Buckeyejunk

whoever put money...ha!! You can make more as a weekend-option RN than any NP job I've ever seen in my area. :) When I was in college I was heading towards medicine but then did not think I wanted the intensity/takes-over-the-next-12-years-of-your-life that med school & residency offer. So I found advanced practice nursing. I never had any intention of working as an RN for any longer than I had to -- but it worked out that I loved nursing as soon as I started, and loved my 2 years as a floor RN. Every so often some drillbit resident comes through our clinic and I think, "I really could have done medicine. I really could have done it". But my heart is more that of a nurse so I know I'm doing the right thing. My collaborating docs spend 10 minutes with patients, I can spend 45. It's the right thing for me.

I'm not sure where I read this, but I thought I could only do prenatal care to 28 weeks. I may have gotten that from my state SOP ...not sure. I would check with your state BON first, then ANCC/body of certification. Remember your state revised code/law will trump what the ANCC says so follow the state first.

I went through a "graduate entry" program but they're called different things at different schools (accelerated, bridge, etc). I had a bachelor's in Biology - but during my second half of college realized I was going to pursue advanced practice nursing so I stocked up on some unnecessary-at-the-time classes for the nursing side of things. I was off school one year (hubby was in grad school) then went through the grad entry program - it was 2 years full-time to get my RN, (not awarded a BSN) and then another year full-time to the MSN & NP cert. I worked as an RN during that third year but not everyone does/did. I have not had the no-BSN become an issue. Most people don't care what degrees I have at this point as I have been practicing for a while.

I was advised in my program that FNP was the most marketable/versatile for jobs. I wanted to do women's health but it does limit you in terms of jobs. I got a women's health job in a sub-specialty and was basically able to learn what I needed to know on the job. FNP was the right decision for me. Remember, you can always see kids as a FNP, but you can not see adults as a PNP.

I continued working as a floor RN and nothing changed. It took me 6 months to find a job. I did feel that I was losing clinical skills but it worked out ok - I was family-certified but ended up working in Women's health and took on a very specific clinical skill set.

I went to school in Ohio. My program found preceptors for us so that wasn't an issue, although I've heard of many that make you find your own. To that end, I would just say leave no stone unturned. If you have to precept with an NP you might have to actually GO to offices & practices because sometimes NP's are not billed as providers in the yellow pages ad...the infamous, invisible, mid-level provider. :) I did work as an RN during my program but it was brutal. I was married but did not have children at the time. There is no way I'd have done this pace if I'd had kids then. When I was doing my advanced practice clinicals, I would do an 8am-2pm day in the office with my preceptor, then go work 3-11 as an RN, which was really more like 3-1:30am or 2. Go home, sleep a bit, and repeat. I had class 1 or 2 days a week also, 1 hour away from my house. Mostly lived in my car, rarely slept, rarely saw my husband. Good times! It was worth it, I love the profession, but there are sacrifices. I never got to choose teachers. Some were good, some weren't so sharp....just like any other program you'd go in to. Online vs. in-person I think depends on how disciplined you are as a learner. I usually prefer in-person because I am very visual and need to be there looking at the material while I hear it and think about it. I also ended up taking an upper-level research/statistics class online and that was a huge mistake - that was very complex material for me and I really needed to have been in an in-person format, but it was not offered the quarter I was taking it. I think online classes take a lot more discipline than people realize if you truly want to do well, retain material, and use it clinically for the future. good luck.

It doesn't give a range, it is a huge alphabetized spreadsheet and you will have to look at it by a person's name and title and see the salary. I am not the person who posted it but I looked at it the other day. I recognize a few of the NP's by name there so I just looked for them. The NP's I saw on there were in the $82K-$85K range for FT salary.