nurse practitioner or RN?

shel_wny · Jul 3, 2004

You could be. More money for the MSN is absolutely not guaranteed. Especially not if you go into education (teaching in, say, a BSN program), but applies to NPs as well.

Ah, thanks for the insight! As odd as it might seem I've never thought about it that way. Makes much more sense now.

Shel

tiredfeetED · Jul 3, 2004

I am a child psych CS (MSN from a prestigious university and national certification), and the nursing faculty position I have held and my current job as a mental health consultant for the state both pay quite a bit less than I could make working as a staff nurse in a hospital. However, there are other advantages to the jobs that balance that out and make them worthwhile to me. At the highest paying jobs I have held as a CS, I'm sure there were staff nurses (with lots of seniority and high-demand specialization) at the same hospital that were making significantly more money than me.
It's not as simple as "more education = more money." It's about supply and demand; demand for staff nurses in hospitals is so high that hospitals have to pay more to fill those positions.
Nursing education is notoriously "underpaid." Every faculty member in every nursing program is making less money than s/he could make working in a clinical position. You do it because you want to teach.
I would not recommend that anyone go to grad school just because s/he wants to make more money. There are much quicker and easier ways to boost your earning power in nursing! Go to grad school because it's something that's personally important to you, and because you want to pursue the additional professional opportunities and flexibility that come with an advanced degree. I believe that the most important factor, though, is that you enjoy what you're doing all day everyday -- work is too a big piece of our lives to hate your job!
There was a recent thread about this that you could look up. If I recall correctly, it said that CA still has at least one (maybe more) certificate program which prepares you to be an NP in CA, but you would not be eligible for national certification as an NP, and probably would not be employable as an NP outside CA (there may well be facilities within CA that wouldn't hire you -- the national standard is an MSN degree).

Yes CA has Stanford Primary Care program and Davis Primary care programs that are PA/NP progams...There is a Track for BSN students that wish to aquire there MSN while obtaining there NP. These programs are 18months to two years of intense training of assessments and diagnosis. The requirements for these guys and gals to be licensed is pretty tough, MSN or NOT. Majority of these RN's have around 10 yrs exp. The pay varies from pracitce. 50k for those who work in clinics to specialties (surgery) 150k. There is no place that would not hire a FNP/BSN. Again some FNP's function as a RN because of the high demand in California. It took 1 yr to find a PA/FNP who specialty was Emergency medicine( he makes darn good money 100+)

tiredfeetED · Jul 3, 2004

I am a child psych CS (MSN from a prestigious university and national certification), and the nursing faculty position I have held and my current job as a mental health consultant for the state both pay quite a bit less than I could make working as a staff nurse in a hospital. However, there are other advantages to the jobs that balance that out and make them worthwhile to me. At the highest paying jobs I have held as a CS, I'm sure there were staff nurses (with lots of seniority and high-demand specialization) at the same hospital that were making significantly more money than me.
It's not as simple as "more education = more money." It's about supply and demand; demand for staff nurses in hospitals is so high that hospitals have to pay more to fill those positions.
Nursing education is notoriously "underpaid." Every faculty member in every nursing program is making less money than s/he could make working in a clinical position. You do it because you want to teach.
I would not recommend that anyone go to grad school just because s/he wants to make more money. There are much quicker and easier ways to boost your earning power in nursing! Go to grad school because it's something that's personally important to you, and because you want to pursue the additional professional opportunities and flexibility that come with an advanced degree. I believe that the most important factor, though, is that you enjoy what you're doing all day everyday -- work is too a big piece of our lives to hate your job!
There was a recent thread about this that you could look up. If I recall correctly, it said that CA still has at least one (maybe more) certificate program which prepares you to be an NP in CA, but you would not be eligible for national certification as an NP, and probably would not be employable as an NP outside CA (there may well be facilities within CA that wouldn't hire you -- the national standard is an MSN degree).

Yes CA has Stanford Primary Care program and Davis Primary care programs that are PA/NP progams...There is a Track for BSN students that wish to aquire there MSN while obtaining there NP. These programs are 18months to two years of intense training of assessments and diagnosis. The requirements for these guys and gals to be licensed is pretty tough, MSN or NOT. Majority of these RN's have around 10 yrs exp. The pay varies from pracitce. 50k for those who work in clinics to specialties (surgery) 150k. There is no place that would not hire a FNP/BSN. Again some FNP's function as a RN because of the high demand in California. It took 1 yr to find a PA/FNP who specialty was Emergency medicine( he makes darn good money 100+)

DC2RN · Jul 3, 2004

I know that you can have a PHD and still be flipping burgers and some guy that can barely speak can get to the top (look at Bush) but I always remind myself in this life of increasing competition of a little saying I heard from a Klingon "the higher the fewer"...
.

It helps to have a bachelors from Yale and a MBA from Harvard, like Bush!

DC2RN · Jul 3, 2004

I know that you can have a PHD and still be flipping burgers and some guy that can barely speak can get to the top (look at Bush) but I always remind myself in this life of increasing competition of a little saying I heard from a Klingon "the higher the fewer"...
.

It helps to have a bachelors from Yale and a MBA from Harvard, like Bush!

natasha700 · Jul 4, 2004

What an eye opener. I always assumed you must have a masters degree to be a practitioner so I did some searching and found an Ob GYN PN you did not have to have a masters. As far as being above and RN sounds so separtist RN is the basis where most of us have started what is so wonderful is that we can add, enhance our RN to great heights if we want to. I eventually would like to be an advance practice nurse. Many of my co workers say, "You wont make any money!" It depends on how you look at it. Many of us work 3-6 days a week or payperiod to make ends meet. Well as a nurse practitioner I would not have to work as many days and make the same amount of money. My motto is to work less and make more. My personal time means more than money. I just thank goodness we are in a nation that RN doesn't have to be a dead end job there are so many opportunities for anyone who wants excel in excellence.

natasha700 · Jul 4, 2004

What an eye opener. I always assumed you must have a masters degree to be a practitioner so I did some searching and found an Ob GYN PN you did not have to have a masters. As far as being above and RN sounds so separtist RN is the basis where most of us have started what is so wonderful is that we can add, enhance our RN to great heights if we want to. I eventually would like to be an advance practice nurse. Many of my co workers say, "You wont make any money!" It depends on how you look at it. Many of us work 3-6 days a week or payperiod to make ends meet. Well as a nurse practitioner I would not have to work as many days and make the same amount of money. My motto is to work less and make more. My personal time means more than money. I just thank goodness we are in a nation that RN doesn't have to be a dead end job there are so many opportunities for anyone who wants excel in excellence.