Neonatal Nurse Practicioner School

[healthxo33, BSN, RN]

I am interested in becoming a future neonatal nurse practitioner. What types of experiences did you have before applying to NNP school? I know that it is competitive and that they are looking for additional experiences. Everyone applying already works as a NICU nurse so there is really nothing special about this since this is a requirement in order to be a NNP. This is what I am worried about because I am looking for ways to make myself stand out.

I am also wanting to get a second PRN, as needed, position in another NICU at a separate hospital. When do you think it would be best for me to get a second job? I am a new graduate NICU nurse and was planning on possibly getting a PRN position after a year.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

I work at a large Level IV NICU and there have been about eight nurses that were in an NNP program in the last few years. None of them had a difficult time getting in. It was an online program with clinicals in a NICU. The difficulty for a few of them was getting clinicals. Our NNPs couldn't handle all of the students needing clinical times, one dropped out of the program and the other delayed completing their last year in order for their coworkers to finish the program and free up the NNPs to precept them.

Instead of worrying about a second job, concentrate on being the best nurse at your current job. It will make it easier to have the NNPs in your NICU agree to precept you for NNP clinicals.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

Rather than getting a second PRN job, it's best to focus on demonstrating engagement and leadership in your current job. Join committees and develop new projects to help the unit, precept after you get some experience, get trained to attend deliveries. Keep in mind--a lot of these opportunities (besides joining committees) take time; at some places, it can be several years before you're allowed to attend deliveries or precept.

Also, work on building relationships with the NNPs. You'll need good references to apply (preferably from providers), and it can be hard to do that if you're newer to the unit. Depending on your unit set-up (especially if you're night shift and the NPs take 24s and sleep at night), it can be a little tricky. 

To be perfectly honest, relatively few NICU nurses start NP programs after the minimum required 2 years of experience. If you can get at least 3, maybe 4, years under your belt before you apply, you'll probably feel a lot more confident--especially if that extra time will allow you to get comfortable with running scary codes at bad deliveries, arguably the hardest skill.