aspiringcnm3

Thank you so much for this reply!! I recognize it may vary but would you mind sharing what your schedule is like at a FSBC? Have you ever worked elsewhere? Do you feel like the quality of life or the type of work makes up for the relatively lesser pay?

Hi Sarah, I'm a student CNM and L&D RN. I think some things you could do as a pre-nursing student interested in birthwork include looking into becoming a doula or reaching out to any local birth center, hospital OB RNs, or OBGYNs you know to see if they'd allow you to shadow. I fully believe birthwork is something people either LOVE or HATE. I know shadowing for me really solidified my decision to become a CNM. Good luck!

Hi, Going to be a new grad CNM soon and really love FSBCs. But I also have some hefty school loans. Would anyone mind sharing with me what I could expect salary-wise? Google and the ACNM website haven't been very helpful. I'm on the East Coast, for further reference. Thanks in advance!

@BellaNoor I was accepted and currently attend Penn! Great education and great faculty. However, if possible, I would recommend waiting until the pandemic is over until going to school for your MSN, anywhere... right now it is so difficult to get clinical sites and many of us are behind on hours and there’s a chance we will not graduate on time. The social aspect of school really isn’t there since none of us are in person for classes which is also a bummer. Penn is handling things well. But if possible, I’d wait to attend school until this is all over. Graduate school is so much harder this way right now. Good luck.

Thank you so much, I appreciate your input!!

Hi everybody, (I also posted this in the CNM section but that isn't always very active) I always hear about NP, specifically FNP, market saturation. It is very difficult to find information online about this for CNMs. I have tried to check out ACNM's website... and any government website just lumps CNMs in with NPs which isn't helpful. I always imagined CNM wasn't necessarily the most "desirable" specialty, because it often involves long hours and on call time (compared to a path that would grant you a 9-5 type of schedule) - of course, if it's your calling, you love it for what it is. So I figured I would ask here. Do you think there's too many CNMs being produced? Is that first new grad CNM job difficult to snag (say, more difficult than snagging a new grad RN job)? Is there a driving down of wages due to supply and demand issues? I'm particularly interested in the East Coast area experience. Thanks in advance!

Hi everybody, I always hear about NP, specifically FNP, market saturation. It is very difficult to find information online about this for CNMs. I have tried to check out ACNM's website... and any government website just lumps CNMs in with NPs which isn't helpful. I always imagined CNM wasn't necessarily the most "desirable" specialty, because it often involves long hours and on call time (compared to a path that would grant you a 9-5 type of schedule) - of course, if it's your calling, you love it for what it is. So I figured I would ask here. Do you think there's too many CNMs being produced? Is that first new grad CNM job difficult to snag (say, more difficult than snagging a new grad RN job)? Is there a driving down of wages due to supply and demand issues? I'm particularly interested in the East Coast area experience. Thanks in advance!

I’m in a dual program right now (so not in the field just yet!), and I chose it because I also have a background in L&D and did not want to give up being a part of labor and birth, which sounds like you! I love being there for those moments. I feel reassured by my choice because I can always dial back to purely clinic based work, but if I just got my WHNP I wouldn’t be able to be on the floor. The benefit of becoming dually certified is that if you do ever want to go entirely outpatient and stop attending births, you can work under your WHNP license and your malpractice insurance will be much lower because of that. It’s silly but even if you aren’t catching babies, if you work under the CNM license, the insurance is much more. A lot of times your employers pay for your malpractice insurance so this can also make you more marketable for these positions since you are “less expensive”.

If I were you, if I needed to pay bills, I’d try to get some kind of CNA position, especially at a hospital I was interested in working at. That would be a great way to get your foot in the door. Crisis positions are paying really well right now although you also have to accept a working environment that will be, frankly, downright awful. Whether the compensation feels right for that exchange is up to each person. If I had some wiggle room financially (if you’re still living at your parents for example, since loan payments are deferred for everyone, etc), I’d take a step back and take a big breath in and take a little break from applying. This is an insane time and we are all doing the best we can with what we have. Be proud of yourself for finishing nursing school! You will find something eventually, you will take your NCLEX eventually. Hopefully things will have settled down by the time you are officially licensed. Whatever you do, don’t just take the first nursing position you can get. Your first year as a nurse shapes you in a lot of ways, and it is a very difficult transition when the ship is sailing smoothly. Right now, the ship is not sailing smoothly. I would not want to be a new grad right now and I commend everyone who is training during this time - I can’t imagine the stress. I am not trying to discourage you, but I would make sure whatever opportunity you do accept, that you really believe it is a good fit for you. best of luck!

If I were you, I would research some other programs and ask to connect with faculty. A lot of times you can find faculty emails online and just reach out, too. As long as you are nice and polite, the worst they can say is they're too busy to chat about their classes, or just not answer at all. It's worth a shot. I think you would have a better chance not having these discussion board type classes if you attended school in person, because I think the discussion boards are meant to simulate in-class interactions, but that might not be feasible for you.

I don’t know much specifically about FNP programs, and I have only recently started my program (CNM), but it is brick and mortar (online for now but that’s because of covid) and my classes so far have a lot of reading, tests, and quizzes, just by looking at the syllabi. One class is just 3 tests, that’s your grade. Unfortunately when I was doing my own research on NP school in general I found a lot of these kinds of complaints. At work I see a lot of coworkers doing online school and they do a lot of discussion boards. Not all of them NP but a good chunk. Are these science-type classes that are discussion based? Or something like ethics?

@Amy Cate what do you mean by suggestions? Like a different program?

Do you guys think we’ll be able to start clinicals in the fall? Or attend in person classes? Everything up in the air is driving me crazy.

I heard about a scholarship. I know we can’t take out loans for the upcoming academic year until May so I’m hoping we’ll get more info around that time. But I’m not sure how federal loans are going to be at this point with what is going on.

I’m not in the BSN MSN but traditional MSN, also scheduled to start in Summer. Do you guys think everything will even start on time?