New NP, take Integrated pain management job or keep looking?

Trauma Columnist · Mar 12, 2017

Wow - if jobs are scarce and you can't/won't relocate I'm of the feeling you take what is offered and move up when the time is right.

missdeevah, NP · Mar 13, 2017

I agree with TraumaRUS...If you have no other prospects, jobs are scarce, and require experience, then I'd go for the bird in hand. Hopefully with some experience you'll become more marketable in the future. Good luck!

Tony1790, BSN, MSN, NP · Mar 15, 2017

I decided to take the job, I negotiated a higher salary along with a shorter work week with more CME time and money. So I'll be making $90,000 working 4 days a week for 8 hours/day. I'm going to take the job and work it for a year and then once I have the requisite 1 year experience, I plan on trying to get a better job. I also hope to get a PRN/PT job at a local urgent care to get a more round experience.

Wish me luck, I went from getting my license to interview to job offer in less than a week and I start on monday.......

Trauma Columnist · Mar 15, 2017

Fantastic - congrats!

missdeevah, NP · Mar 16, 2017

Awesome...Especially how you managed to negotiate a much better deal, and allowing yourself time off to still get other types of experience along the way!

googs · Mar 20, 2017

Horrifically crappy pay. PLEASE don't take this job. It is high risk and makes the practice a lot of money and they are giving you GARBAGE. I made more my first year as a new grad ED RN. Please stop driving our salaries down by accepting such low pay. It's doing the whole profession a disservice. We deserve 85% of physician pay, since that is what we code for.

Goldenfox · Mar 21, 2017

Horrifically crappy pay. PLEASE don't take this job. It is high risk and makes the practice a lot of money and they are giving you GARBAGE. I made more my first year as a new grad ED RN. Please stop driving our salaries down by accepting such low pay. It's doing the whole profession a disservice. We deserve 85% of physician pay, since that is what we code for.

You are correct, but not everybody is in a position to walk away. And, as many of us post here repeatedly, the pay for NPs is going down in many markets, not up. Like me, I'm sure many of you get those recruiting emails in your inbox everyday---the ones inviting you to leave your current job for fantastic (NOT!) new opportunities with amazing (NOT!) salaries in exchange for seeing 30 patients per day, with few or no benefits offered.

I earned more money as a bedside RN than what I was offered at my first job as an NP. Back then it wasn't like now with 10,000 online NP schools and 100 NPs competing to get the same low-paying job in many areas. I was naive about negotiating and they took full advantage of that. But I began to network and I learned quickly, and I didn't stay at that job long. I was earning a LOT of revenue for that doctor and we worked well together. I was especially good in women's health and a lot of his clients referred their friends to me to get their paps and other workups done. I asked for a raise. He could have offered me more but his wife (his business partner, and ever-meddling office manager) came out of a bag on me and told him not to. And so I left. They were both very angry when I gave them my notice and swore they would never give me a recommendation to work somewhere else. That was the moment when I learned that to some of these people we are nothing more than a way for them to get richer. I decided to make myself richer instead. It wasn't long after this that I learned that cool things can happen to your career once you decide not to settle for peanuts, and if you are willing to move.

Its more difficult now in many areas when you are a new grad. The opportunities just aren't there like they used to be.

googs · Mar 21, 2017

Thanks for sharing your experience Goldenfox! Can you share what direction you went in? Are you making a lot more now than what you used to make? How did you make yourself richer? Thanks for your advice. These exchanges are what will help advance our profession.

Tony1790, BSN, MSN, NP · Apr 10, 2017

Any suggestions on where to look then? You say horrifically crappy pay, I've not seen much better than $100,000 in most of the emails that I've gotten, I don't know of many of the more experienced NP's around here making much more than that.

Good news/Bad news is that my fiancÃ© is leaving me at the end of the month, so I am free to go anywhere in the country, any ideas where to go to earn more?? I received emails from Monterey, CA they are only offering $100,000 in that high cost part of the country.

I did received an offer yesterday for a Rheumatology clinic with the Veterans Admin in Seattle, WA, I could transfer there from here, but the pay is $92,500 for 5 days per week to start. That's only $2500 more than I'm making now and an extra day per week, but I'd see fewer patients per day and have better options going into the future. What do you think?

Thanks

Tony

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 10, 2017

Any suggestions on where to look then? You say horrifically crappy pay, I've not seen much better than $100,000 in most of the emails that I've gotten, I don't know of many of the more experienced NP's around here making much more than that.
Good news/Bad news is that my fiancÃ© is leaving me at the end of the month, so I am free to go anywhere in the country, any ideas where to go to earn more?? I received emails from Monterey, CA they are only offering $100,000 in that high cost part of the country.
I did received an offer yesterday for a Rheumatology clinic with the Veterans Admin in Seattle, WA, I could transfer there from here, but the pay is $92,500 for 5 days per week to start. That's only $2500 more than I'm making now and an extra day per week, but I'd see fewer patients per day and have better options going into the future. What do you think?
Thanks
Tony

Don't know what part of the country you're in, but cost of living in Seattle, WA is pretty high, too. You really need to weigh how much you're truly taking home in pay after your bills are paid in each location to decide if the salary is truly worth it or not.

Seeing pts 4 days per week 8 hours per day at $90,000 is $54.08/hr. Working 5 days per week at $92,500 is $44.47/hr. Are both positions salaried only with no OT?

Good luck on your decision!

Tony1790, BSN, MSN, NP · Apr 10, 2017

I'm in TN now, yes both are salaried with no OT. I'm free to move anywhere now, I have to tell the job in Seattle something in the next day or two, it's a federal job so there is stability.