NP Education

prairienp · Nov 28, 2005

Several NPs have expressed concern over their education. Well, what do you think it should be like?

If we want a well prepared NP the program should be a DNP and be 3 years in length. At least 1000 clinical hours, actual clinical not observation. Recruit faculty who have practiced as NPs for at least 3-5 years, way too many faculty who went back for the FNP, never really practiced and now are faculty. In order for this to happen these faculty will need to have at least the same salary as the NP in practice. Can't have new graduates leaving programs starting out at a higher salary than the NP faculty.

JACKMAC · Nov 30, 2005

I agree with the previous post about the education of the nursing instructors but I don't think we need a DNP. Master's preparation is fine. I think there should be less "fluff" - theory, roles, etc. I had way too much of that stuff taking my time. We need more clinical hours and, like was stated, hands on so that when we graduate we are ready to fly and not need so much supervision. CRNA's have so much clinical that they are well prepared as a new graduate. I am a new grad NP and feel so unprepared. (I haven't found a position yet, which makes it worse.) My cousin graduated from CRNA in August like me and she said she was basically doing everything on her own during her last rotation and it was intense. NP training needs to be more like that. We should probably have more like 1500 hours "hands on". IMHO

DeigoT · Dec 1, 2005

I definately agree with the need for more clinical hours. If you are fortunate enough to have your first position in a practice where your colleagues are very sharing and supportive, then great. But if your first job out of NP school requires you to sink or swim (so to speak), then if you are not fully prepared clinically, you may be in for some trouble. The type of trouble that could be prevented with more clinical exposure and greater confidence in your abilities.

button2cute · Dec 2, 2005

Hello, All

Delgot- No sink or swim. My resolution is get as much learning through the clinical experience. In addition, apply to residency program. I will get a lot more clinical experience as well a little somthing to pay for housing. Never play the game sink or swim...Because I if I cannot swim...I will never be out in the water.

Buttons

Trauma Columnist · Dec 2, 2005

I'm not a NP, rather in CNS school. My program has 576 hours of clinical and I too wish it were more. However, I do look at my previous RN experience (10 years of intense ER experience) and this has given me very good assessment skills.

cgfnp · Dec 2, 2005

I'm not a NP, rather in CNS school. My program has 576 hours of clinical and I too wish it were more. However, I do look at my previous RN experience (10 years of intense ER experience) and this has given me very good assessment skills.

That ER experience is your ace in the hole. You'll fly through NP school with no trouble. That's what helped me the most as well.

I think it should be completely changed to a Master's in Family Practice (take the nursing out of it). Requires a Bachelor's Human anatomy/physiology (as knowing this info cold is the basis for everything), then 2 years intense MEDICAL books/practice training, then one year of internship. (I think this is a good mix of MD/NP/PA) that would attract students and solve a lot of the primary care problems. I also think you could create a program in this amount of time that would make practitioners essentially as competent as a family practice physician as the stuff in medical school that wouldn't apply wouldn't be there (inpatient care, ICU, surgery rotations, etc). Then we could incorporate government subsidies to attract even more students so that healthcare costs would go down by sending all medicaid patients to these "Family Practitioners" instead of seeing them in the ER all the friggin time.

And, I think a healthcare finance course should be in there to teach us how to save money in the system. I'm so sick of seeing new patients who's old doctor put them on Benicar or Diovan who haven't tried Lisinopril or Atenolol I could puke.

Meanwhile, I'll continue wasting time reflecting on Florence Nightengale theory while my patient is in severe pain from the broken arm that I can't prescribe narcotics to because the politicians don't have a clue while I'm frantically looking through the radiology book trying to figure out how to read an X-Ray that nobody bothered teaching me while in NP school.

catch33er · Dec 3, 2005

I think it should be completely changed to a Master's in Family Practice (take the nursing out of it). Requires a Bachelor's Human anatomy/physiology (as knowing this info cold is the basis for everything), then 2 years intense MEDICAL books/practice training, then one year of internship. (I think this is a good mix of MD/NP/PA) that would attract students and solve a lot of the primary care problems. I also think you could create a program in this amount of time that would make practitioners essentially as competent as a family practice physician as the stuff in medical school that wouldn't apply wouldn't be there (inpatient care, ICU, surgery rotations, etc). Then we could incorporate government subsidies to attract even more students so that healthcare costs would go down by sending all medicaid patients to these "Family Practitioners" instead of seeing them in the ER all the friggin time.
And, I think a healthcare finance course should be in there to teach us how to save money in the system. I'm so sick of seeing new patients who's old doctor put them on Benicar or Diovan who haven't tried Lisinopril or Atenolol I could puke.

Whoo-hoo!!!!! I would love to see a program like this! Fantastic idea...

I am very fortunate to have a first job where I have several family practice physicians and an NP who are extremely supportive of my learning curve, but it is so frustrating spending time looking up anatomy, etc. I am now to the point where I don't have to ask questions more than three times a day, but it's so hard waiting for other providers to help me when I need them. Full-time internship would have been so helpful, rather than making my first job out of school pay for my learning. I think this would also be a huge selling point for that type of program.

I'm sure there'll be flack for the idea of taking the nursing out of things, but all the theory can get pretty bogged down. I didn't feel like I was really making any headway in my program until I started my clinicals!