AtomicWoman

My husband had a new patient specialist appointment via telemedicine last month. I looked at his EOB and Medicare approved a whopping $54 for the visit, even though the CMS website claims "These visits are considered the same as in-person visits and are paid at the same rate as regular, in-person visits." $54 for a new patient visit is not a sustainable model for most specialty practices. Or primary care practices, for that matter.

I have Proliability. They are usually responsive to any requests or concerns I have.

Maybe this article in Medical Economics will give you some inspiration for other states to look at. If the state is short of PCPs, it might be a good place to look for a job as an FNP. https://www.medicaleconomics.com/news/20-states-most-desperate-primary-care-physicians I do agree with others that COVID-19 has ramped-down hiring. I am a PMHNP and normally Indeed emails 16-20 new job listings in my area every day. It has been 1-2 job listings per day for weeks and weeks. Every place is just sitting tight until things get "more normal". Try to hang in there!

I cannot tell you how many people I know who regretted doing online programs, because they were required to find their own preceptors. They were enormously stressed, and some had to take a semester off because they could not find a preceptor. If you do an online program, question them carefully about preceptors. There are some schools that have a good network already in place. But most don't, in my experience. I can't remember which school it was, but I recently heard of an on-campus program that was requiring students to find their own preceptors. I hope that is not a trend! At this time, it is not the norm. But definitely ask questions.

As far as I know, the Commonwealth does not have a deadline to obtain licensure for a second specialty. It all depends on whether you are working in that specialty or not. If you're working in the specialty, I would definitely get the licensure done. Just be aware how slow the process is, especially if you went to a non-Pennsylvania school for your second certification. From the time I submitted my application until I got prescriptive authority was 4-1/2 months. The license took about 3 months, and the prescriptive authority took another 6 weeks. And that was before COVID-19! So if you are even considering getting licensed, I would say do it sooner rather than later. The process will be a little quicker if you went to a Pennsylvania school, because those programs are already "Board-approved" and don't require your transcript to be analyzed in the same way an out-of-state transcript does.

Did you look at the new test content outline? It is rather different from the old test content outline. One of the biggest changes was that the "Professional Role and Polices" questions have been de-emphasized. I looked on the website, and it looks like you cannot access the old test content outline any longer, so I am attaching it here. (I took the old test.) I found the purple book and the online/IQ questions to be the most helpful. I'm assuming they have updated the IQ questions for the new test, but I don't know that for sure. I don't know about Fitzgerald, but I can tell you I did not find the Barkley review helpful at all. I stopped listening to the recordings because I was not getting anything out of them that was helpful. I ended up not going back to them before I took my exam and I'm glad I didn't waste my time. BTW, the review book and recordings can be found used on eBay and Amazon for fairly reasonable prices. Test Content Outline.pdf

They cannot do this. This is how they test new questions to determine if they will be placed in the test bank for the actual test (that counts toward your score). They get a lot of useful statistics about new questions this way. It could be disastrous if they simply released new questions into the official test bank and they counted toward your score from the get-go. A question could be poorly-worded, ambiguous, etc. Sometimes the only way to figure that out is to trial a new question and see how test-takers do with it.

I have been with ProLiability for the last 8 years or so, but their customer service has gotten pretty unresponsive, which is aggravating. Anyone have a good experience with other NP malpractice insurers? Thanks!

I am familiar with this program, although I have not gone through it. I know several people who completed it while working full-time. (Your workplace is also your clinical site, which works out nicely.) They all passed their boards with no problems. It is only 3 courses, with an approximate cost of $6,000 per course. The director of the Acute Care NP program is usually very responsive to emails, so I would recommend emailing her with any questions. Her email can be found here: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/adult-gerontology/adult-gerontology-acute-care-nurse-practitioner/

I graduated nursing school at age 52. When I looked for a job as a new graduate BSN, I absolutely encountered age discrimination. (I will not go into the details.) It was very discouraging. I did eventually find that long-term care and sub-acute rehab (SNFs) seemed to like older nurses. They knew we older nurses have patience with geriatric patients and may very well have geriatric parents ourselves. However, several years later, when I looked for a job as a new graduate NP, my age was considered a big plus! I think that's because most of the patients were middle-aged and older and my employers figured I could relate to them. Which I can! ? Good luck! Keep trying!

I found the ANCC online questions to be the best prep, along with reading "Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Review and Resource Manual, 4th Edition" (the "purple book"). I know others found Pocket Prep helpful, but a lot of the questions are just plain lame and repetitive/variations on other questions. I did not find them overly relevant to the actual test questions. It's not a very expensive resource, so if you are looking for something to access during down time, I suppose it's OK. The ANCC exam was set for a fairly dramatic change in the middle of December 2019, so I can't speak to the changes, since I passed the old version.

Glad to be of service! ?

Agree with this. I have been looking for a DNP program that will make me a better clinician. I want to take courses like super-advanced pharmacology and patho, advanced clinical decision-making, etc. I'm still looking... If anyone knows of such a DNP program, I'd love to hear about it!

Don't call me a "physician extender". It makes NPs sound like medical Hamburger Helper! ? I will not even respond to a job ad that uses that term. It speaks volumes about the culture of the employer if they think of NPs and PAs as "physician extenders".

That is literally one of the saddest things I have ever read on AN, and I have been here for over 10 years. ?