FNPdude74

Don't give up. It took me 18 months to get in. Luckily I was in the process of getting the health professions scholarship during that wait time. In regards to experience they want a new grad NP who has some RN experience. However, you can argue that PAs come out after two years of their masters program with no prior healthcare experience. I've seen some NPs who came into the Air Force with no prior experience at all. As long as you're healthy and can pass the PT tests, you should be good in the military side of things. As for the degree, they're slowly phasing out the MSN requirement and now require the DNP. Those already in the Usaf as a NP will be grandfathered in.

I think you should be okay to be honest. They're trying to keep in ICU nurses which all services have a hard time doing. NPs are in a different ballgame and we are still having difficulty with long term retention providers left and right.

If you want to get out of inpatient work and do outpatient work, FNP is for you. I love the hours and I get my weekends and holidays and I get to diagnose and treat illness.

Well a little history... I am in nearly 4 years into my 5 year contract as an FNP since I took a HPSP scholarship and took a HP loan. Reason why I took the loan repayment is because they lost my paperwork for HPSP and paid only the last semester of my masters degree. I gained so much experience as a new FNP in the USAF as an active duty member and never regret it. Now I'm nearly done with my DNP in May 2015 that I'm paying out of pocket for. My active duty commitment contract ends October 2016. They were about to PCS me in fall of 2015 to overseas to Japan or South Korea since I requested for it before as I'm korean chinese and I'm able to speak korean. I'm from Hawaii so I wanted to be in PACAF. I thought about joining the reserves as an IMA before coming onto active duty anyway, but so far it's been fun while active. I'm single with no kids. I recently met a good girl in Duluth, GA and we're getting serious. I've come to a point where I wanted to find a wife and have a family. However many of the women I met don't want to move a lot and I'm 29 years old (young yes). So since my contract is up then, I've talked to my chief nurse and commanders who weren't too happy about the decision since they wanted to keep me and told me to think about it for another month. The thought about being in the reserves and working for the VA was intriguing to me since my active duty time will count toward federal service retirement. Plus my previous COT training buddies who were RNs and NPs, got out of active service and they're loving civilian, reserve life. I guess I'm asking if it would be a good idea to get out active duty to start a life with someone and try to maintain a stable family in one area while serving in the reserves. I know I'll lose the free of cost healthcare and tax free housing and food allowance, but I'm wondering if the reserves and working on the civilian side would make up for that. Some of my buddies working on the civilian side are making more and plus they can still serve in the reserves. Many of my friends think I'm getting out of active duty for a girl, but that's not the case. But I am feeling the reserves may be the best for me after my initial active duty commitment to get more exposure to the outside world. Especially if they eventually want to make me a flight commander and go into the leadership role. That would mean either 50% patient care and 50% administrative role. I actually want to stay on the clinical side to maintain my skills. So if that's the case, is the reserves and full time at the VA good for me? Anyone else had this dilemma? Sorry if this post didn't make much sense. I'm typing through an iPhone at the airport and I'm pretty tired.

Congrats! Now see them patients!

I would say get your experience as an RN if you are not yet in NP school. If possible, work and go to school as a NP student is another option. After you get at least 1 year of RN experience, you should be good to go in terms of having prior experience as an RN. After you get your PNP license and start a job as a NP, focus on that. There's so much to learn as a new NP. I would only focus on being an NP as a new grad. After you get about 3-5 years of experience as an NP, if you still want to do floor RN duties, then go for it. Personally, I focused so much on NP skills that I would rather look for NP jobs. For example, I wouldn't be giving steroid injections, doing minor surgery, reducing simple dislocations as an RN and I do all of this as a FNP.

Took me 1.5 years since they have a strong need for NPs in primary care. Now with the Force Shaping of the air force of 1,499 officers, about 232 nurses are being cut because they're overmanned with 210 clinical nurses. read below. APRNs are also affected but mostly those who don't have a commitment to owe or mostly who have greater than 6 years of being an officer. 1,499 first lieutenants, captains face July force shaping board | Air Force Times | airforcetimes.com

Pay as a 1LT was okay for a brand new NP with no RN experience. Pay and priviledges/responsibilities as a captain increased, but I'm much happier now!

