Nursing with two babies in tow. I could not have gone to medical school living the life I lived. At this point in my life it just did not make sense to go to medical school. I am coming up on 40. I have two adolescent kids. One has special needs. I wouldn't make enough money working as an MD at this age to recoup the cost of going to school. On top of that my friends are doctors and they tell me all the time if they had known about being an NP that's what they would've done. I also hear the work/life balance is better for NPs. Less administrative responsibilities among other things. I am happy about my choice to become an NP and I think I am really lucky to have such an amazing career ahead of me. I can't regret not becoming an MD because it wasn't in the cards for me. But if you're asking if I could've gone to medical school instead, if my circumstance had been different, then the answer is yes because I would've loved the education.

I am almost done with an ACNP program and I also at one time considered med school. I did all the pre reqs and took the MCAT, just didn't follow through with interviews. The debt and time made me unsure.

Sometimes I feel regret after seeing interns and second year residents my age all around me. I can't help but think that that could have been me. Otherwise, I am comfortable with my choice

I got paid to become an RN (ADN program) through government funding. And my entire FNP program (BSN and then to FNP) cost approx. $15,000. So i became a FNP for $15,000 at a highly esteemed state college. I paid in-state tuition rates which is what made it so cheap. And i have no debt because i was smart as a younger person and had already saved this amount in my youth so i could pursue my dreams as i was older.

I first worked as a RN in both the hospital and outpatient/primary care settings for 5 years. During those five years, working every type of shift, it became abundantly clear that i never wanted to become a MD. I come from a family of MD's but from the start i knew i didn't want to put in that much time, effort, and money for that degree. It didn't align with my priorities in life. Then to see the way MD's lived (getting to know they're personal lives) i would never want that life nor level of responsibility. Also being a nurse already it was obviously much faster and logical to advance on to FNP. MDs have a superior level of training, are generally much more knowledgeable, and therefore deserve higher compensation, AND i know and have met dozens of great MD's throughout my years and i would never generalize and stereotype an entire group of elite men and women who gave their youth to pursue a calling of MD. I became a RN because i knew RN's, how they lived, what shifts they worked, how much they got paid, what they were allowed to do. I did the same for my decision of MD vs. FNP and i would encourage anyone to do the same. Do your research and make your own decision, listen to those you look up to, and then in the end you will know you made the right decision for you and dont let anyone tell you different. Live the life you were meant to live :)

That's wonderful! Can I ask you a question? Have you worked in the ER/Trauma or OR? I am trying to figure out what would be best to learn the most prior to becoming an APNP in trauma surgery.

I'd say it depends on what you want to do specifically as a APNP in the trauma setting. I personally want to focus on surgical aspect NP first assist. So I would work in OR because you have to have a certain amount of OR hours to become a first assist to actually participate in surgeries vs being a scrub nurse. In addition, working in pre hospital care areas like life flight or be a rn with first response units so you can know what is being done to your patients before they get to the trauma center and ICU experience for post trauma patient care. I know it seems weird but a NP who specializes and it on faculty @ my university gave me this advise. Once you start to look into the duties of a APNP in the Trauma surgery setting you can see where experience in these settings are essential.

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