FNP: Daily grind and glory

[reglet]

I am currently taking prerequisite courses to enter RN school, with an ultimate goal of becoming a family nurse practitioner. I'm a "mature" student, having left high-tech to start a new career. (My previous work was as a technical writer and editor in semiconductor-design software companies--I love, and am good at, explaining complex concepts in a straightforward and simple fashion.)

My "vision" of what I'd ultimately like to do is provide one-on-one care and education for all ages of patients in a clinic setting.

I would value some opinions from FNPs about their day-to-day tasks; what they like about the path they're on; and what they would want to improve.

I've made a good-faith effort to ferret out threads on this topic. If there's a pre-existing thread, I would appreciate it if someone could point me to it.

Thanks for your suggestions and feedback!

[BCgradnurse, MSN, RN, NP]

Hi,

I am also a "mature" career changer who recently graduated from a direct entry FNP program. I've only been working for a month, but i'm happy to tell you what my job is like. I work in a community health center in Urgent Care. Most of my patients just have very basic state health insurance, and some have none. The population is very diverse ethnically and racially, and many do not speak English (thank goodness for our translators!). I love the challenges that Urgent Care brings-I do mostly same day "sick" visits and I love the problem solving I have to do. I don't get to do a whole lot of teaching, as I'm there to deal with an acute problem and not with ongoing health maintenance. I am dealing with a lot more psych issues than I expected, and I'm hearing the same thing from my friends who are working as FNPs in a variety of settings. As I am new, I don't know most of the patients yet, but i'm starting to see repeaters. I love the patients-even the drug seekers (of which there are many). I feel so good about the services my clinic provides to the community. I know I'm still in the honeymoon phase of the job, but it feels very good to help those in need. Here's what I don't like about the job: the lack of resources to provide some rapid testing, like strep, flu, mono, trichomonas, etc. Everything has to go to an outside lab and then we wait.... . I hate ordering tests and meds based on insurance, not on what's best for patient care. I'd like to do some primary care and have my own patient load to follow continuously. I'd like to see kids, but I only see adults. That being said, I am glad I took a "generalist" position as opposed to working in a specialty area such as cardiology or oncology. I see so many different things and I am learning a tremendous amount. My days fly by and I'm tired at night, but I don't feel overworked. Maybe that will change once the "honeymoon" is over, but right now I'm pretty excited to go to work in the AM.

Again, this is just the brief experience of a newbie, but I hope it helps. Best of luck to you.

[reglet]

Hi, BCgradnurse--

Thanks very much for your thoughtful response to my posting. The overall picture you provided meshes generally with what I'm expecting to do--so your thoughts were very helpful.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Regards,

reglet

[misplaced1]

Reglet i am really curious as to why you would switch careers. i would love to be a technical writer your job sounded great

[reglet]

Hi, misplaced1--

In a nutshell, I have switched careers because I was burnt out from 18 years in the Silicon Valley, high-tech pressure-cooker. (Perhaps I'm only switching one pressure-cooker for another, but I feel I can offer more to society in medicine than I ever did writing computer software documentation.)

I always felt like a fish swimming upstream: generally, there is a lot of lip service towards having complete, accurate user documentation. But there was rarely any commitment--whether in appropriate levels of staffing, editing, review time allocated by technical reviewers, or in an understanding of our process and what value writers and editors bring to the product--that would make the job anything but a case of sub-clinical frustration and aggravation. Bear in mind that I worked in an industry of very smart, highly talented engineers who wrote software code to design and test very complex electronic circuits--the kind of chips used in cellphones, laptops, and other consumer electronics. That kind of documentation is extremely complex, and requires extraordinary attention to detail. This isn't off-the-shelf software! I worked in three major companies in Silicon Valley and all adopted the insidious idea that you could offshore technical writing and editing just as easily as the code development.

Anyway, I realize that this is far from the usual fare for this website and forum. I certainly don't mean to discourage you from approaching technical writing. As a matter of fact, I fully hope to bring my excellent writing and editing skills with me into my nursing career. That's one of the things that attracts me so to the field: There are seemingly endless possibilities for "implementing" (as we'd say in the electronic design automation software industry) the skills and talents I have and will learn.

Good luck!

reglet