Nephrology NPs

just keep swimming · Jan 27, 2015

I backed out of inpatient for now. I still have a lot to learn for CKD and bone/stone clinic.

To answer you questions about experience and orientation, I was an RN in HD for 9 yrs. As for orientation. ..about 4 hours lol! Baptism by fire!

Nursebyfaith~Rn · Jan 27, 2015

What is the pay like? Ive been in dialysis as an RN for 3 years and i love it. Im in NP school now and my plans are to stay in nephrology..

Trauma Columnist · Jan 27, 2015

@justkeepswimming - that is some awesome experience. I had no dialysis experience when hired. However, since I had so much credentialing to go thru for the hospitals, it ended up being 5 months of orientation - which really helped a lot. I still asked a lot of questions those first few years.

@nursebyfaith-RN - as to pay, I've found that it varies tremendously depending on the practice (whether they already have APRNs/PAs), the number of dialysis pts you are expected to see per week, what other duties do you have and of course, your location.

I'm in the midwest and am a member of my states APRN organization. I had 12 years RN exp when I became an APRN so kinda knew I didn't want to take a pay cut. I ended up negotiating for 20k above what I was making as an RN and am very happy with my compensation at this time - 9 years into it.

just keep swimming · Jan 28, 2015

Nursebyfaith - I feel like I was able to negotiate a pretty good salary. I worked hard to make a name for myself while I was working in dialysis. Because of that, I was actively recruited by two groups. I was able to get 9K more per year than the last NP and about 40K more than I was making as an RN in dialysis. Work on your connections now, it will pay off later. (I am in the midwest as well)

Trauma Columnist · Jan 28, 2015

@JKS - wow - thats awesome. I think networking is the best way to get a solid name for yourself.

Congrats!

Penguins10, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 31, 2015

trauma: Our office manager claims we'll get a raise, but, because of how our billing is organized, I'm not sure that the hospital system will think we're all necessary. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out.

I like the fact that we do IM as well as nephrology, but, just as you point out, I'm realizing that doing good quality primary care in the midst of dialysis rounds is pretty tricky. I saw a job with a local university system recently, it looked like they saw their dialysis patients in clinic on non-dialysis days for primary care type issues. I'm sure that is beneficial from a billing perspective, but it would also allow more focus on those issues too.

swimming: Wow! I'm jealous, I didn't have any prior dialysis exposure, besides taking care of dialysis patients in the ED, so there was a lot to learn. Prior experience would definitely help to smooth your transition.

I think my experience in terms of compensation was similar to everyone else. I took a straight salary position and most of the work I do is billed through the MDs I work for, I think in the future I may pay more to finding a position where I am generating RVUs. I'm finding that administration people don't value work that doesn't produce billing, which is a problem to the extent that they evaluate your value to the organization.

Trauma Columnist · Jan 31, 2015

Penguins - we (nephrology) used to be all things to all our pts. lol

Good luck with the raise. Our practice manager who is an MBA is very business-oriented obviously. So, when we (APNs, PAs) want something done (raise, change our pt load, etc), we present it in a money-minded way. We figure out how much we bring in for the practice and how much they spend on us including salaries, retirement (100% paid by the practice), health insurance (again 100% paid for by practice), mileage reimbursement, etc., and then present our new plan.

Best wishes.