Pain Management NPs

Sha-Sha RN · Aug 23, 2014

Yes I would be interested in hearing some thoughts about this as well. Also, Is pain management a good place to start for a new grad NP? I see this question has been here for a while unanswered - any responses on the topic will be appreciated. Thanks!

fitchick20 · Sep 2, 2014

I started in pain management as a new grad and have been here for about 8 months. I took this job basically because I could not find a job out of school and the dr here was nice. I did not have any experience in pain management. I'm still learning each day. Overall I like it. I get to do all sorts of injections, that I learned how to do on the job. The med management patients are pretty easy for me because I can't write for schedule IIs, so the dr takes care of those. If you have any specific questions let me know. There are probably a lot of factors to determine if you'll like it, but from personal experience I do think it's a great place to begin as a new grad.

Sha-Sha RN · Sep 2, 2014

I started in pain management as a new grad and have been here for about 8 months. I took this job basically because I could not find a job out of school and the dr here was nice. I did not have any experience in pain management. I'm still learning each day. Overall I like it. I get to do all sorts of injections, that I learned how to do on the job. The med management patients are pretty easy for me because I can't write for schedule IIs, so the dr takes care of those. If you have any specific questions let me know. There are probably a lot of factors to determine if you'll like it, but from personal experience I do think it's a great place to begin as a new grad.

Thanks fitchick20! I'm a new grad as well and I'm in the midst of the final interviews for 2 pain management positions - one hospital supported and one in private practice and both would require me to relocate to another part of my state. The hospital position will be outpatient based. I was concerned if pain management was good place to start as a new grad considering I trained in primary care and feel I may lose lot of my knowledge on how to handle things like HTN & DM. I'm in a state that allows NPs to write schedule II meds so I know I will be seeing those patients. Do you see only follow-up pts only or are you also involved in seeing the new patients? Do you have your own panel of pts? Do you bill as an NP or is all the billing under the MD? I'm sorry for all the questions just curious as I go thru my decision making. I know some of these questions may not apply based on your state and the scope of NP practice there. Thanks again for responding.

Cosmeticnp · Sep 4, 2014

Sha-Sha RN, I think that it is a reasonable concern about possibly losing some of your primary care knowledge. If you don't plan on working in primary care ever, then I don't think it will be a problem. I am an FNP and I never actually wanted to work in primary care, so it doesn't really bother me. I love working in a specialty! Right now, I only see followup or established patients. I am not seeing new patients yet, but I am told that I will be eventually. I think the doctor is just going easy on me :-) I think that'll vary depending on where you work though. We only take patients that have a referral, so that helps to "weed" out more of the drug seekers, although we still get some that slip through. I believe that the billing is done under the physician, unless he is on vacation. I hope this helps! Good luck with your job interviews!