I'm a registered nurse with 1.5 years experience in general surgery (I always give a quick background). I will be cross training soon a cardiothoracic surgical floor.
My question is, What is it like being an NP for a surgeon? I work with surgeons, all day everyday.
What is the role of a Nurse Practitioner working with a surgeon?
Do you assist in surgery & do you also do postoperative follow-ups (inpatient and outpatient)?
If I were to want to assist during surgery, is there a certain certification I'd need? Would OR experience be recommended vs necessary?
Are there surgical NP's that adhere strictly to managing postoperative care?
If you're a surgical/postoperative NP, what services do you work? Which do you enjoy the most/have worked with? Which do you dislike the most and why?
As a floor RN I work with general surgery, vascular surgery, urology, plastics, OMFS, ENT, orthopedics (rarely ortho), neurosurgery, hepatobiliary surgery, GI, and trauma.
I feel that urology may be less stress in terms of on-call and acuity, but may get boring after a while?
I am not interested in orthopedics in the least.
I believe postoperative management of whipples/hepatobiliary patients may be more complex and interesting.
I haven't worked with cardiothoracic surgery YET (I will very soon) but this is the one I'd be truly interested in.
Do you know how often surgical NPs do locum tenens as opposed to a NP that does ER etc?
I know I'm asking a lot of questions.
Big thanks to everyone.
No clue really, but I suspect the learning curve for knowing the intricacies and specifics of each surgeon and each organization, is too steep to make it work.
PG2018
1,413 Posts
No clue really, but I suspect the learning curve for knowing the intricacies and specifics of each surgeon and each organization, is too steep to make it work.