Minimum level of experience for FNP

[grumpygorillaface]

I am a nurse on a tele/med-surg floor. I am interested in becoming a family nurse practitioner eventually, but I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation on the minimum years of experience one should have before trying to become a FNP. I plan on transferring to the ER before I go to round out my experience.

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

As a general rule, I would personally want to know how long a NP was working as a RN before becoming an advanced practice nurse. No way would I feel comfortable being treated by a NP with less experience in nursing than me as a RN.

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[BostonFNP, APRN]

As a general rule, I would personally want to know how long a NP was working as a RN before becoming an advanced practice nurse. No way would I feel comfortable being treated by a NP with less experience in nursing than me as a RN.

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Based on what?

[futureeastcoastNP]

As a general rule, I would personally want to know how long a NP was working as a RN before becoming an advanced practice nurse. No way would I feel comfortable being treated by a NP with less experience in nursing than me as a RN.

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Even if the person has been a successful NP for 20 years? You only care about RN experience?

I understand (I guess) if you're talking about a new grad...but don't put THAT much emphasis on RN experience. It's helpful but it CERTAINLY doesn't trump NP experience for an NP. I'll take 10 years NP experience over 20 years RN experience any day.

[megerler]

Physician's assistants don't have any experience, just what they gained in clinicals. They are everywhere as well. The schooling that a nurse gets is patient centered service then the additional advance specialty courses take NPs much farther than PAs maybe.

[zmansc, ASN, RN]

Personally, I think we should stop comparing the three and trying to say "this is a better model than that". Each model produces different providers who serve a different purpose.

Med school + residency is an excellent model for training specialists, it has worked for years, and does a very good job at that. The residency time is focused on the specialty they choose, so they are very knowledgeable in that one area of expertise.

PA programs do not duplicate that, instead it does a very good job of creating generalists and individuals who can work with specialists with an on the job training system. Their clinical on the job training time is significantly less than that of a physician and is spread across multiple domains. They have far less expertise in a specific area, but their knowledge breadth is actually wider. The schooling is modeled after the med school model and makes for a tight synergy between the two professions. PAs are able to switch from one specialty to another rather easily as long as they can find a physician who is willing to provide OJT for them in their new specialty area.

NP programs are designed to build upon nursing background and teach towards specific NP roles (FNP, ACNP, PNP, etc.). They are not designed to do the same thing as either of the above, nor should they be. There is less clinical time in most NP programs than in either of those above, but it is more focused on a single area of practice in most of these programs. Again to focus on a specialty these providers should have OJT to gain the requisite knowledge depth in that one specific area. So pick the path that is most aligned with your goals. Don't expect to graduate from a NP program with the same training as a physician specializing in cardiology, it's not going to happen.

Will a physician trained for PCP who just finished their residency be ahead of an FNP? Likely, yes. They have more years of experience (their residency), more patient contact in that setting. Can the NP catch up? Sure, with time. The physician isn't necessarily smarter, just had more years in their training program.

I worked for a cardiologist years ago, patients would ask him about a rash, or a pain in their knee, or whatever. They figured he's a doc, I'm here, no need to go see someone else. His standard answer was, "You should go see xxx for that. I'm a cardiologist, and I've got 20+ years of studying hearts. I had 11 weeks of training in xxx a long time ago. Probably not the best person for that question".

I'd much rather see a two year FNP in a PCP office (regardless of their RN experience) for my rash than a cardiologist! I'm not trusting either to scope my knee either. I will trust the PA in the ortho office for my follow up visits though. Different careers, different training needs. No one is better than the others.

[stickit34]

As a general rule, I would personally want to know how long a NP was working as a RN before becoming an advanced practice nurse. No way would I feel comfortable being treated by a NP with less experience in nursing than me as a RN.

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Based off of what reasoning and evidence? The RN scope of practice is completely different than the nurse practitioner scope of practice.

[ryguyRN]

I understand what you are saying but you can't write someone off because they have no RN experience. The NP role is very different from the RN role.

[LindaRN01]

This is a great topic. I’ll be starting FNP school after one year of being an RN, and l’ll continue to work full time while going to school. By the time I graduate with my FNP I’ll have 4 years of RN experience.

For someone reason I don’t feel the support at work since most RNs there have 10+ experience and they are quick to have an opinion on my career choices. They have no desire on going back to school.

I’m beginning to doubt about starting school.

Any thoughts ?

[umbdude, MSN, APRN]

9 hours ago, LindaRN01 said:

For someone reason I don’t feel the support at work since most RNs there have 10+ experience and they are quick to have an opinion on my career choices.

Any thoughts ?

Ignore them. There're always people who don't want to see other people advance, especially someone younger moving ahead and above. Those aren't the people you want support from anyways.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

On 6/20/2014 at 1:03 AM, MurseJJ said:

Actually look at PA forums. They have the same discussion about quality healthcare experience prior to PA school, without the ridiculous notion about grad school not doing a good job preparing providers. Both NP and PA concepts began with the idea of preparing an experienced clinician (RN for NP, medic/RT/RN/etc for PA) to be a provider.

Yeah. But you can't become a PA online.

[Rnis, BSN, DNP, APRN, NP]

9 hours ago, subee said:

Yeah. But you can't become a PA online.

You can't as nurse practitioner either. All programs have a clinical component.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

18 hours ago, Rnis said:

You can't as nurse practitioner either. All programs have a clinical component.

But not the same clinical component that Rn's have. Just from reading posts in AN, NP students often have to find their own preceptor, who is not vetted by the school in any way. If the student has to have an unvetted preceptor whi may have no talent field teaching, then the student should not have to pay tuition to the program because they are doing it DIY. Sorry, but online just isn't equivalent to classroom instruction, but you are charged as if you were.