NNP Question

[MGMR]

I currently work in a peds cardiac ICU, where over 75% of the patient population is neonatal. I've recently been thinking about starting grad school (because if I don't start something now I never will haha), but I can't seem to find the right fit for me. I may likely even want to stay at the bedside forever or do pediatric transport/flight nursing, but I'd like to have a masters and advance my education regardless.

My understanding is: if I get my NNP, I wouldn't be able to work as an NP in my own unit because, even though the vast majority of patients are under 2 years of age, there ARE patients that are older.. and as a an NNP my practice is limited to 0-2 years old - correct? So my question is if I go through a NNP program, could I get a certification that would allow me to take care of pediatric patients as a whole?

I'm also confused as to what a post-masters certification consists of. Is this basically an entirely new masters program with some classes being counted from my previous degree as an NNP because there are classes that repeat? How long does this typically take?

I know it sounds silly, but my main interest in becoming an NNP over a PNP is the coursework. The NNP close to me is... well, close. And the coursework is entirely related to neonates, and almost entirely high risk/critical care of neonates which is very interesting to me. All the PNP programs near me are primary care. I have absolutely no interest nor experience in primary care or even general pediatrics, and the courses actually don't even seem specialized to pediatrics. There are so many crossover classes with FNP students, and nothing seems to be pediatric specific; everything is "across the lifespan." In an ideal world, none of this would matter because I could just work in a neonatal cardiac ICU, but that doesn't really exist (except the one that SteveNNP has spoken about on here.. I'm assuming it's at NYP CHONY, but that still doesn't leave me with many options if they don't take me haha).

I also know I'd have to get NICU experience specifically to apply to an NNP program, but I plan on doing that anyway because it interests me.

Thanks for all the help and for reading this long post!

[babyNP., APRN]

Your license is for 0-2 (24 months), so if your unit is okay with you not taking care of patients older than that, it would be fine. Best thing to do would be to ask your doctors directly. Nursing won't know. They will probably say to just do the PNP because it gives you breadth to do 0-21 so you won't have licensing issues. You'd also need to do acute care PNP, not primary care. If there are no programs nearby, you'd have to either move or do an online program. With the consensus model coming into play, people won't be allowed to work in acute care settings if they are certified as primary care, so definitely don't do that if you don't like clinic work.

Bottom line is it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to take care of babies or children? If you want to do work in a cardiac unit you probably need to suck it up and do PNP. Keep in mind that again, with the consensus model, schools are required to give "across the lifespan" for the three major Ps: pharmacology, pathophys, and physical assessment. My program got away with it by having us do physical assessments on each other (neo was mixed in with peds group) and then we did a separate exam at a daycare.

You are going to find a lot of pedi type stuff and adult stuff in every program, just the way schools work. I didn't like it at first, but now I actually have come to appreciate my more well-rounded education. It has helped me see understand certain things more clearly and see where these patients are headed in the future.

You can certify in both programs if you like. A post-masters usually takes about a year. You are just taking specialized courses for the degree and doing clinical time, so you don't repeat things like research, pathophy, assessment, etc etc.

[MGMR]

Your license is for 0-2 (24 months), so if your unit is okay with you not taking care of patients older than that, it would be fine. Best thing to do would be to ask your doctors directly. Nursing won't know. They will probably say to just do the PNP because it gives you breadth to do 0-21 so you won't have licensing issues. You'd also need to do acute care PNP, not primary care. If there are no programs nearby, you'd have to either move or do an online program. With the consensus model coming into play, people won't be allowed to work in acute care settings if they are certified as primary care, so definitely don't do that if you don't like clinic work.

Bottom line is it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to take care of babies or children? If you want to do work in a cardiac unit you probably need to suck it up and do PNP. Keep in mind that again, with the consensus model, schools are required to give "across the lifespan" for the three major Ps: pharmacology, pathophys, and physical assessment. My program got away with it by having us do physical assessments on each other (neo was mixed in with peds group) and then we did a separate exam at a daycare.

You are going to find a lot of pedi type stuff and adult stuff in every program, just the way schools work. I didn't like it at first, but now I actually have come to appreciate my more well-rounded education. It has helped me see understand certain things more clearly and see where these patients are headed in the future.

You can certify in both programs if you like. A post-masters usually takes about a year. You are just taking specialized courses for the degree and doing clinical time, so you don't repeat things like research, pathophy, assessment, etc etc.

Thanks for the info!

I know I know, I think I'll just have to suck it up and do the PNP program and take the "across the lifespan" stuff as just broadening my knowledge further. I think it's just hard for me because I'm not fully committed on actually performing in the NP role, more so on advancing my education. I know I don't want to be a CRNA, and going through an NP program opens up so many roles in the future for me like education, NP, clinical nurse resources, management, etc.

Good thing I have plenty of time to figure this all out.