People who work as cardiology NPs, would you recommend to a nurse who wants to specialize in cardiology as an NP, but not work in ICU, to go for their FNP or AGACNP? I currently work as a nurse on an interventional cardiology floor, patients who are post-MI, heart transplant/LVAD/TAVR workups, arrhythmia, pulmonary hypertension, and congestive heart failure as well as scheduled for vascular surgeries, cardiac catherization lab, cardioversions/ablations, and coronary artery bypass grafts. I really like this level of acute care that's not ICU but still with patients who are acutely ill. I shadowed a nurse practitioner and she has her AGACNP but works with these types of patients and never does ICU, but still inpatient. Are these types of jobs widely available? Thank you ?
If I was younger (such as my son's age he is 19) I might consider getting an FNP and an ACNP certification. In this way one would be able to manage patients both in an outpatient and inpatient setting and giving a "continuity of care" for your clients when they have to go "inpatient" in the hospital. My only concern with AGACNP is that many of the jobs would involve long term care facilities and most of the clients would be complex, have multiple comorbidities as opposed to the FNP "across the lifespan" approach which allows for a more diverse client base.
Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP
8 Articles; 4,475 Posts
Oh, maybe don't ask me, I graduated in 2003, that's a long time ago.