Nurse Practitioner with an MSN

Currently an MSN is the necessary degree to sit for NP certification exams. The DNP requirement is "proposed" for 2015...remains to be seen whether it will become a true necessity. Anyone who was certified with the MSN will be grandfathered in.

Why doesn't anyone ever read any of the 100+ threads that have already beaten this horse to a pulp?

Not everyone has been a member here for a long time. The person who posted the question just joined this month. Why even respond if you are going to say something like this?

Currently an MSN is the necessary degree to sit for NP certification exams. The DNP requirement is "proposed" for 2015...remains to be seen whether it will become a true necessity. Anyone who was certified with the MSN will be grandfathered in.

I will seek to clarify this further and say that this is ONLY one "sugestion" from ONE of two national nursing program certifying bodies (I believe more are popping up) and in no way is law or even foreseable future rules. Futhermore, this is the same organization that has stated that BSN should be the mandatory entry point for RNs and that "sugestion" has a thirty year old history. Heck there are still certificate RN programs around though they are diminished IMO due to compitition from community college programs more than due to a strive for advanced degrees.

A big issue to be resolved is that of the current DNP programs in existance, most have a curriculum that is definately not focussed on patient care but rather a not so subtle drive to increase available Nursing doctorates for management, leadership, and faculty roles. Having reviewed over 50 of these programs, that was my overiding impression. Most had only one or two courses in the entire program that had anything to do with clinical care. I for one am not willing to fork out a small fortune as well as invest even more of my time for schooling that doesn't address my needs as a practitioner.

K, done B & M ing

Yeo^^^^^^^thats 1/2 the problem with the nursing curr. lack of clinical hours and sciences. When you have RN's wanting to go to PA school for the knowledge there is a problem.

I don't see nurses suffering from a lack of knowledge.

I do see the profession being less respected or taken less seriously due to our collective inability to get our poop in a group and require ONE degree for entry into practice as an RN. Perhaps others do not perceive us as the professionals we are because the "BSN is going to be required" conversation has been going on for my entire adult life. You'd never see a physician, attorney, architect, or veterinarian having to explain whether how many years of education he/she had or what kind of degree.

I think it would be great if nurse practitioners could start with just getting the title uniform across states. (APRN? APN? FNP? ANP?) It would also be wonderful if the practice parameters were uniform - everyone would know who we are, how we were educated, and what we can do.