eternity112

Thanks for the post. I appreciate that you love this thread. It is great you want to be an NP and that you have great ambitions. Honestly, your goal to become an NP depends on your status. If you are truly motivated and have the money, I recommend accelerated RN and or NP programs. But you said you are looking at RN programs that is good. Remember NP programs require an RN license. Not sure if you are wondering about the whole RN experience for the NP, its not a mandate, which says something. It depends on how much you think its essential. I certainly will have at least 1 - 1.5 years not because I think I need it, but just because I want to dismiss any doubt that I would not be an adequate NP. I certainly do not thinks its mandatory, similarly to the PA profession, its helps but is not essential. I like that you are reading everyone thoughts, And yes what matters is how you get to our goals. Some people need a 17 years of experience before they are confident enough to think about NP school, some need none like me but still want some just in case, and some need 5. In fact, I believe there is no way to mandate a certain amount of years.. It depends on your location, what your skills/confident level is, the employers that you want to work for. Anyway, if you need advise on the RN profession/RN studying/NCLEX prep let me know, i made it after 75 questions .

I am glad your 17 years have given you what you just said. You know physicians that work with NPs with extensive nursing backgrounds, I know and many other people know those that prefer those without any XP or less experience. They believe those without experience have clean slates that are capable of acquiring those essential NP tasks that make them competent NPs. I had a lot of Physicians give me offers without even graduating lol. I don't disagree with you that your experience helps, but certainly isn't a mandate. But again, you seem to be suggesting RN experienced NPs will be more competent than newly grad NPs, yes and no. You can't honestly suggest that is a general statement, of course there are some new grad NPs that have a steep and some with narrow learning curves. But your experience is just 1 and by no means suggests that those without NP experience will not succeed, but your post suggests that. Again remember, not everyone is the same, some will succeed with xp some won't. In fact read around, those with over 5 - 15 years still struggle. Its not an RN you are training to be, its an NP profession that is different from the RN profession.

I agree with you that RN experience is not essential. I never said the DE programs are easy, but just because they are hard does not mean people are not looking for easy ways out. I certainly do believe they are willing to work hard, but not just to work hard for no reason, but to quickly graduate with an NP degree. You may disagree with me, but that is my opinion. Honestly IMO, I don't think anyone would work hard without some reward in the end. But thanks for your opinion.

Thanks for your post and I appreciate that you didn't add strong emotions as other posters did. Well the reason I did not become an PA and did an NP is a long story and believe me no one wants to hear it. All I could say is that I would prefer the reduced supervision I require as PAs do. As an NP I am essentially almost at the top o the educational hierarchy as an RN with some exceptions, not having a DNP, experience, etc, but essentially I am getting there. I simply do not want to be in a profession that revolves around being the subordinate of a doctor. The Physician Assistant profession.. And the Title for heavens sakes implies legal and ethical supervision and oversee. While NPs may function with a collaborative agreement / collaboration with the doctor, this is not supervision and I do not want to have my whole profession bogged down to a doctor having the final stay and critiquing everything I do. Again, I agree with you that RN experience could only help for future/prospective NPs. The thing again is that there is no incentive for future younger NPs to acquire experience. I feel this is a big disserve for those that believe NPs need xp, because not only are these NP students/grads void of credible RN experience, the advocates for essential RN experience are seeing NPs without experience. Not sure if this has consequences, who knows, but certainly studies show nothing of the sort. I may post them later if I feel people are requesting for them. The younger generation will also rush to the easiest route, becoming an NP without xp. I understand that the X generation usually are of the notion that you need 1 - 2 years xp and they generally never questioned authority and caved into the wishes of their superiors, hence why many RNs believe experience is essential, but they superiors believed it. Again, RN experience only helps, if RN experience was essential, it would be part of the law. Thats the problem with the Nursing profession, while it has a strong lobby that protects the practice of RNs/NPs, there is a lack of supervision over the experience needed for APRNs. That is a reason why NPs are graduating with no experience. Reasons for this are student indifference, graduate admission indifference and desire to make money, and a lack of effort by the Nursing State Boards. Honestly, I blame the State Boards, if the Medical Boards mandate a residency, why don't the Nursing Boards do? You can't have it both ways, fail to require RN experience before/ and or after and then say you need it. If anything, that is unfair and quite frankly selfish to do on behalf of aspiring NPs. Think about what NPs go through: 2 years of graduate school thinking they'll function as APRNs and then have someone let them down by mandating xp? Again, let us not be emotional and simply mandate it because we must endure the RN profession according to the Nightingale work ethic of toiling without reward. That is what I believe it is. If it is mandated it would be, its not and as a result, it is not necessary.

Well I sorry you feel that way. I never meant to insult anyone else, and if you are responding to me response in an emotional rather than a logical and ego free discussion so be it. I am not here to "desensitize" or fill my threads with "kisses and roses." I speak from what I believe. And your response if anything is emotional and lacks critical thinking. The only thing you said is that I am negative, you are offended, patients are suffering, I am closed minded, and insulting others that take pride in providing patient care. I am not here to cater to anyone's pride nor to denigrate anyone's proession. If anything, your post boasts of ego and quite frankly I believe is egotistical. I was simply discussing the necessity of RN experience for NP school. You reversed it and turned it to a blow to your ego. Don't be so emotional. By the way, you barely even addressed the question.

