Is Becoming A NP Worth It?

[carachel2]

Quote

also want to be a mom and have a family someday. My partner works M-F 9-5 and I want to be home with our future family with him. I don't want to be the mom that is working nights, weekends, and spending Christmas morning at the hospital.

And the older the kids get, the more the weekends and holidays thing really stinks. My mom did it and as a kid it didn't bother me really because it was just the way things were. However, as an adult, *I* want to be at home more on weekends and holidays.

[gerry79]

Very good thread!

[zenman]

carachel2 said:

I certainly won't tar and feather you. I got to be kind of bitter working on the floor and in the ER. Here you have a 350 lb patient who has abused their body their whole life and then suddenly I'm supposed to sacrifice MY fit, trim, healthy self in order to help them stand and pee at the bedside ? NO.WAY. I had numerous reasons for going back to school, but the desire to avoid becoming a chronic pain patient myself who couldn't play with my OWN child and future grandchildren was way up there at the top of the list.

FNP x 1.5 years and haven't lifted more than my finger and stethoscope since I walked across that stage.

Other than my ink pen the biggest thing I pick up in my office is my Bubba jug of iced tea.

[CRF250Xpert]

Zen,

I feel your pain. The Springfield 3 inch XD9 was like a Siren song. So far, I love it. Oh, the job that made it possible - so far so good. Always looking for a vertical financial move though. Next stop - Kimber 45 country.

[robbnp22]

CRF250xpert....ok, as a fellow XD9 owner, I hear ya 110%...although Im a 4" barrell owner....Lookin for a .40 or .45 myself soon too...:-)

Seriously tho man, where in the lower 48 are you located making 250K as an IC and 100K part time with a derm office? Im dying to know geographically!

Peace.....

".45....cuz they dont make a .46" :-D

[zenman]

CRF250Xpert said:

Zen,

I feel your pain. The Springfield 3 inch XD9 was like a Siren song. So far, I love it. Oh, the job that made it possible - so far so good. Always looking for a vertical financial move though. Next stop - Kimber 45 country.

Nurse just walked in while I'm staring at a pic of a Les Baer 1911 Boss .45. "You're a gun nut aren't you?" Me: "Yep, meet my next kid."

[apocatastasis]

For what it's worth as a psych NP student with 2 semesters to go (!)... we are regularly inundated with postings for psych NPs. They are all over the internet and all over the place. The last one I got was in Chicago, starting salary of six figures with 2.5 months per year of PTO (2-3 weeks sick and CME and the rest vacation). Full medical insurance paid. I know that at least a couple of psych NPs in private practice here in Texas make more than 200k a year, and 90k-130k starting seems to be the norm across the country, though inpatient/hospital type settings seem to pay less across the board.

A common theme I'm seeing about NP salaries is you have to know how much money you are bringing in to a practice and argue your case for an appropriate salary. Healthcare is NOT any different from any other business, if you own a practice, build up a clientele and charge the going rate in your area. If you are employed by a practice, you HAVE to play hardball sometimes to get what you want, or, yeah, you will be paid $65k a year and you have nothing to blame but yourself. Why would an employer pay you 120k a year when you are ignorantly chugging along, thanking him for the 1,000 dollar raise to your 65k salary?

Nurses in general seem not to be very astute at business so they slide along making crap wages. Sorry, but here in Austin, RN wages are TERRIBLE given the work conditions, who wants to do this for the rest of their lives?! If you look, you will find opportunities to make a decent wage, earn a good return on your money, and, most importantly, do what you love to do.

[drmorton2b]

$125 an hour for a contract Psych NP here in New England.

I will be an NP someday, as long as I have a steady nursing job to plan $ wise. I think nursing wages will go down slowly for the average floor nurse. We won't notice the pay cuts because they will come in the form of no raises and heavier workloads.

Also I am tired of people confusing me the LPN as a NP, just like people think that because I am male I must be the doctor.

