ghostbird

if anyone is reading this, i counter-offered to see if they will increase the base salary. i agree that it's much lower than i would like.

the benefits are standard. the administration showed me some w-2s of other employed nps who made around 140k but i know that she only showed me the w-2s of the highest earners so i'm taking that with a grain of salt. she also stated that all of the providers make over the base salary. i understand the base salary is low. trying to gauge if the productivity pay can compensate for it.

hi everyone. i recently received an offer for a 40 hour/wk position at a private family medicine practice. the hours are 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. however the clinic is only open 8-5 so they are allotting me extra time to complete all my charting. they expect me to see 18-20 patients per day eventually. the compensation package they offered came out to $5500 per month or 35% of the previous month's receipts, whichever is higher. is this a fair offer? wanted some outside opinions. the other parts of the package (cme, vacation, sick days, etc) is pretty standard. thanks!

Hello everyone! I see a lot of discussion regarding working as a clinician as an FNP but not much about alternative career paths. I'm the kind of person who plans out my life 10-15 years in advance so I like to gain a broad perspective of the possibilities out there; what sort of interesting careers have you guys seen FNPs in outside of working as a provider? Thank you!

26...just started this year! Time really flies...

Definitely shadow! You never know what something's going to be like until you see it for yourself; case in point, many med school students end up changing their specialty once they actually go through rotations. Also, I'm currently enrolled in nursing school with the end goal of becoming an NP and I'm not completely sure what specialty I'd like to pursue for my Master's!

I thought the GRE was pretty easy, as long as you devote some regular time to studying for it. I think I studied for 3 months or so? The most annoying thing was writing practice essays, ugh. The key thing to do is to regularly study! And vocab flashcards helped a ton!

Rgracevn, Baltimore is diverse in the sense that the population is largely non-Caucasian but it is mostly African-American. I'd consider New York more diverse since a multitude of ethnicities are represented in the population (Caucausians, African-Americans, Asians, Europeans, Latin Americans, etc.) Since I am mostly interested in outpatient experiences, I focused a lot on the makeup of the local population. I definitely suggest visiting Baltimore to see which city you find the most inspirational! After a few days in NYC, I felt like I owned the city whereas Baltimore made me retreat to my hotel room at 5 pm on my second day there...haha. And I know that would affect my learning ability/motivation. :) Of course it is all personal preference! I get the feeling that if you are really really into working with the extremely disadvantaged, Johns Hopkins would be your dream school. If I had a tougher stomach, I would love to go to Johns Hopkins. Between the amazing clinical rotations abroad, the chance to work with a very large indigent population, and with D.C. being only a short train ride away (think about the opportunities to get involved with politics!), Johns Hopkins seems like an amazing opportunity. However, I'm going with Columbia because I get the feeling that I would be much more inspired in NYC, and working abroad and working with the indigent are opportunities that I know that I can create for myself if I stay motivated. Plus it is pretty cool that Columbia has CAPNA! I think it would be a really cool experience to learn from the DNPs working there. In the end, each program has its upsides and downsides; it just depends on what gets you going!

Hopefulnurse, got your pm! Once I hit 15 posts I'll reply! Rgracevn, I just got from a tour of JH and I have to say the surrounding area scared me quite a bit. Also, the program does seem to emphasize hospital nursing a lot, and since I'm FNP this doesn't appeal to me as much. But I was very impressed by the credentials of the professors. I'm still debating, but I think I may go with Columbia since the location is much safer and I get the sense that they place more importance on the MSN portion which is my endgame. I think NY will also have a more diverse patient population. Plus, the flexibility of switching into a different Masters track is pretty cool, just in case I change my mind. :) Let me know what you decide!

the healer's art, that was super helpful! I basically got the same feeling that Hopkins has a stronger program overall with more opportunities, but I didn't have so much supporting evidence! Part of me is still leaning towards Columbia though for personal reasons...maybe TMI, but I just got out of a 6 year relationship so I need to know that I can have a bustling social life with lots of variety if I need it! Haha. :) I'm visiting Hopkins this Friday (can't make Accepted Student's Day because Columbia's deposit is due before then); maybe Baltimore isn't as bad as everyone makes it seem! kesnurse, would you mind sharing what the FNP students had to say? I heard from an ETP student that the FNP portion was more disorganized than the ETP portion, which scared me off a little.

I'm actually debating between Hopkins and Columbia too, but for FNP. I was quite disappointed that the FNP director didn't even show up for Visiting Day at Columbia...that has me nervous about the program. Just curious, why do you like Hopkins better than Columbia?

Ah got it. Do you know if this is the case for FNP? Is there any way to just go straight through for FNP? I was so busy during the application cycle that I didn't have time to look into these details; now I'm wishing that I did!

I'm in for FNP for this fall! I have a question for current students. I noticed on the website that the 17 month BSN program ends in December. Does the MSN portion begin the following January? Thanks!

40 minutes! I love seeing the excitement on this page! Hope everyone is going to have good news! I took the day off today because I had an interview with a school and because I knew I'd be super distracted by the pending release of the admission decision...I am going to go find something to do to distract myself until 12....haha. :)

I got in for FNP too! I can't believe it! I can finally stop stressing out over getting into school, haha. If there are any current FNP students here, I would love to hear your guys's perspectives on the program! :)