KansasFNP

No regrets. Held on for 2 years, learned a lot, and got a ton of loan money off my back.

I live and work in Kansas. I am educated as a FNP did an extended residency in EM, then became ENP certified. Own and operate my own locums company. I provide emergency department coverage for 6 hospitals across the state. I had to cut back on working because there was too much work and not enough me. I am well respected by my PA and physician colleagues. I make great pay, have excellent flexibility and see no signs of this slowing down. I am very happy to have extended my education and am proud to have advanced my nursing skills. I routinely perform high-level tasks including interpretation of rad testing, placement of ETs, central lines, and chest tubes. I love my job. I do not share the sentiment of many on this post or on this website and would just remind everyone that one experience is not the experience of all.

Hey everyone. I am a nurse practitioner with a masters degree in nursing with an emphasis in family practice and a postmaster certificate as an emergency nurse practitioner. I'm duly certified as a family NP and emergency nurse practitioner from AANP. I am looking to go back to school to finish a doctorate degree but am not convinced that the DNP is the way to go. Long-term, I would like to see myself working with at risk populations and even looking at global health. I would like to have the option to teach at the university level in my future. I'm curious what other options might be feasible for a doctorate degree. I have looked into several but I'm not really sure what is the best fit for a nurse practitioner like myself. I do have some concerns about the future oversaturation of nurse practitioners and the watering down of the DNP curriculum. This has me thinking about looking outside of the nursing realm. I considered a doctorate degree of public health. Any other thoughts or advice? Thanks in advance.

I work with them now. Great recruiter. Great shifts. Good pay.

Hi everybody. I am a nurse practitioner that works in the emergency department and have recently been offered a job opportunity in another state by the VA. I used to work for the Department of Defense at an army facility but have never worked for the VA. Can anybody give me some insight as to your experience working with the VA is a nurse practitioner? The good the bad the ugly? Before I uproot my family and move across the country to accept this position, I want to know little bit more about the VA system and how they treat their nurse practitioners. It will be a large increase in pay but money is not everything. Thoughts?

Does anyone have experience working at The Little Clinic? I'm a FNP with just over a year of practice. Planning to go back to school and need something that will provide me a bit more time to dedicate to studies. There are currently none in the area. Opening up in June. Accepted a PRN position. Thinking of doing full time. What have your experiences been? Thanks in advance.

Futureeastcoast I don't know whether to be insulted or just laugh myself half-to-death. You know as much about living in Kansas as you know about being a nurse practitioner which is obviously not much. I do not live in a "rural" or a "poverty-stricken" area of the country. I live in a city with over a quarter of a million people with an abundance of fine arts, fine dining, big industry, and certainly no shortage of things to do. As an individual who is not even a nurse practitioner, and has been a registered nurse for just over a year, you have quite a large opinion of the profession. It will be interesting when and if you finish training and become licensed to see what kind of provider you may become. Individuals who believe that they know more than they do often make dangerous clinicians. For those of us out in the real world, especially those of us who according to you live in teepees and have to scavenge for food, thriving as a nurse practitioner has been easy. Obsequiously yours, Starving, poor, Kansas nurse practitioner

I became a NP because I love being a nurse. As nurses we are taught to relate to individuals, look at the details, and approach health from a psychosocial model that takes environment and interpersonal relationships into account when addressing disease and wellness. I never wanted to "escape" bedside nursing. I wanted to advance my nursing skills to provide a higher level of care to the clients I work with. The next logical step to this was implementing the pathophysiologic/medical model and integrating this with the psychosocial model to provide holistic care.

It always interests me to see posts like this on allnurses. I live and practice in rural Kansas at a Federally Qualified Health Center. In this facility, I am one of 6 nurse practitioners. The medical director for the clinic is a... drumroll... nurse practitioner. A physician sits on the Board of Directors and is the "supervising" physician for the nurse practitioners. This clinic has operated in this fashion for 20 years. The patients within our clinic, and I may be biased here, receive top quality, evidence-based care regardless of their ability to pay. The point of my story? In my area of the world, there is certainly not an oversaturation of qualified providers. Quite the contrary, there is an abundant shortage of health care providers at all levels. I am treated as an equal by all of my local colleagues, physicians, PA's, and other NP's alike. There is no discrimination based on what school you graduated from. There is no turf war between physicians and non-physician providers. There is PLENTY of work for all of us.

I tested just a few months ago and really thought they were great. Use SAVE-ELOSK and get I think 10% off. A friend gave me this code and it worked then. They are WAY cheaper than the practice tests through AANP or Barkely and I think they were just as comprehensive. Get a few and see what you think.

I have to say that I used Fitzgerald, Barkley, Leik, and AANP-FNP.com. I really felt quite confident and well prepared after using the AANP-FNP practice exams and credit my passing to those practice exams. I would suggest the Leik book as a good study guide. It has a ton of practice questions with great rationales as well.

I'm personally torn on this one. I relied heavily on my years as a dually certified emergency room and ICU nurse when completing my advanced education. The 7 years of direct, hands-on experience assessing patients, administering treatments/medications, and collaborating with the interdisciplinary team that I had prior to becoming a nurse practitioner assisted me in excelling in advanced practice education. Many of the physicians I have worked with in my neck of the woods have stated that they appreciate working with nurse practitioners due to the critical and independent reasoning skills learned while working as a registered nurse. This is absolutely not to say that bright, science-minded individuals with a knack for interpersonal communication and pathophysiology cannot make an excellent APN via a DE program. If you have completed an approved course of study, passed, successfully taken boards, and become credentialed as a nurse practitioner in your state, you have just as much right to practice proudly as a NP as I do, even without RN experience. Just my anecdotal opinion.

FuturecoastNP you are very vocal about the standards of Nurse Practitioner education in the US and it's implications on patient care and health delivery. You will no doubt be a fierce advocate for the profession once you complete your schooling and become a nurse practitioner.

Goodness knows I wish I could've received my educational kicking back and drinking beer. If you know of a program that allows this please let me know ASAP!

You provide some very great anecdotal "facts" based on your experiences in your area of the country. I live in a very rural area in Kansas. There is not a graduate school of nursing for 200 miles in any direction. Utilizing the online program from one of the state-approved universities allowed me to continue my education, complete top-notch training, and enter into the field as a well-prepared nurse practitioner. Believe me, in the rural and inner urban areas of United States, individuals are not as concerned about whether you had the privilege to attend a Ivy League brick-and-mortar school or received your education at a distance. Their concern that you are a well-qualified candidate that is certified in your specialty area. That is all. This debate will continue on and on without any immediate resolve I am sure. The nursing profession has never done a great job about identifying weaknesses within the profession and fixing them. They have however done a really great job at attempting to divide themselves as many ways as possible. At the end of the day, I am proud to say that I am an online graduate and a certified nurse practitioner working hard to assure that the rural communities in Kansas that I serve receive top-notch healthcare. Your dislike for online programming does not take away my experience, my certification, nor my ability to legally and professionally care for my patients.