Med-surg RN wants to be cardiac NP - possible?

[NurseCherlove]

Hello. Just wanted to get your opinions on this...Would it be possible to get a job as a Cardiac NP if I only have about a year and a half of RN med-surg experience? I know that most cardiac practices want cardio experience, some of which I could get at clinicals, but is it still possible to get this kind of job without the experience?

Ideally, what I really would like to do is work part-time as an RN in some cardiac arena while going to NP school, but most places do not want to train cardiac RNs, let alone just for part-time.

Any thoughts?

[oMerMero]

I would think you would be able to get a NP job in the cardiac area without tele experience. Although, I would think tele experience would be ideal. I'd be willing to bet you could get a part time job as a tele RN while going to school. Tele nurses need to be trained at some point, and you already have experience as an RN. If they orient new grads, I don't see why they wouldn't orient you as well. Good luck!

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

If this is the area you want to focus on, my suggestion is to try to get as much experience on the field as an RN. Telemetry units are good but I think a CCU area would be better because there is more to learn. If your job market is similar to where I live, when a cardiology position opens up, many applicants show up with considerable experience in cardiology as an RN. So the competition can get tough and someone with little experience in cardiology may not be lucky enough to land the job. As I've mentioned in a previous post, many of my classmates are now working in cardiology, while some did not do a cardiology rotation in NP school, all of them were nurses in either CCU or CVICU prior to becoming an ACNP.