crzyNP

No I am not an acute care NP I am a hospitalist NP. My NP degree is Adult NP. Sorry if I confused. I had just said acute setting (hospital) versus nursing home, dialysis unit. I am not an Intensive Care NP.

I am an NP with 9 years experience. I am in Eastern Tennessee and make 100K + bonus. I work in a acute care setting and work nights, weekends and holidays. I work 5 days and have 5 days off ( work 180 days per year). In contrast to others preferences I cannot stand M-F 9 to 5 schedule & traveling in rush hour crap. Plus myy body clock is stay up till 4 and sleep till noon anyways and my husband is a musician and his hours are late too. And working weekends and holidays is a fantastic reason to get out of stuffy social gatherings or holiday events we both cannot stand. Me and my hubby and boys (teenagers) get to enjoy our own private holiday celebrations around our schedule and prefer it that way. It is absolutely a perfect schedule for us. When I use to work M-F no weekends or holidays I made about 80k year after 3 years experience. As a New grad I made 72K to start out.

As far as transplants ,since the kidney transplant is not "cure" but a treatment for ESRD which will eventually chronically reject hopefully not until years later. I would always document as "ESRD status post living related(LRT) or Cadaveric(CRT) and then document the GFR. Many transplant patients do not have a normal GFR and will need renal dosing especially with antibiotics and other drugs than can affect their immunosuppression. I use Epocrates the most complete version. It had all the renal dosing adjustments on it and it went on my Palm. Any patient who has ever had any type of renal problem should permanently avoid NSAIDS.

I was a nephrology NP for 8 years and a dialysis RN for 8 years before an NP. I am now a hospitalist NP. I had a lot of experience going into the nephrology NP role but the docs I started out with had me read and learn the "Primer on Kidney Diseases" put out by the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). It really helped me learn the renal diseases and causes of prerenal, postrenal and the different glomerular diseases. I did function in the dialysis units and also rounded in the hospital and had a CKD clinic. Remember with CKD to just address the main issues of 1) Stage of CKD, etiology of renal disease 2) Hypertension 3) anemia due to CKD 4) secondary hyperparathyroidism from CKD 5) nutrition as low albumins are usually a problem esp with nephrotic syndrome disease states and late CKD. Always remember to tell the patient to avoid NSAIDS, huge factor in preservation of remaining kidney function in these patients and to let any doc who wants to do a dye study on them know of their renal disease in consideration of contrast nephropathy prevention. Prevention of further renal decline and preparation for ESRD are big goals in the CKD patient. Hope this is helpful. Good luck.

I don't see how anyone just out of school whether it be an NP or CRNA could possibly have enough cash saved up to pay for a BMW or Corvette unless you are financing it. In my opinion, UGH!! financing it would totally ruin any good feeling of getting the car anyway unless it was paid in full. Screw having a car payment ever.

Sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like a chore at all. I love the NP role but I cannot stand the schedule. It is a totally different lifestyle working 5 days a week compared to 3. There is alot less time it seems. Plus dealing with rush hour traffic. It is just not for me. I would highly encourage you to go back to school to be an NP.

Any other NPs out there sick of an 8-5 Mon-Fri schedule???? Well, I'm finally escaping from it. I have been an NP since 2000. It was a very worthwhile and rewarding career move. I have love everything about being an NP except the schedule. I absolutely detest working a Monday-Friday 8:30 to 5 schedule. 5 days a week is terrible. I have always so much missed the 12 hour night shifts I used to work in the hospital. I loathe having to worry about what I'm going to wear and miss throwing on a pair of scrubs. I worked my first NP job for 8 years doing a combination of hospital rounds and office work. My current job is all office work and it is not for me. I have found out that I prefer to work in the hospital environment with acutely ill patients. So I have been looking for a job and I found one that meet all the criteria I have been looking for. I get to work in the hospital with a group of hospitalists, get to work night shift (12 hour shifts)- I chose to work 5 day on and have 5 days off, get to wear scrubs. I am so excited about this change. I have been looking for a long time and had even thought of quitting being an NP and going back to being an RN at times so I could get off this 8-5 day shift schedule. Also the pay is better than my last 2 jobs. I'm so happy!

Thank you all for your input. I am waiting for a call back from the hospitalist job position. My husband actually already found a job in the new area merging his business with one already established there. So things are looking fairly good.

I have had my current position for approximately 5 months and am just not being utilized to my abilities and I took a 20,000 pay cut to come here for my husbands job. Well his job is not working out. So we are moving close to his home near his family. I am going for a position of hospitalist which is alot like my prior old position. I prefer inpatient care and fast paced environment. The cost of living is so much better there too. Anyway I kinda feel guilty about leaving this job as they are really nice and all and my hospital priveleges are still pending even. But I'm just not getting paid enough and the cost of living is sky high. Has anyone else ever had an experience like this. Before this I had my other job for 8 years and lived in that place my whole life.