Pathways to NP

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · Apr 20, 2020

Cardiology NP - you can do FNP, Adult-Gero Primary and Adult-Gero Acute. It is more depending on where you want to work eventually (specialty clinic vs. hospital vs. research vs. procedures) as in some places only Adult/Gero Acute NPs can get hospital privileges. Check your local market and speak with NPs working around you.

As in every narrow specialty, your previous experience and connections are important and you might have to work at "baseline" first job for a while.

With "surgical" NPs situation is essentially the same except for one thing: more surgeons prefer PAs. This is just a fact of life. It doesn't mean NPs do not work in surgical specialties, but they might be assigned to preop/postop rounds and clinic follow up while PAs doing first assists, vein harvesting and other work in OR. I would be more inclined to do Adult/gero acute care NP if I wanted to end up in OR as at least you can arrange for rotation. While school shopping, ask if the school allows to do specialty rotation of your choice and go for ones which do. While there, you can forget about the rest of your life for a few months and get maximum of exposure and experience.

While you are not yet in school and if you work at bedside, it might be a good idea to transfer into specialty unit or pick up DAYTIME (preferably weekdays, that's important) PRN shifts. This way, you'll get chance to meet physicians of your favorite specialty and become super-useful for them. Some of them might become your teachers and eventually employers.

Sun1 · Apr 20, 2020

3 minutes ago, KatieMI said:
Cardiology NP - you can do FNP, Adult-Gero Primary and Adult-Gero Acute. It is more depending on where you want to work eventually (specialty clinic vs. hospital vs. research vs. procedures) as in some places only Adult/Gero Acute NPs can get hospital privileges. Check your local market and speak with NPs working around you.
As in every narrow specialty, your previous experience and connections are important and you might have to work at "baseline" first job for a while.
With "surgical" NPs situation is essentially the same except for one thing: more surgeons prefer PAs. This is just a fact of life. It doesn't mean NPs do not work in surgical specialties, but they might be assigned to preop/postop rounds and clinic follow up while PAs doing first assists, vein harvesting and other work in OR. I would be more inclined to do Adult/gero acute care NP if I wanted to end up in OR as at least you can arrange for rotation. While school shopping, ask if the school allows to do specialty rotation of your choice and go for ones which do. While there, you can forget about the rest of your life for a few months and get maximum of exposure and experience.
While you are not yet in school and if you work at bedside, it might be a good idea to transfer into specialty unit or pick up DAYTIME (preferably weekdays, that's important) PRN shifts. This way, you'll get chance to meet physicians of your favorite specialty and become super-useful for them. Some of them might become your teachers and eventually employers.

Can acute care NP work as FNP or ER NP or would there be more education involved? Can an Acute care or ER NP then open up a private practice?

Also, in general, which NP tracks (beside CRNA's) tend to do be the most lucrative tracks?

ArmaniX, MSN, APRN · Apr 20, 2020

3 hours ago, Sun1 said:
Can acute care NP work as FNP or ER NP or would there be more education involved? Can an Acute care or ER NP then open up a private practice?
Also, in general, which NP tracks (beside CRNA's) tend to do be the most lucrative tracks?

Start by looking at your local colleges and programs they offer. Then do some research. These questions are what commonly get asked by individuals with no idea what they want to do but have the feeling they need to do “something”.

There are plenty of threads on this topic that already exist on this site.

pro-student · May 16, 2020

On 4/20/2020 at 2:27 AM, ArmaniX said:
Start by looking at your local colleges and programs they offer. Then do some research. These questions are what commonly get asked by individuals with no idea what they want to do but have the feeling they need to do “something”.

There are plenty of threads on this topic that already exist on this site.

Second this advice.

You would also do well to read about the Consensus Model and spend some time thinking about what you want to do with your career.