How long should you be an RN before starting NP school?

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H! I just graduated with my BSN last month and will soon be starting orientation for my RN position in a few weeks. My question is this: How long do you think someone should work as an RN before applying to NP school? I want to become an adult acute care NP someday and was thinking of starting NP school (part-time) after I work as an RN for 1-2 years. While I'm going to NP school part-time, I would still be working as an RN part-time as well. What do you all think?

-Christine

I am currently in a program that is BS/BA to NP. It is two years (including summers). We all have undergrad degrees in something other than nursing. Some people disagree with this expedited path, but I think it is a great option. (Also going back for your masters as soon as you are an RN is a great idea too, if you would like.)

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I really liked what you said about the NP with little experience. You had very good points about the responsibilities of NP-s.

I have so much stress related to my unability to decide between the two: should I become NP with only 3 years of RN experience (by the time I get my NP degree done) or, I'd rather become an MD with 3 years of residency experience? I am currently 38 and I am a new RN with no experience who got into a RN-BSN program. so if I start this RN-BSN and continue streightforward to MSN, I will be NP in three years, but will only have 3 years of RN experience since i will work as an RN during my BSN and MSN studies. I think I will feel very uncomfortable being called an NP with only 3 yeras of RN experince. Based on the above rationale, sould it be a better idea not to start RN-BSN program and instead study 4 years in MD school + 3 years of residency and after 7 years I get an MD license. If I do this, I will be an MD in 7 years with 3 years of residency experince, and by that time I will be 46 y.o. (I am currently also accepted in a medical school oversees, that is accreditted in US).

It is a very difficult to know what it better.

Please, respond to my quesion, if you have any advice for me.

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I really liked what you said about the NP with little experience. You had very good points about the responsibilities of NP-s.

I have so much stress related to my unability to decide between the two: should I become NP with only 3 years of RN experience (by the time I get my NP degree done) or, I'd rather become an MD with 3 years of residency experience? I am currently 38 and I am a new RN with no experience who got into a RN-BSN program. so if I start this RN-BSN and continue streightforward to MSN, I will be NP in three years, but will only have 3 years of RN experience since i will work as an RN during my BSN and MSN studies. I think I will feel very uncomfortable being called an NP with only 3 yeras of RN experince. Based on the above rationale, sould it be a better idea not to start RN-BSN program and instead study 4 years in MD school + 3 years of residency and after 7 years I get an MD license. If I do this, I will be an MD in 7 years with 3 years of residency experince, and by that time I will be 46 y.o. (I am currently also accepted in a medical school oversees, that is accreditted in US).

It is a very difficult to know what it better.

Please, respond to my quesion, if you have any advice for me.

Not so fast. Physicians begin doing several days per week of suprevised clinicals in their junior year of med school, then go through a full-time minimum three year long residency. They have been "Practicing" for at least five years before they are on their own. In my grad program, we did 8 hours a week for two semesters, then 16 hours for one semester, then a 10 week full-time internship. And I had a huge amount of experience and graduated from one of the best programs in the country. Even so, there was a huge amount I had to learn those first few years out.

While I am sure that somewhere in the USA there is an extraordinary nurse or two who suceeded as an NP with so little experience, but I am also sure they are few and far between.

I precepted NP students for about 7 years. I had one who was an older, second career student who had gone to grad school after less than a year of Part-time practice. Many of my other NP students had years of experience, and were stellar. This one made me quite nervous because she had so little awareness of what the role involved, and of how litte she knew. Even worse, she took feedback poorly. At one point, I told her that it felt as if I was giving her a gift by taking her under my wing, and that it felt as if she were shoving the gifts right back at me.

Because of the pressure to get up and running quickly so you can see lots of patients each and every day, you should not count on having a mentor or even a prolonged orientation. You also need to know that the job market for NPs is tightening up, and that you will be low man on the totem pole once employers realize how little experience you have. And, many NPs jobs originate from connections they already have with physicians and HC systems.

By the way, make sure that you won't be expected to find your own preceptiors and clinical sites. That not always easy, and a busy NP may not want to take on an inexperienced student.

Think about this carefully before you make your decision. I can think of no probelms that would stem from you having MORE experience, and many created by not enough.

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Very well said!!!! the truth hurst sometimes

The dean of our school encouraged us to go ahead and go straight to NP school right after our BSN. Her reason was that the responsibilities of an RN greatly differs from that of an NP... and that RN experience is irrelevant to NP practice (not making this up).

Has this dean actually practiced as a NP?

I am suspicious of the comment about difference in responsibilities between RNs and NPs. Yes, what you do on the job is quite different, but the RN's knowledge and skills form a HUGE foundation for what the NP does and knows, and adds immensely to the NP's ability to make solid clinical judgments. I cannot immagine how I would have done as well as I have without the many years of experience behind me.

Is this dean under pressure to fill slots in a graduate program? Or to raise the profile of the program by having a high percentage of students who go on to graduate school?

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