qaidowu

Well, I for one am quite excited about the National Health Service Scholarship andn Loan Repayment program because you get a job that pays off your student debt AND pays you at the same time (yay for new grads worried about employment!), it's usually in an urban/county setting where your services are needed, and you get to see a wide variety of cases that will improve your skills, so if you do choose to go on to a higher paying area, you're debt free and have great NP skills! Its a win win situation, in my opinion...

OMG! I am sorry to hear you are having such a hard time! This helps me in my decision to switch to FNP tho...I was in the ANP/GNP program and the first day of my first clinical, my preceptor told me to switch to FNP as soon as possible! But you would think with the baby boomers and the plethora of geriatric patients on the floors that your specialty would be in high demand...Hope your situation has improved by now!

I think it all depends on how you work yourself. I have been a nurse for almost 3 yrs (will be 3yrs in May). I quit my 1st RN job after working in a level 1 trauma ED for 18mo where my orifice got kicked on the nightly basis, I would go home, take a shower, and literally collapse in my bed for 8-10 hrs 3-5 days/week. I was miserable at that damn job with a 5-8 : 1 pt to nurse ratio, constantly afraid that one of my 5-8 pt's would fall/code/die when I was busy with another one, constantly cussing out/chasing down crazy/ungrateful patients and worked with nurses who had been in the same unit for 6-20 yrs and complained worse than I did, and made an avg of ONLY $7/hr more than I did...but they did nothing to change their situation! So, I decided to quit and work for a staffing agency (and did some Home health on the side)... Got paid $48/hr and worked when I wanted! Enjoyed a year of traveling and galavanting all over the world. Did a medical mission trip to Kenya...and it changed my whole outlook on what I wanna do in my career! So I came back and applied to and got in an FNP program...Hope to work for the UN/WHO/Red Cross or some humanitarian entity that will send me overseas to run clinics and serve small communities! If they pay me more or equal to what I was getting as a nurse, its fine with me! I will have more freedom, my services will go further to benefit more people, and the education/experience I am getting/will get on the job is priceless! So, moral of the story is, dont look at people on your unit who have been there for ever and are miserable in their situation. Ask those who have been all over the place and are not afraid to quit and look at other options and play two companies/agencies against each other to get paid more...cuz that is the game you have to play to get what you want, no matter if you are an NP/RN. I hope to get about a year experience in an outpatient clinic/urgent care clinic/ with an inpatient GP before I venture off with the UN... Good luck on your decision! I am almost done with my 1st year in NP school, and I know that I will be blessed with a job that I love and will pay me VERY well, as long as I am doing God's work and helping those who are unable to help themselves!