[SC ANP]

apocatastasis said:

For what it's worth as a psych NP student with 2 semesters to go (!)... we are regularly inundated with postings for psych NPs. They are all over the internet and all over the place. The last one I got was in Chicago, starting salary of six figures with 2.5 months per year of PTO (2-3 weeks sick and CME and the rest vacation). Full medical insurance paid. I know that at least a couple of psych NPs in private practice here in Texas make more than 200k a year, and 90k-130k starting seems to be the norm across the country, though inpatient/hospital type settings seem to pay less across the board.

A common theme I'm seeing about NP salaries is you have to know how much money you are bringing in to a practice and argue your case for an appropriate salary. Healthcare is NOT any different from any other business, if you own a practice, build up a clientele and charge the going rate in your area. If you are employed by a practice, you HAVE to play hardball sometimes to get what you want, or, yeah, you will be paid $65k a year and you have nothing to blame but yourself. Why would an employer pay you 120k a year when you are ignorantly chugging along, thanking him for the 1,000 dollar raise to your 65k salary?

Nurses in general seem not to be very astute at business so they slide along making crap wages. Sorry, but here in Austin, RN wages are TERRIBLE given the work conditions, who wants to do this for the rest of their lives?! If you look, you will find opportunities to make a decent wage, earn a good return on your money, and, most importantly, do what you love to do.

apocatastasis- I understand what you are saying re: your worth to a practice- however, as a new NP (or just graduating & looking for a first job, as I will be soon)- how do you research that?

I will graduate next year, with a A/GNP MSN. I plan to take both the GNP cert exam (aanp) and A/GNP cert exam (ancc), because I want to be in a geriatric primary care setting. Unrealistic? It wasn't when I *started* my program, but is changing a bit now. :0(

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

apocatastasis has good points, but I think there is more to it than what you bring to the practice, and that is what the market will bear. In my area, NPs are making in the mid 60s, no benefits. They are happy to get it b/c they would top out in the low 50's with nights/weekends/holidays lifting the 350pounders by themselves in the hospital. Yes, we could all move to Chicago and make more money, but we choose to live where we do for a reason, and there is a trade off. Low wages are the price we pay for a quality of life we can't buy anywhere else. It is also worth pointing out that physicians here are not earning the salaries being quoted.

Our only general surgeon is losing money and keeping the practice open with his retirement savings and a 3rd (yes, you read the correctly) mortgage. He said he may as well b/c he will never retire. When he is gone, we simply won't have a surgeon for 100 miles. He is paying his staff, but hasn't paid himself in years.

It took us 6 years to find him, lol, but the last internal medicine MD we recruited here is being paid 95K a year, but since we are an underserved area (shocker) he gets an additional 35K in loan reimbursement assistance from the feds. I know b/c he told me. He also said most of his classmates started out at twice as much. He also said he feels like he got the better deal and would have come here for less, lol.

So in the end, the most important thing is to know your market so you cannot be taken advantage of, yet don't price yourself out of it.

2 cents from the unemployed/never employed NP.

[harmonizer]

No, it is not worth it to become NP. I thought I am happy with my starting salary until I found out..... wherever we earn > 100K, physician counterpart are making twice (or almost) your wage doing the same exact job with the same workload esp in outpatient setting. And the reimbursement the company will collect is similar to what they get for physician fee. I even think employer can afford to pay us >$130 or more per year but the market is so saturated with NP who are "willing" to get a lower wage... It's our fault that we create too many schools and many graduates.. oversupply of NPs.. Hopefully, DNP movement will slow it down... but even with the oversupply, like apocatastasis said, if we are astute at business and collectively refuse to accept lower-then-market/unfair wage and are more flexible about moving.. the wage should improve somewhat... Right now, despite increased liability/independence, we are getting paid less than other allied-health counterparts eg. pharmacist, optometrist etc... crazy

[myelin]

Harmonizer, I'm curious, do you mind sharing what region you're practicing in (or PMing me) that is so oversaturated?