FNP practicing as a Neonatal NP?

[adboehnen]

I am currently an FNP student. I was wondering if an FNP may practice as a NNP? Would a person need to go on for further certification?

Also, are there any FNPs would there working in perinatal clinics? If so, I'd love to hear how you like your profession?

[pedspnp]

No, you need to have certification as a NNP, the family nurse practitioner does not prepare you for practicing in that capacity. Yes, you would have to go back for additional certification. I am a PNP and am not allowed to treat any thing but pediatrics, if I did it would be considered out of my scope of practice. Hope this helps

[meandragonbrett]

You'd be pretty hard pressed to find any facility that would allow an FNP to practice in the role of a NNP w/o doing a post masters cert as a NNP.

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

Some facilities allow FNPs to work in the NICU. Technically you can, since you are "technically" trained to care for patients across the lifespan.

However...

You will be hard pressed to find a NICU who will hire you. The vast majority of NICUs will only hire NNPs. It's getting to the point now where they only want board-certified NNPs. Before my current facility would even hire me into an NNP position, I had to pass boards. Most places I had interviewed had the same requirement. And you can't take NNP boards unless you have an NNP-specialized MSN.

If you want to practice in any capacity as an NNP, go for an NNP. However, keep in mind that your scope of practice is limited to ages 0-2, and is pretty much solely inpatient, acute care unit based.

If your future goals would have you working outside a hospital, go for the FNP. It allows you much more flexibility. Don't get me wrong, I love being an NNP :)

[nomadcrna, DNP, CRNA, NP]

An FNP can practice with any patients, throughout the life span.

Now are they qualified to do the same work as a NNP? That is the question. Doubtful, unless they receive additional training.

Are they as competitive as a NNP? Doubtful

Do you NEED additional certification? No, but you would need to show additional training to practice in that role.

Of course state laws vary. :)

But the option is there and that is what makes the FNP desirable, IMHO.

[AbeFrohman, BSN, RN]

I have to agree with nomad. Technically speaking an FNP can do what a NNP does. It would be an uphill battle to be able to do procedures like circumcision, but if you found someone willing to train you it could legally be done in most states.

[pedspnp]

I don't see how a FNP is qualified to do what a NNP does, they do not take any neonatal courses that I am aware of, even as a PNP none of my course work touched on nicu. Yes a fnp does treat across the life span but NICU is out of their scope of practice.

[nomadcrna, DNP, CRNA, NP]

You just have to document your training. When I get credentialed at a hospital and I check off what procedures I want to do, if they are out of my core list. I need to provide proof of training. This is for both the hospital and by my state law. So if I want to practice in a nicu, before I could get credentialed and to be legal with my state, I would need to work under a neonatologist or nnp. As long as I could show training, I could do it.

For instance, they don't blink about me doing central lines but I have to show documentation for chest tubes. I do medical support for the local swat team(swat doc). My state board's only requirement was for me to document training. I went to a two week course and was done.

FNPs take care of newborns, babies and children all the time. That is what makes FNP practice interesting, seeing all ages of patients. Some fnps even do prenatal care, yuk.

Ron

[guest769224]

I am bumping this thread.

How could an FNP practice as an NNP when there is a rule that you must have 2 years NICU RN experience? I thought that was mandatory for admission. Can an FNP really do as proposed in this thread even without nurse experience with neonates?

[babyNP., APRN]

The 2 years thing is coming from school admissions into NNP school, ICUman. The NCC (the boards for NNP) used to require 2 years of experience, but they have removed it. I trust what Steve says, but my only guess is that those FNPs probably had extensive NICU RN experience. My preceptor did have her FNP when going into NICU a very long time ago, but the only reason was that the NNP certification did not exist yet- she went and got the NNP certification once it was available. NICU doesn't even like to hire PNPs or PAs for the most part.

I seriously do not see a hospital credentialing a FNP to take care of neonates in an intensivist role. Forget the fact that you're not taught anything about NICU, you never would have done any procedures on infants like intubation, chest tubes, lumbar punctures, etc. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure the new APRN Consensus Model would not allow something like this...there was a thread earlier about a FNP trying to do psych and was told she was practicing out of her scope.

[Jules A, MSN]

There seems to be a common myth among some that FNPs can "do anything". I would urge anyone who is considering a specialty to ensure they are qualified to do the job, their training was sufficient and that their BON supports them in doing it. Definitely don't rely on employers who sometimes don't even care if you are competent let alone practicing within your scope. In one of the other threads on this topic someone wrote something along the lines of it is ok until something goes wrong. Ummm yeah! Harming a patient and losing a license over what would appear to be an ego driven choice would be a travesty.

[anh06005, MSN, APRN, NP]

There seems to be a common myth among some that FNPs can "do anything". I would urge anyone who is considering a specialty to ensure they are qualified to do the job, their training was sufficient and that their BON supports them in doing it. Definitely don't rely on employers who sometimes don't even care if you are competent let alone practicing within your scope. In one of the other threads on this topic someone wrote something along the lines of it is ok until something goes wrong. Ummm yeah! Harming a patient and losing a license over what would appear to be an ego driven choice would be a travesty.

This. An FNP is trained to work in primary care with patients of all age groups. I don't know about you but I'd rather an NP who was specifically trained to care for my NICU baby yo care for my NICU baby. Not an FNP. We (FNP) aren't trained for acute care and aren't trained for much in terms of infant care besides well checks, immunizations, and COMMON illnesses.

FNP is the most broad of NP scopes so I do think it's great. Even though there are some FNP's who work in the hospital I wouldn't feel comfortable there because I wasn't trained to think of IV antibiotics, think of which type of IV fluid would be appropriate, placing central lines, intubating patients, etc. In the future I may go back for ACNP so then I would be formally trained for the acute care setting.

Legally you might can get away with it. But the reality is your FNP training does NOT prepare you for the NNP role.