FNP in In-Patient Settings

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Hello all! I wanted to reach out to our AllNurses community and get some feedback on a question I've been pondering. So I've recently been accepted into an MSN/DNP program to become a Family Nurse Practitioner, and as excited as I am, I was stuck on the prospects of finding jobs within a hospital. In my head currently, I'm leaning towards working in an in-patient setting, but reading through some threads here note that becoming an ACNP would be more appropriate for that endeavor. I just wanted to hear from some of you, any FNPs who are working in an in-patient setting, or for anyone who has had experience as an FNP in an in-patient setting. Looking forward to chatting with you all!

Specializes in ED, OR, Oncology.
Mind you I'm not advocating for FNPs to do inpatient work. But if you have a patient you care for and want to ensure their meds and treatment regimens are what you're expecting, you shouldn't be denied just because you are a FNP.

This is a great point- transitioning care from an inpatient visit, back to the PCP, is an area that I see lacking frequently, and having a patient's primary care team involved in the process can only improve the transition.

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

I had this conversation with the Dean of my program just the other day. I'm in the acute program and we are currently sharing a class with some students from the FNP program. One of the FNP students was expressing her concern because she wanted to be able to work in the ED or at least some other inpatient specialty. The Dean was telling her that she really should have done the AGACNP track because it's getting very difficult now in our state to be hired in an inpatient area with an FNP. The student was wanting to switch tracks but in our acute program there are only 14 places a year, while there are 40-50 FNP slots. Our school finds all our clinical placements and won't place any FNP students in an inpatient area. All of us acute folks have the pick of the inpatient specialties and I'm about to embark on my second ICU placement. I feel very relieved that I made the decision to sign up for the acute track when I see the way things are going. The other student will likely now have to get a post-master's in acute care if she is unable to switch programs. It's a heck of a dilemma because it's not really clear when you're making the decision which program to sign up for, but I believe they're making that delineation more and more now on the school's website so as to be clear.

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I had this conversation with the Dean of my program just the other day. I'm in the acute program and we are currently sharing a class with some students from the FNP program. One of the FNP students was expressing her concern because she wanted to be able to work in the ED or at least some other inpatient specialty. The Dean was telling her that she really should have done the AGACNP track because it's getting very difficult now in our state to be hired in an inpatient area with an FNP. The student was wanting to switch tracks but in our acute program there are only 14 places a year, while there are 40-50 FNP slots. Our school finds all our clinical placements and won't place any FNP students in an inpatient area. All of us acute folks have the pick of the inpatient specialties and I'm about to embark on my second ICU placement. I feel very relieved that I made the decision to sign up for the acute track when I see the way things are going. The other student will likely now have to get a post-master's in acute care if she is unable to switch programs. It's a heck of a dilemma because it's not really clear when you're making the decision which program to sign up for, but I believe they're making that delineation more and more now on the school's website so as to be clear.

My program was similarly strict in regards to clinical placements for FNP and ACNP students. They were very clear that FNP students would not be able to rotate inpatient in any capacity. I think they should make this clear prior to matriculation.

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Does this apply to ED positions as well? Fast track or otherwise? How will an ACNP be able to see Peds?

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.
Does this apply to ED positions as well? Fast track or otherwise? How will an ACNP be able to see Peds?

They are recommended to have both certifications...FNP and Acute.

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They are recommended to have both certifications...FNP and Acute.

I have also seen ACNP and ACPNP working in the ER.

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