ER NP Position

Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP · Jun 27

I've never worked in the ER, but I do have two former classmates who became NPs alongside me and went to the ER. One of them had 3 months of training and the other had 4 months before going solo. Of course, even solo, they are still surrounded by various other NPs, PAs, and MDs to help if they need it. Both of these classmates were in what you could call a residency (this is at least what they called it when they started). This meant that they were paid a bit less while they were training, and then as they went solo the pay increased.

The first person had 10 years experience in ER (Level 1) work. The one with the four months of training did not have ER experience, but other experience such as Urgent Care, Orthopedic Surgery, and Peds. They both say it is quite the learning curve; especially the charting because it can be a lot if it's extremely busy on certain days. Then again, charting is just a pain in the butt regardless whether it's in the ER or in a clinic. 😂

What you also have to take into account is, which program did you get your degree or certificate from: Family practice? Acute care? Adult and geriatric? In many of the family nurse practitioner programs, you're not going to get the chance to do a lot of the hands-on procedures you may see in the ER. In an acute care program however, chances are you have done rotations where there may be practice doing various procedures, so it may not be as bad of a learning curve as somebody who has not had a lot of practice doing family nurse practitioner rotations.

Anyhow, that's all I know about some of my former classmates. Maybe this will help you a bit?

Good luck!