I wanna be an ANP (in Occ Health Nursing) suggestions please

[EwwThat'sNasty]

This is also posted in the NP section, I hope that isn't a faux pas.

I've almost two years experience in Occupational Health Nursing. I'll sit for the COHN-S by November. I Have a BS/Chem; a BS/Safety Studies and an Assoc. D. in Nursing. Prior experience: 6 months Med/Surg; 8 months Adult ICU at a major tertiary hospital. I left there due to stress (and increasing BP) and a 2.5 hour/day commute plus reversing 12 hour shifts. I fell into Occupational Health Nursing and love it. My BP w/o meds now averages 117/67, at the ICU it averaged 168/95 w/meds.

I'd like to become ANP but with a focus in Occupational Health. But where, and how? I enjoy musculoskeletal issues, toxics, and emerging science like nano stuff. I'm quite passionate about problems that need solving.

I'm not young, and have $30k in loans already. It's getting to the point that I'll be paying long after people then my age will be retired. So cost is a factor. I live in NH and so the best places would have to be in NH/MA. Harvard/Simmons has a sub-specialty in Occ Health. Maybe any old ANP will do with the sub-specialty taken at Harvard/Simmons.

NIOSH has grants for the Harvard/Simmons sub-specialty, but I don't think they do for any, nor does there seem to be an ANP/subspecialty combo in Occ Health Nursing....

I'm 57. Age is the only thing that I lie about...everyone in my work life thinks that I'm 46. (I look young and am very fit). At age 57, having a loan with a 25 year payback, I'll still be paying at age 84. Now I do hope to be still working (or alive) then...I cannot imagine retiring but.... see the quandary? Also consider that twenty years in the future most industries will have as employees only two... one a dog, and the other a man. The man is there to feed the dog, the dog is there to make sure the man doesn't touch anything. *grin* But I'm willing to travel to Outer Sumanatstyan if necessary, there will always be work...

Have we any experienced Occ Health Nurses that might be willing to write or talk with me about suggestions or options? I have thought about programs in WA and NC and could move. Trying to figure out the best path gives me a HA.

I'm acutely aware of the need to plan a path, and to plan ahead in this rapidly changing world to be in demand. (Especially at 84!)

Thanks,

eww

[42pines]

Jim, are the NIOSH programs/subsidies still active? I'd love to hear more about how this works.

[H60Medic]

Good morning all, yes the NIOSH program is alive and doing well. I have one more semester after this current one and then I can take national boards as an Adult Nurse Practitioner. I can also continue my education in a NIOSH sponsored PhD.

Here is a link to provide you with some info and a couple of points of contact:

http://www.soph.uab.edu/dsc/OccupationalHealthNursing

Hope this helps, Jim

[katkonk, BSN, RN]

I have not read every single one of the replies since you posted this. However, I have worked in Occ. Health off and on since 1996, and have been certified since 1998 or 99 (forgot when I took the test). I think that you may be making this more difficult for yourself than it has to be. You say you will have a COHN-S soon. That takes care of any future employer's concern about whether you know the finer points of occ. health nursing. Get an Adult NP certification through any good school, and target your clinical rounds toward occ. health. Get ortho, ortho, and more ortho. Get clinical rounds with a PM&R doctor, so that you learn the rehab end of things, or how to prescribe exercises to keep back issues/tendonitis, etc. from becoming worse and (hopefully) keep your patients from having surgery. (Optimistic, I know, but if you can handle CTS and epicondylitis, bad backs, etc. for an employer and keep the employees from having to go down more invasive routes, then everyone wins.) Emergency care is important, but probably more important is pre-hospital care. Being able to stabilize and immobilize someone will serve you well, because you are going to be sending all trauma out the door with EMS ASAP. Learn travel medicine, if you want to go the corporate route, and work for global corps that send travelers all over the world. I currently am working in both travel medicine (I am an RN, not an NP), and report to NP's that do the physical exams for the traveling employees. As a COHN-S, I am assuming you already know the audiometric and spirometry part of our job. Do rotations at a major corporation that has MD's at it's location and can really show you the finer points of occ med. All of the NP's I work with have basic NP degrees (some FNP, some Adult NP), and none have an NP degree specifically in occ. med.

Good luck!