Does everybody want to be a NP?

allnurses Guide · Nov 8, 2015

It's hard to make a direct apples to apples comparison.

At a major teaching hospital around here a tenured RN working with a night/weekend differential and picking up an extra 12 a week would equal just oiver the starting base salary of an NP without incentives (working a 40 hour week of 36 plus 4 hour admin time). That RN is capped out on salary and working 17 full days extra a year without incentives.

I am fortunate to be a partner in practice. I work my 40 hours plus a small amount of call. I make considerably more than most RNs in base salary and that accounts for only 55-65% of my income.

Again, no perspectiveNPs should do it for the money or the hours, but on the whole most NPs do pretty well financially and the ceiling is most definitely higher, look at the average salary of dermatology NPs in the Advanced survey for 2014.

chiromed0 · Nov 8, 2015

Boy, I don't experience that at ALL from NP's either as preceptors or from myself (about a month out). I'm already a D.C. and I can see when doc's tend to do that, and it's actually not as often as I once thought. I just don't see this situation much. If anything I get that from instructors who have a DNP vs MSN-?NP. I have a few arguements about that situation as well but it's the trend. I hope you have better experiences from different NP's, all mine have been good.

Jules A, MSN · Nov 8, 2015

Again, no perspectiveNPs should do it for the money or the hours, but on the whole most NPs do pretty well financially and the ceiling is most definitely higher, look at the average salary of dermatology NPs in the Advanced survey for 2014.

Derm must be da bomb. Its nearly impossible for med students to secure a residency also. My hat is off to them because although its super interesting, and of course I love that they make bank, its almost as icky as podiatry to me.

Farawyn · Nov 8, 2015

Derm must be da bomb. Its nearly impossible for med students to secure a residency also. My hat is off to them because although its super interesting, and of course I love that they make bank, its almost as icky as podiatry to me.

Icky in a good way, though. :bag:

allnurses Guide · Nov 8, 2015

Derm must be da bomb. Its nearly impossible for med students to secure a residency also. My hat is off to them because although its super interesting, and of course I love that they make bank, its almost as icky as podiatry to me.

The irony is that as one of the most lucrative medical specialities they strictly limit supply but because NPs are revenue generators, derm physicians love to hire them. Win win for the money train.

AngryAngel · Nov 8, 2015

I was a nurse for over 27 years before I graduated with an MSN NP degree. I was 55 years old. My last 16 years have definitely been the best of a great career. I wouldn't have done it any other way. What I do now is teach, and take care of indigent people, better then I could have ever done just as a nurse. Now one thing that is not expressed is that 20% of NP who graduate never practice as NP's. Why is that? Because the field is constantly trying to push "Nursing Practice" as the way for the NP to look at the practice she will eventually preform. I had to study Rosemary Porifice's "Theory of Human Becoming." Ever heard of it? I doubt it as it is the biggest collection of hogwash nursing has ever come up with. That was truly wasted time. Yet big wig nursing educators want the MSN and now the DNP to have all this Nursing research background. So when you get out and go to work with a doctor he wants none of it. Medicine in America is a business. It is a grueling, grinding business that is supposed to make its fully licensed professionals big bucks. The doctors in Russia are 90% women. In England the doctors are comfortable, but most are not very wealthy. There are 33 industrial countries in the world. Thirty-two of them have some form of universal health care. Only one does not. You are living in it. Yet on a per capita basis we pay the highest in the world for health care. $8,000 per man woman and child in this country. 26,000 people die every year because they have no health insurance. Yet when 7 people die because their Takata air bags blow out to hard, and it kills them, Congress spends days trying to draft legislation to see that this will never happen again. What about the 26,000 uninsured that die every year, and the millions who are uninsured still, and yet Congress is desperately trying to kill the recent law that has insured 7 million people. The law only stinks because the insurance companies are involved. Yet their representatives in Congress demanded it be that way.

As the people of the United States grow older the need for more and more healthcare providers will grow exponentially. The need by 2025 is an impossible task to accomplish without thousands of NP and PA positions occurring. NP salaries going above $100,000 yearly. Even RN salaries are averaging $67,000 a year. I am so pleased to see so may colleagues speak of NP's with clear and concise praise of their attitudes toward staff and patients. I feel driven to be that to my staff and my patients. I know there are always the exception, but thankfully this is not the rule.

md9068sn · Nov 9, 2015

That's ridiculous if there are people making you feel that way. There are other areas nurses can get an advanced degree in. They don't have to be an NP. As of now, being an NP isn't something that peaks my interest, though I would like to advance my education sometime in the future after having enough bedside experience.

Also, nurses are more than just nurses. We have other aspects to us that we don't share at work. What if you want to go to school for something else completely outside of nursing? What if you want to use the extra time you have outside of work to pursue a hobby you have like art or writing?

Saying that every RN should become an NP is like saying everyone should wear the same shoe size. It just doesn't make any sense, especially since nursing is known for being so broad. Each nurse brings different things to the table.

ErinRN2012 · Jul 11, 2016

I'm on the fence about becoming an FNP. Mostly because I don't want to go back to school right now.

I work with several NPs, and all but 1 are great to work with. The one that acts like she's above us never worked the floor as an RN. I think that makes a huge difference.

greener22, BSN, MSN, RN · Jul 11, 2016

I see this all the time, especially with younger nurses who have less than 2 years experience. Seems like almost everyone is in NP school. even my best friend is now an NP and can't understand why I don't want to do that. I do have a MSN in Education and that is what I love. Where did this idea start?

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Jul 11, 2016

A nurse who worked on my staff was attending NP school. I made a lot of accommodations in her schedule to help her get through. The farther she went in the program, the more that what we did was beneath her. A couple of my staff who worked part-time jobs elsewhere ran into her as an NP. Instead of speaking to someone if she needed to talk to one of the nurses, she snapped her fingers like she was calling a dog. Arrogant isn't a strong enough word to describe her attitude.

needlesmcgeeRN, ASN, RN · Jul 11, 2016

I work with a couple of awesome NPs, but I do not want to join them!

chiromed0 · Jul 11, 2016

Well, I'm an NP now and I'd tell you "no" not every nurse should pursue NP. Job market is location dependent and you can make NP money just working your butt off as an RN w/o the debt. For some of us clinical work is better suited to our strengths than nursing work.

There's other ways as an RN to gain certification in different areas and make just as much. It's not the be all and end all, it's just an alternative for an RN. Believe me there's nothing about being an NP or a Dr. that should make one look down at RN's. That's just the person you're dealing with. Now, on the other hand I really get annoyed by RN's that question everything Dr.'s/NP/PA's order. It's fine to learn but it doesn't foster any faith/confidence in the RN if the clinician is always wondering if that nurse is NOT going to do what they request.