in need of advise from cardiac NP

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Hi all,

I am currently in an FNP program and not working while in school. I have about 1 1/2 yrs. more to go. I am hoping to find a job as an RN during summer break. I have worked in the past in telemetry, love cardiology and plan to work in this area as an NP in the future. Can you please advise me on the optimal RNexperience and clinical focus in order to land the cardiac NP position after graduation.

- Which will be better: CCU, telemetry or cardiac stepdown for my pre-NP experience (I plan to work in outpatient setting)?

- Where it is the best to do my specialty clinicals if I am planning to work in outpatient cardiology?

- How many hours of specialty clinicals (cardio) will be optimal?

Your advice will be much appreciated!!!!

PS

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It sounds like you are in the same boat I was in when I was in NP school. I decided to work on a CV step down unit. But, I think if you decided to work in telemetry or CCU, that would be just as sufficient. The experience you bring with to your NP job will be vital especially when it comes to the area of cardiology. I would recommend doing your specialty clinicals with an outpatient cardiology nurse practitioner. There are many who work in private practice and academic institutions. Alot of these nurse practitioners might do stress testing, see patients in the outpatient setting for such things as HTN, HF, cardiac clearance, post hosp f/u, etc. I guess the number of your clinical hours really is dependent on how many your school requires you to do in primary care. I did roughly 85% of my clinicals in cardiac care and the rest was in primary care because that rotation was required.

This is the bottom line and I just speak from the experience I've had. When it comes to interviewing for a job in cardiology as an NP, your work experience is vital. Cardiologists will want to make sure you are familiar with caring for cardiac patients, knowing what the drugs are, the side effects of those drugs, treatment modalities, complications of cardiac procedures, how to triage and manage different types of cardiac issues, diagnostic tests and what they measure, etc. So, it's very important to be very familiar with a lot of these things. I think it would be very hard for someone with no cardiology background to work as cardiology NP. Just my two cents worth.

Hope that helps!

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Thank you for your reply!

I will be looking!

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Specializes in general, interventional card and ep.
It sounds like you are in the same boat I was in when I was in NP school. I decided to work on a CV step down unit. But, I think if you decided to work in telemetry or CCU, that would be just as sufficient. The experience you bring with to your NP job will be vital especially when it comes to the area of cardiology. I would recommend doing your specialty clinicals with an outpatient cardiology nurse practitioner. There are many who work in private practice and academic institutions. Alot of these nurse practitioners might do stress testing, see patients in the outpatient setting for such things as HTN, HF, cardiac clearance, post hosp f/u, etc. I guess the number of your clinical hours really is dependent on how many your school requires you to do in primary care. I did roughly 85% of my clinicals in cardiac care and the rest was in primary care because that rotation was required.

This is the bottom line and I just speak from the experience I've had. When it comes to interviewing for a job in cardiology as an NP, your work experience is vital. Cardiologists will want to make sure you are familiar with caring for cardiac patients, knowing what the drugs are, the side effects of those drugs, treatment modalities, complications of cardiac procedures, how to triage and manage different types of cardiac issues, diagnostic tests and what they measure, etc. So, it's very important to be very familiar with a lot of these things. I think it would be very hard for someone with no cardiology background to work as cardiology NP. Just my two cents worth.

Hope that helps!

Well stated, and I agree completely. I have been an NP in cardiology for 10 years, was a cardiac RN for 13 years before that.

Good luck and enjoy!

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