New NP grad, passed boards, now what?!

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Specializes in Telemetry, nursing education, FNP.

Hey all! I could use a little direction here. I recently passed my ANCC FNP boards (YAY!) and now I could use a little help in getting my ducks in a row to begin practicing.

I'm in talks with a few physicians to join on to their teams part-time. They are both privately owned practices and neither is sure of what paperwork needs to be in order for me to start practicing. I'm in Michigan, and the state BON said it would take about 6 weeks for me to receive my NP license.

So when I receive my license, my understanding is that I need to apply for a bunch of things: NPI, DEA, CAQH.

Also need to create a collaborative agreement with each physician/location I'll be practicing with.

is probably going to be paid for by me. Any tips?

Anything else I need to do in order to be ready for practice?

This is difficult to navigate alone. Would be much easier if I were seeking employment with a hospital or a large group who had a dedicated person to help me with this. But such is life, I guess.

Any tips would be much appreciated! Thanks!!

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

This is difficult to navigate alone. Would be much easier if I were seeking employment with a hospital or a large group who had a dedicated person to help me with this. But such is life, I guess.

The school where you got your NP should have guided you, what a shame they didn't. I would definitely mention this in any feedback you might provide about your program.

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1. Obtain your NP license first (you'll need current RN license, your certification, and most likely a transcript from your college with with degree conferral date on it).

2. Collaborative agreement can sometimes be found on the medical board of the state, like a sample, or the doc. may already have one.

3. DEA license (may need a state control number first). Usually takes about 2 weeks to get in most cases.

4. NPI. Pretty easy, usually given out to you in an email within a few minutes. If you have one from being an RN you can just go and update the taxonomy to reflect your main role.

5. Need to figure out what insurance companies you will be working with. I work with a lot of medicaid patients so I had to have two forms of recommendation from NPs or MD's to submit to get on with the people that manage medicaid in my area. I am guessing it is going to be different depending on where you live. You can find a lot of the required information on insurers websites or by calling them.

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I'll tell you - apply for your NPI today as an RN - it is taking up to 41 DAYS to get them back because of high requests. If I would've known I would've done it a lot earlier. I've been waiting since July 14th.

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Also, if your state has a controlled substance registry you will need to register for that after you get your NPI/DEA/NP license.

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Specializes in ER, PCU, UCC, Observation medicine.

I would work for a company who has there stuff in order. You're telling me both these practices don't know how to hire a NP to their practice?? Plus, you have to pay your own malpractice?? I would keep looking, you're already getting the short stick.

congrats btw!!

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
I'll tell you - apply for your NPI today as an RN - it is taking up to 41 DAYS to get them back because of high requests. If I would've known I would've done it a lot earlier. I've been waiting since July 14th.

Be careful with this! Had some colleagues that did this prior to having a job and used their home address and then their home address is searchable online by all their patients and any other creeps out there.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

Every state is different, your local NP association may have a list of that needs to be done when.

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Be careful with this! Had some colleagues that did this prior to having a job and used their home address and then their home address is searchable online by all their patients and any other creeps out there.

I just did a search of my name, just with an RN after, not any other information. My PO box comes up (at least it is not my physical address), but my cell phone number shows up.

Is this connected to information I put for my NPI number. Help! I don't want this public!!

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
I just did a search of my name, just with an RN after, not any other information. My PO box comes up (at least it is not my physical address), but my cell phone number shows up.

Is this connected to information I put for my NPI number. Help! I don't want this public!!

Search yourself on the NPI registry and see what comes up. You definitely don't want all patients being able to find your house or cell number!

NPPES NPI Registry

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Thank you, I am glad I caught this before I started getting some strange calls. Luckily my PO box is a post office, but I changed that to my work address as well.

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.
The school where you got your NP should have guided you, what a shame they didn't. I would definitely mention this in any feedback you might provide about your program.

If you go to a school with a large number of students from all over the country it might not be feasible to do this since requirements are different in each state. My university had lots of students from Texas, a physician supervisor/collaborative state, and New Mexico, an autonomous practice state. The processes were very different.

I agree though, I wish there was more clear direction on what it takes to practice. Just a page breaking down on the board of nursing websites what the typical process is what the required documents would help a ton.

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