GN to NP in <1yr

[OhioCCRN]

I read a recent post regarding new graduates who cannot find work jumping on the NP bandwagon.

At work the other day, a new grad co-worker (less than 5 months experience) launched into a bitter tirade against a well known school for having the gall to expect her to have 2 years experience, have been involved in EBP, Committees and to have precepted before being allowed to even apply to join their ACNP program.....

Mind you, this nurse can barely handle her assignment... what makes her think that the NP is going to be an easy way out of floor nursing.... The courses take time and dedication and contrary to popular belief, graduation and subsequent employment are not a given..

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I disagree with your perspective. Perhaps, for this nurse it is not time to be an NP, but that is not true of all new graduate nurses. The RN role and the NP role are COMPLETELY different. Being an RN on the floor for a few years is probably helpful but I don't think it makes one NP better than another... Yes some NPs don't feel prepared out of school, they can easily sign up for an internship and hang out with an MD or another NP before they begin to practice independently. Floor nursing isn't for some people.

Saying a GN shouldn't become an NP until they have x years of experience is like saying a CNA shouldn't be an RN until x years of experience... except this makes MORE sense because the CNA and RN have much more in common than the NP and the RN.

Sometimes I think that the nurses who discourage GN so much from being NPs are jealous because they are jealous that the twenty-something GN has the drive to become an NP, while the 45 year old nurse with 44 years of nursing experience (sarcasm) is still stuck at the bedside and can't imagine going back to school... Just an observation.... I'm jealous of my 22 year old friend who only has a few months until she's an FNP... It's okay to be jealous, but resist the totally natural urge to rain on their parade.

This paragraph invalidates what you said in the first paragraph. Someone who is so immature and lacking in critical thinking skills to believe that disagreeing with your point of view is "just jealousy" clearly lacks the maturity and critical thinking skills to be an NP. A few years of bedside experience would fix that.

[Dranger]

So you should tack on a few extra years for good measure even though it doesn't improve outcomes?

By this same argument why shouldn't beside nursing require a BSN or MSN or DNP? Why have you not gotten yours yet? I am sure you want what is best for your patients...

Again, show me a study that proves the additional education improves outcomes.

I have a BSN, no clinical advantage to an ADN. Just another mark for the nursing lobby.

NP? Not in my future. Maybe CRNA or PA or DO.

You always know what you don't know. I guess my NP to DO friend was just making stuff up, google the NP and USMLE 3 fail experiment. I am on my phone and it is hard to pull up. That evidence alone is telling. Over 50% fail rate when physicians get close to 100...

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

After reading through this entire thread, I just think its silly how so many nurses just can't respect the role of an NP!? And for a REGISTERED NURSE to be refusing her loved to be seen by a "midlevel practitioner"?! Wow! Way to NOT be an advocate for your profession!

I personally think it's amazing how flexible and versatile nursing is... It's great that WE, as nurses, even have the option of becoming an NP. Obviously it's not for everyone. Just as psych nursing isn't for everyone (it would make me pull my hair out ) and not everyone has the desire to become a nursing professor. But hey guess what? We are all nurses.

It's not lack of respect for the role of an NP; it's lack of respect for some of the NPs being spit out of schools these days. It really shows who has had bedside experience and who has not.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Wrong again.

Study Shows Fertility Decline Begins in Late 20s - Scientific American

"Female fertility starts to fall off gradually around age 27 before dropping more dramatically after age 35."

And don't call me "dear." It comes off as rather condescending, particularly when one is completely unaware of the facts.

Thanks.

With respect to your fertility, that's not what the thread is about.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

I have a BSN no clinical advantage to an ADN. Just another mark for the nursing lobby. NP? Not in my future. Maybe CRNA or PA or DO. You always know what you don't know. I guess my NP to DO friend was just making stuff up, google the NP and USMLE 3 fail experiment. I am on my phone and it is hard to pull up. That evidence alone is telling.[/quote']

Oh so in your particular case more education does not improve outcomes or have a clinical advantage.

This is an isolated phenomenon to MD and NPs where more education automatically means clinical advantage even though there is no research to support it.

If you want what is best for your patients then obviously a MDA is the only option, not a CRNA. Not even a DO as they were also once in the position NPs are in today.

You think that individuals that had their entire education focused in taking an exam should score the same as individuals in the same clinical position that were educated to take a different exam? You are grasping at straws there.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

It's not lack of respect for the role of an NP; it's lack of respect for some of the NPs being spit out of schools these days. It really shows who has had bedside experience and who has not.

It shows where? Let's all read the evidence.

Perhaps step one should be respecting everyone, then move on from there.

[Dranger]

Oh so in your particular case more education does not improve outcomes or have a clinical advantage.

This is an isolated phenomenon to MD and NPs where more education automatically means clinical advantage even though there is no research to support it.

If you want what is best for your patients then obviously a MDA is the only option, not a CRNA. Not even a DO as they were also once in the position NPs are in today.

You think that individuals that had their entire education focused in taking an exam should score the same as individuals in the same clinical position that were educated to take a different exam? You are grasping at straws there.

I understand where DOs were at a while ago but comparing DOs to NPs is like apples and oranges.

Step 3 is a basic test to see if new residents can practice medicine in an effective context. If attending NPs can't even pass a new resident exam then that means a lot for their status in the medical community. More education certainly means better results but you have to look at the quality of education. Classes in theory, ethics or leadership are not going to reliably produce better medical knowledge. My BSN was full of that fluff, NPs schools are full of it too. I want the meat and potatoes of medicine not theory. Medical school and to an extant PA school fulfill that while nursing does not.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

More education certainly means better results but you have to look at the quality of education.

Medical school and to an extant PA school do that while nursing does not.

So then show me a study that demonstrates this is true. If more education "certainly means better results" and we all agree MDs spend longer in school, then that should play out in a simple study. Post a link here.

In this vein, then why is medical school only 4 year (now actually 3 years for some schools) instead of 6 or 8 or 16 or 32? Physician errors kill 100,000 people a year, why not make medical school longer and reduce this?

[Susie2310]

However, NPs do not present themselves as medical authorities since we are still nurses.

You are correct that NP's are still nurses. However, if a NP is presuming to diagnose and treat my family or myself I consider the NP is presenting himself/herself as a medical authority, albeit that they are not a physician.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

if a NP is presuming to diagnose and treat my family or myself I consider the NP is presenting himself/herself as a medical authority.

Yet they are licensed to do so in every state, and their outcomes are no different for other "medical authorities".

[Susie2310]

Yet they are licensed to do so in every state, and their outcomes are no different for other "medical authorities".

You are free to state your opinion.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

You are free to state your opinion.

This is not opinion, it is fact. Would you like citations to either component of that factual statement?