I don't think anyone would pay a brand new NP with no RN/NP experience 75K starting. Not sure if you're going FNP route. RNs with at least 5 years experience, maybe, but thats even a maybe. Many places will pay lower than 75K for a brand new NP even with RN experience because the practice is so different. Sure my RN stuff helped a little in knowledge, but as a primary care provider? It's a WHOLE different ballgame. I know this from experience and seeing other new FNPs coming into my clinic at my base and also at Eglin AFB when I was there for several weeks. When i first started, I was like *** is this? So much paperwork! What the hell is a Bisniak cyst and are they significant? Fortunately, the military ENSURES you get help when needed. First year pay as a new FNP in the AF is less than the 75K. You can even see their pay chart online by googling it. But thats just basic pay and not including the tax free housing and food allowances, no cost healthcare for you and all your dependants (you don't pay a dime), covered malpractice, lots of training and also combat related injury trauma training when you're deployed. When you're deployed everyone is participating in trauma care including pediatricians. :) I can go on and on. Nurses also get the extra bonuses and its a healthy bonus annually when you sign up for multi-year. You'll will come in as a 1 LT, then 1.5 years later, Capt. Capt's pay is nice and makes you look at the greener side of life. :)

You are seriously misinformed. I'm a FNP in active duty military air force. I am allowed to prescribe it all, but choose not to prescribe certain things due to need of a specialist consult. Even as a FP doc you wouldn't give T3 for hypothyroidism because you need frequent monitoring and adjusting initially. You'd first consult with the endocrinologist and as a FP provider, you'll be managing it. I did work up a person for pheochromo and MS. You are never by yourself even as a physician. Always consult otherwise risk a lawsuit on why you didn't consult. For example, courts will ask (if you're in FP), "but you're not a neurologist and you tried to manage this person you're self? But still, you're not board certified as a neurologist." NPs in most states don't have to be under MD licenses to prescribe. WE ARE NOT UNDER THEIR LICENSE. Why do you think we take board exams to get certified and get licenses as NPs? Please get your facts straight before you post stuff like this. My physicians sometimes also consult with NPs. For example, a FP doc consulted with a derm NP in a large hospital in the military. Why? Because the NP is specialized in derm and the FP doc see many other things rather than derm issues all day. However, I do agree that we need a formal post education training. That way, we can try to cover many topics during training and be more familiar with them while practicing such as knowing which labs to order, how to interpret them, and the next plan of care.

I'm thinking about going to Medical School. I'm 26 yo male in active duty air force with 4 years left in my committment so i cant do anything yet except take prereqs. My biggest thing was dealing with "you're not a physician" precepting issues and the lack of residencies for us. I started out as a new NP with no experience and struggled last year, but after a year, it actually got better and I'm more competent with standards of care no matter how much of an itch i wanna give abx for lots of things such as acute sinusitis and bronchitis and i know my limits such as not giving T3 and instead consulting with the endocrinologist for that. :) but yeah, i heard our practice will expand to our fullest scope soon in all states and especially with obamacare coming up, i'm sure NPs will need to be allowed to do more and get paid more. with that, i may stay as a FNP and go through various NP residencies after the military and get my DNP instead. I care less about being called Dr. I just want to practice with full scope and get paid well. Being a NP is no easier than being an MD. I work with MDs in the military and we work as a team and we all get equal stress except for those in commander positions which is a lot of admin work. So as a physician in civilian world, you may be the leader of the team, but that soon may change in the near future with obamacare with NPs taking leadership roles. Not sure about PAs, I can't speak for them because of that whole issue with them required to have a "supervising physician" either directly or indirectly...

Relax for now. Watch the Oylympics. Think sports. No nursing. :) hahaha

I would hate to say yes, you should, but then it could open up a can of worms totally unrelated to the visit. If you're using the patient centered medical home model then yeah you can go ahead and open up the can of spam all you want lol... But I'm guilty of listening to heart and lungs a lot even if it's just knee pain, sometimes it adds more credit to the visit if you're working for RVUs. If I'm a rush because I had a lot of "oh by the way" visits then I would do focus exams such as if they came in for a wart on their hand and wants it frozen off.

I say enough with this battle and just join 'em! It's inevitable anyway. I'm gonna do it just to also tell my friends "hey you got a law doctorate, I also got a nursing doctorate! Hey wait a minute, you have a medical doctorate, me too! but it's a nursing doctorate so a little different". :w00t:Sorry Just needed a laugh and thought I'd bring out my immaturity out here and keep my professionalism in the clinic.

