New ENP program starting. Worth it?

There's been a lot of discussion in the past about the need for ENP certification because of the unique needs of Emergency Medicine not addressed by the current crop of NP tracks. Your school may be gearing up for a future ENP-C certification slated to start next year and will be offered by AANP (along with AAENP - the national association for ENP's)

As it stands, this new ENP-C board certification test would only be open to FNP's with active EM practice, those who have done additional training in EM as a post-graduate (like the one your school is doing), or those who finish an NP fellowship in EM. We have yet to determine how the ENP-C certification is received by the larger EM job market. As it stands, it is not a requirement but I foresee that as word gets out that this is going to be available, more and more EM practices would prefer an NP who is certified as an ENP-C to work in the ED.

If you have no interest in working in the ICU as an NP where the trend now is for AGACNP grads exclusively, I wouldn't bother with a post-master's AGACNP. I think the notion that FNP's can not work in the in-patient setting is still not clearly defined as a regulation across the board. Specialties you mentioned (such as Neurosurgery and Orthopedics) actually have a wide range of ages in their practice from kids to older adults. Unless you work in highly specialized academic centers like I do, you would likely see all age ranges in many specialties and FNP would be an advantage in those settings.

Ultimately, you should decide based on your own needs and situation. I have been an ACNP for many years and have worked in Adult Critical Care for over 10 years and have no plans to change specialties. You can be comfortable in one specialty and stick to it but I understand your concern of being pigeonholed and not having the option to switch.

Further reading: American Academy of Emergency Nurse Practitioners - Emergency Nurse Practitioner certification (ENP-C)

@Juan - what are your thoughts on the Consensus Model as to the practice standards for FNP versus AGACNP? I'm in IL where everything is 20 years behind and since we haven't had a state budget in >1 year we of course can't even contemplate the Consensus Model.

However, the push is that FNPs receive outpt clinical experiences and so are not prepared to care for the ACUTELY ill ER population. Therefore, the AGACNP along with the peds acute care NP is preferable to have for the ER NP.

The education for the FNP is solely focused on the outpt office/clinic care of chronic or well-care.

@TraumaRUs...based on what I've read, the ENP-C certification claims to be compliant with the Consensus Model which actually allows for subspecialty certification under an existing core NP track (FNP). The core tracks are to remain the same. There is a requirement for additional training in EM before being eligible for ENP-C certification. I do agree with you though that those that have both AGACNP and PNP-AC should also be eligible to sit for ENP-C if they also have additional training in EM. Maybe that issue will be addressed too at some point.