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The position that I just accepted counted my years of RN and NP experience as part of the calculation for my salary; although, the RN experience is weighted less. Only time that RN experience has affected my salary as an NP. I believe there's a limit to how much RN experience is beneficial for the new grad NP. The type of RN experience matters as well. I had 5 years of beside MICU experience, including CCRN certification, before starting my first NP position in Family Medicine. I can't say any more years of RN experience would've been beneficial. More clinical hours during school and a post-grad residency would've been way more beneficial as a new grad NP than more years as an RN. I'm currently precepting a new grad NP with 20 years of ER experience as part of my organization's Primary Care Fellowship Program. It's been quite difficult to get her out of the bedside RN mindset and into that of an NP, but we've made some progress. The only leg up her RN experience has given her is she can determine sick vs not sick most of the time and knows when to ask for help when she's out of her league, again, most of the time. Knowledge and skill base wise, she's just as green as any new grad NP in Primary Care. I say this as someone who has trained many new grad NPs in Primary Care.

Ferri's Clinical Advisor may be what you're looking for.

If you're a member of the AANP, you can browse the CE Center. There's also the American Family Physician journal.

If you're wanting to do any type of inpatient work with adults, then you are better off attending an AGACNP program as you'll be better prepared to care for that population. The current FNP curriculum focuses on primary care across the lifespan, which does not include didactics and clinical rotations in hospital medicine, critical care medicine, or surgery. We did cover a very small portion of emergency medicine and knowing when a patient needs to be admitted and/or have surgery, but beyond that, it is out of our scope as FNPs. That being said, the majority of Cardiology practices in my region require NPs to be AGACNP certified as they often require coverage of the the cardiac ICU and/or cardiology floor(s).

To echo previous posters, your happiness is worth more than a small decrease in salary. We spend some much of our lives at work that it isn't worth it in the longterm to be unhappy and unfulfilled, professionally. I recently switched jobs for similar reasons as yours and did have to take a small pay cut to do so, but the new job's benefits more than outweigh that small drop in pay.

I used Board Vitals as my question bank to help prepare for the ANCC FNP exam in 2017. Pros: 1) Thousands of questions across several topics 2) Question banks geared toward the ANCC and AANP FNP exams 3) Rationales for each answer are very detailed with sources 4) Questions are harder than what's on the actual exam 5) Can receive CE credit for answering questions 6) Can track performance based upon topics 7) Can create customized quizzes Cons: 1) Bit pricey but sometimes offer discounts 2) Subscription-based payment system 3) Must pay extra to receive CE credit

I agree with @FullGlass that COVID-19 has made finding a position as a new grad NP even harder. There has been an uptick in job positions in my region of NorCal, especially for PMHNPs and experienced NPs in various specialities. In fact, I recently accepted a new position at a very large primary care practice in a major metropolitan area here in NorCal known to have a very competitive job market for NPs. What kind of NP certification do you hold? How much experience do you have? @mrsannRN

If you're looking to break into primary care, then I'd suggest relocating to a rural area or working with underserved populations in more urban settings in order to get the prerequisite experience that you need. I still see several positions posted for experienced FNPs to work in Family Medicine or Internal Medicine in my region of Northern California, although most seem to be for clinics whose population overwhelmingly is served by Medi-Cal. I agree with @FullGlass. I don't think PMHNP is the way to go unless you have a passion for psychiatry and truly want to work in that speciality. There is a reason they are compensated so well; it's a challenging area of medicine not many people are cut out for.

In the beginning, it was a combination of seeing A LOT of new patients and seeing established patients for sick visits or follow-up's if their usual provider wasn't available that day. Some of those established patients switched over to me as their preferred provider. I am openly gay, so I'm the one who sees the majority of the LGBT+ patients and/or children of LGBT+ parents. My skill in conversational Spanish has also garnered me a sizeable following of Spanish-speakers.

I am clinical faculty at a local medical school and precept medical students (M3s) for their pediatric clerkship. They have didactics taught by another professor on Friday, so I am responsible for their clinical experience and helping them apply what they learn in class to actual practice. At the end of the clerkship, I am the one who completes their evaluation.

No regrets here! Overall, I really enjoy Family Medicine. I didn't realize the value of a PCP until I became one myself! I've really enjoyed the long-term relationship building with patients and families and take great pride in being their go-to source for medical information. My work is very intellectually engaging and rewarding. The good days definitely out weight the bad, for sure.

We used Amelie Hollier's book during my FNP program. It was a great text for school as it summarized the most common conditions well, but it is definitely limited in the amount and depth of content it covers. If you are looking for something like 5 Minute Clinical Consult, I would go with Ferri's Clinical Advisor. It is a huge text, and the information isn't hidden behind a website that requires a subscription. I have a copy of the 2018 version, and it's a good reference if you need to read about a topic fairly quickly.

Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2019 Current Diagnosis and Treatment Pediatrics Urgent Care Dermatology: Symptom-Based Diagnosis A Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests Essentials of Musculoskeletal Care, 5th Edition These are the books that I have on my bookshelf at work, but I find myself using Up-to-Date and American Family Physician most of the time because it is easier and quicker to look up information. The website for Essentials of Musculoskeletal Care is an amazing resource with assessment videos and patient education materials (e.g., home exercise programs for various injuries). Urgent Care Dermatology has been really helpful as the skin conditions are organized based up appearance versus diagnosis. I have a ton of other books, but the ones listed above are the ones that I use most often.

I second the use of Pocket Primary Care. It was one of my favorite resources during school. Clinician's Guide to Laboratory Medicine was also very helpful!

Gain some good, solid experience as an RN in the ED, ICU or med/surg floor before moving on to FNP. Take care of the sickest, most complex patients whenever you can and obtain specialty certification in the area in which you work. I attended a brick-and-mortar state school that required a certain number of community service hours in order to graduate. I did way more than the minimum and carefully chose the types of volunteering activities I wanted to do. This seemed to really impress prospective employers and gave me a lot to talk about during interviews.