Well not really as of right now since I got into the USAF already and my mind is brainwashed into the air force culture :) I've always been with air force in jrotc, ROTC, and now here I am. You can always be attached to a army unit if you go air force. In terms of deployment, I feel the thought of "air force doesn't deploy as much as army" is false because it depends what your specialty is and also what base you're at. Certain bases deploy more than others depending on the need. Surgical units tend to deploy for longer periods than medical units. Also, it is true however, that army units deploy for longer periods than air force but due to force reduction, more air force units are being deployed for the same time as army units because of that whole joint force with the army thing as we were back in WW2 which the air force was the army air corps.

hey i'm a dude and I do care about my hair cut. I had a True GI box cut with a sleeping mouse at the top of my head and hated it. The military DOES care about even clean professional cuts. Appearance is everything in the military unfortunately. Whereas in the civilian sector, you can have wacky haircuts and still not get penalized. I do agree this has nothing to do with nursing lol.

Hello all, I'm a practicing FNP and was wondering after about 5 years of being an FNP in Family Practice in the USAF, would specialty practices in the civilian sector such as cardiology or any surgery specialty utilize FNPs without such specialty experience, but has long time experience in family practice? I know it depends on who is hiring, but have you seen this happening? I'm thinking of going into the reserves after around 5-6 years of active duty and finding a "specialty" FNP job that would be in the realm of cardiology, emergency medicine, any surgical specialty. Now for ICU specialties, I think I already know that ACNP certification is pretty much required now days especially due to our scope of practice.

Army is like jack of all trades. I'm air force active duty and never touched a gun yet until deployment time.

You won't have to cut your hair super short. Just as long you can bun it to now allow it to touch shoulders. --->coming from an air force guy.

BCgradnurse, We WILL get that recognition. Well... That's my future vision anyway. :) BTW, I get uncomfortable now when new (not even done with residency yet) physicians at work described us as midlevels and "subordinates to physicians". So I said: "alright dude, lets have a nice talk shall we". hehe

I thought being a FNP was prestigious before I started the FNP program. Now I'm practicing as a FNP and it's not as prestigious as some may think at work, but it sounds prestigious when you tell someone outside the clinic, "I'm a nurse practitioner". They're like, "whooooo....you practice under a doctor right?" Then I just keep my cool and give them the spiel of how we function. I'm sort of interested in going to the CRNA route and don't care about prestige in healthcare anymore. I just want to practice aprning and bring home a comfortable paycheck.

I just finished COT at Maxwell AFB last week Friday as a FNP. You will get 6 months service credit for each 1 year of work experience (type and setting varies and does matter). By 4 years, you'll have 2 years service credit which bumps you up to 1st Lt. Then with the masters degree, you may still be a 1st Lt because you won't have that FNP experience because you'll be coming in as a new grad FNP into the active duty air force. But when you get to your base, there may be a slot open for Capt so be on the look out for your Unit Manning Document.

Thank you! I am quite excited. I'm just waiting until October now... in the meantime, I've been doing some free CEUs from Medscape as I've been told from AANP Certification group via email that they accept CMEs from various organizations including AMA, AAFP, etc...for FNPs.

Hey everyone, I took the FNP exam on early September 2nd and I passed! Whoohoo! It was quite difficult. I actually followed the advice provided by many of the posters here, to use one main resource such as Fitzgerald CDs, workbook, her review book. I also bought Leik's FNP intensive review on kindle to read on my iPad 2. I didn't attend any review course cuz of personal preference. I was not working at all and made a total commitment to studying everyday for a full 8-10 hours/day with many breaks in between. Heres what I did: 1. Plan: commit a full work day (6-10 hours/day with breaks) and then some everyday until the day before your test for about 4-6 weeks. I did 4 weeks. Eat right, go to the gym everyday at 24 Hour Fitness for weightlifting, attending kickboxing classes, and doing my own workout program with Insanity workout program with Shaun-T. LoL..physical fitness is a must people, can't just stay home studying every minute of the day. Spend time with your family and friends on weekends but still include some study time, just not as long as the regular weekday hours. Take daily nutritional supplements such as multivitamins, fish oil, caffeine in form of coffee or other forms . Even if you're busy with a family and work, you can still do this! I apologize in advance and don't meant to offend anyone, but I don't have kids and am i not married so I had all the time to myself. 2. Materials used: Review Fitzgerald's CD and follow with workbook that came with them, do this twice (took about 1-2 weeks), but you can do one topic section a day, which will take longer to complete reviewing all the CDs. Leik's FNP intensive review for kindle on my iPad. Don't buy all the resource books in the world, you'll just confuse yourself. Just stick with one review course, not sure about the other review courses since I didn't use them, but whatever you prefer will work. Make sure you understand and not memorize content presented in the review course material. Now...my adventure starts from Hawaii to Alabama for commissioned officers training (COT)!

For most universities now, RN experience is not required to become a FNP. For other specialties such as ACNP, you may need the appropriate RN experience in the ICU, ER, etc.