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Discussion

Please Help, please help!!

Hi,

I am a RN (ADN) with 5 years of experience, and I am almost finished with my BSN. I am thrilled because I finally know what I want to do with my life. I want to become a geriatric NP!! I love working with geriatrics and I am driven to make their lives better. Also, I want to have the knowledge of a Gero NP, so I can take care of my folks when they are old!! I am lucky to have a school less than an hour away that has a Gero and Family NP option. I am lucky that I don't have kids right now, that I don't have a car payment (thanks to my grandma), that I don't have a mortgage. If I do decide to go through the NP program, I can live with my parents and work minimally. I am sick of bedside nursing, and I want out.

The pits of this? everyone I talk to about gero NP tells me not to do it. That instead, I should go through the Family NP option in order to make myself more maketable. I understand this concept, and I apprecitate their advice, but I don't want to go thru family NP. I want to go thru the Gero! The baby boomers are going to be at "that" age soon, so I don't understand why everyone tells me that finding work may be a challenge? Also, there is a long practicum in palliative care within this program. Palliative care is huge, no? I think that the doors will be wide open in the Gero NP field.

My goals with this degree? I would love to work with a doctor, with me resuming care over the geriatric patients. I will gladly go to nursing homes, hospitals, or even their homes to make rounds on them, and I will be fine with being "on-call" for these patients. And/Or, I would like to open up a homecare practice. Or, i would like to be a palliative care nurse, or, I would also love to work with Gero/Psych.

I would like to add one concern. The school that I am speaking of with the family and gero NP program offers a "certificate" option for nurses who went through their family NP program. It is not offered for the gero NP students. What are the benefits of getting certified? Is it a red-flag that it isn't offered for the gero NP?

Please don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Give me your honest opinion of this specialty. If all goes as planned, I will be a NP in 3-4 years. I am not sure how I feel about the family NP program, mainly because I have no nursing interest in learning about kids/babies. I think I will do poorly when it's time to study/work that group, but I know I will make it. Otherwise, I am OK with becoming a family NP as long as I learn a lot about geriatric and psychiatric care. However, with geriatrics, I know that my brain will be wide open throughout the entire school sequence. That is important! But I hate to think that jobs will be limited after graduation. What should I do??

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    • Featured Replies

    Don't have time to respond to all of this, but I think geriatrics is a fabulous specialty, and one that is quite marketable. 2 words: Baby Boomers.

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    I totally agree with Kanzi. If gero is what you want, then go for it. I see many jobs for gero/adult NPs advertised in my area. Many of them are in LTC facilities, but I've also seen some in private practices. I think the need is only going to grow.

    Good luck!!

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    Gosh, if your passion is geriatrics then I would say go for it! I can't tell you how many docs I've done rotations with who are constantly searching for a Geri NP to take over at least part of their nursing home care. All of the geri NPs I know who do go to nursing homes have amazing flexible schedules and make great $$. Go for it and don't look back!

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    I am a geri psych NP and I love it. I go to several different LTC facilities, I have a flexible schedule and the money is good! My past is in primary care, I am an Adult certified NP

    I was going to go back for the family np post masters cert, to become more marketable, but now that I have this job I am probably not doing that.

    I am thinking of doing a post masters cert in psych instead.

    the homes I go to have NP's that also see the patients for the medical aspect.

    I just do psych medication management.

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    Geriatrics is definitely a good field. I would only recommend that you look back 10 years and ask yourself if you knew exactly what your interests would be today. Interests and goals are fluid and age with you. Obtaining a GNP would certainly be inline with your goals of today but may not be in your objectives in 5 or 10 years. With that in mind, you have to ask yourself why you would limit yourself in such a way.

    If you go through a FNP program you can obtain both FNP and GNP certification through AANP or ANCC. If you do only a geriatric program you only be eligible to take the GNP boards, and if you ever decide you want to work with patients accross the life span at a later date, you will have to do another year of education and then take another set of boards.

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    • Expert

    Tammy is spot on!

    Believe me, you don't want to limit yourself in this job market and economy. Who knows where you will be in a few years or rather where the jobs will be?

    With that in mind, I'm an adult health CNS who thought, "nope, I'll never have to see kids"....so since I was wrong, I am now back in school at 51 for a peds CNS!

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    I would do family if I were you and get the geri certificate. You will be more marketable for the rest of your life, if you get sick of geri you can do family, you may not be able to get a job in geri as a new grad and instead of not working for 6+mos til a geri job comes up you can fall back on the FNP. You may change your mind about working in geri after you've done it for 10 yrs or so.

    I just got a job and I'm an FNP working with geri pts. Another NP who was only cert as geri had been looking for a job for 9+ mos had many yrs experience vs me as a new grad. Granted by the time you graduate the economy will probably be better (lets hope) and more jobs.

    I don't know, I'm a realist and always prepare myself for the worse case senario. It's easier to just take that extra schooling and get it over with, use the FNP as your saftey net. Once you get out of school and start working it's hard to go back.

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    Thank you all for your comments - I have been struggling with a similar decision. I did not realize it was possible for a FNP to become geri certified. This eases my mind since the most convenient school for me to attend only offers the FNP track!

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    I was going to give the same advice as Tammy--- go to AANC's website- and look at the alternative criteria for taking the GNP certification. (any Acute care, family, or adult NP can do this).

    In my opinion, I would recommend getting a family (or if kids are not your thing, than at least the adult) certification. What if you work in a practice that is primarily geriatrics, but you have a patient who is say 45 instead of 65- then technically you wouldn't be allowed to care for them.

    Good luck with whatever you decide : )

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    oh, and I forgot to add-- just because you have adult or family certification, does not mean that you can't primarily or exclusively practice only geriatrics-- (family is birth till death; adult- late adolescent to death; both of which most definitely include geriatrics) : )

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    So, I will take a bit off track, but same outcome. You have advice from people you trust and they are telling you to do one thing(FNP) but you are looking for opinions that support what you want to hear....:confused:

    I agree with the opinion that gero is too narrow as it is hard to say where the market will be in 5-10-15 yrs? How soon are you going to start? Is it not in 2015 you will need to be a DNP? Suck it up ( I do not mean that in a harsh way LOL) and do the peds in FNP, in my life I have found that often that in which I want to do the least is what I need to do the most, some sort of twisted Tao luck that I have had. I have seen some Gero jobs come and go depending on the whims of the market.

    my 2 cents,

    cordially

    aw

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    I agree with the others. Do what you want. I'm in the FNP program because to be honest I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to end up and I wanted to keep my options open. That said, I've worked mostly with adults my entire career and am developing an interest in oncology/hospice nursing.

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