Again everyone is different. If RN experience was a way of "paying your dues" or acquiring experience or being essential to being a competent NP, it would have been mandatory in a form of a requirement or a required 1-2 post grad experience, similar to a residency required of MDs, DOs, and DPMs. Again I am not commenting on how "easy" it is to adjust. I think there is no universal rule that states you need experience, however everyone is different. Some people need none, some people need some, some people need a lot. The reality is that without some mandate on having RN experience as stated formerly, you will begin to see a rise in NPs w/o RN experience, similarly to PAs. Schools like Vanderbilt don't require any, yet that Nursing School is one of the best in the country. Maybe its because that school attracts hardworking students who are competent enough to get through that learning curve. On the other hand, an "online degree mill" that attracts low performing students who have no desire to work hard to fill in the void for the lack of RN experience that hardworking NP students and are generally academically mediocre or subpar students do fail to produce NPs that are equally competent. I think there is a lot of factors that influence the degree of RN experience an NP grad needs, and there is no blanket statement there. Too many varying factors, such as aptitude of the student, mentoring and coaching of the student, the gpa of the student, the competitiveness of the NP job market of the area etc. I don't disagree with you that you need to develop experience so people can trust you, but its not a mandate and there are loop holes in the system. We would all love to see NPs that worked ideally 5 years as RNs.. Will that happen? No. Young RN grads and NP grads/students care more about money and promotion, the Y generation. If you don't believe that, well, alright. Sometimes having a non-mandatory "optional" RN experience for the practice of NPs and then claiming it is essential really does nothing to improve the RN experience of NPs. I feel that the growth of NPs w/o experience is inevitable w/o some mandate. People will always look for the easiest way out and avoid working hard. People will not listen unless they are forced to, hence a need for a mandate if there is a cry for NPs to gather RN experience. And people will always bypass loopholes to get what they want like it or not. We see that everyday in our society, ex: renting basements illegally, giving illegal immigrants low paying jobs, delegating inappropriate tasks to health care workers, etc.

I'm a future NP, currently gathering RN experience. While I will attain RN experience, 1 year minimum before practicing as an NP, the question is whether it is essential and required to practice as an NP. Certainly CRNA require 1 year experience and I see how that is required to the practice as a CRNA... It is the law lol, the programs are mandated by law for their students to be competent in ICU care. The question is whether it is necessary to have 1 year of xp before practicing as an RN before being able to become an NP. The answer is a resounding no and no I am not talking about becoming a "better NP." I am not getting into that argument. In fact, becoming a more experienced NP involving working as an NP, and whether you have a steeper or narrow learning curve is not the point. Some people with less RN experience will succeed some won't. Even if I had 5 years of xp as an RN, I doubt I would feel confident as an NP. I never do in a new field, I need to practice it regardless of what prior skills I have/lack. And believe me, I don't even think I would be a master of any specialty in 1 - 2 years. And if you are talking about being fully confident as an RN in med surg, It should be 5 years not 1 - 2, no way are you going to be fully confident in every single part of the human body in the nursing field in 1 - 2 years. No way. Anyway, As an RN student, I had 0 health care experience, and I performed much better academically and clinically than my colleagues with over 4 years of experience as an Aide. The data..? People with experience failing out/dropping out of nursing courses, asking me for advice on what to do, looking like they do not know what they are doing. Just something to throw out there. If you really have a passion for becoming an NP, you'll become one and find a way to get a position with or w/o experience. Instead of worrying about whether the RN experience will help, become more confident with the hospital environment, NP practice, etc. Whether or not that involving shadowing NPs, Physicians, working / volunteering as an RN, paying to get an internship whatever, but you should feel confident and I guess that is what people are saying when they say get 2 - 3 years experience. But again, I don't think 2 - 3 years is essential, everyone is different, and one person may need more another need less. I think it is unintelligible to say 2 - 3 years for that matter, not everyone is the same, and remember as nurses we need to remember not everyone is the SAME. Some people lack confident in doing HCP work and need 5 years and some people are super confident and don't need any RN experience. The measure? Just see how they are doing as NPs, less us not make blanket statements. In fact, some NPs and Physicians (the majority of NP employers) would prefer a new grad NP with less RN experience, because they are less habitually trained and experienced as an RN. Sometimes it may be a hindrance to "think like a RN" because the NP profession involving doing different things than an RN. Sometimes you need to understand not everyone subscribes to the blanket statement of "all NPs need 1-2 years RN experience." So short answer: No you don't need experience to be an NP. If your employer says you do.. well get the RN experience or move onto someone who will train you and will be more understanding. But in this age with a lack of PCPs, believe me you'll be wanted.

First of all thanks for your response. But on the other hand, there are studies that do not prove any correlation between years of RN experience and NP clinical competence, in fact it is a negative one. Personally IMHO, I feel as if many nurses treating attaining RN experience like "pay your dues" or like hazing, something that you must do. If it is mandatory, like I guess a 2-3 post NP residency where you function in a dual role as an RN/NP? It should have been implemented like Post MD/DO/DPM residencies to make NP grads suffer as RNs/Novice NPs and "become more competent." Without a mandatory requirement as an NP/RN in order to practice as an NP you will never make it universal for NPs to gather RN experience, and you will have the problem with NPs being out there without RN experience, and believe me when I tell you they will find a way to "bs" or push their way into a position.. WHy not? They already got into an NP field without RN experience, you don't think they will get a job. I read dozens of opinions, the question is whether you need it or not, and you answered that you don't need it. Experience of course makes anyone an attractive candidate, becoming a home aide would of course make an RN candidate or RN student more attractive, but not a lot of RN students have it. What I am saying is that, most of the arguments for it does not seem adequate and most nurses seem to just say "you need it " "you need it" as if you have to suffer for a while before you can become an NP. It seems to be more of a subjective/emotional reason for becoming an RN, because most RNs do not progress to being APRNs and had problems where they could not go directly into the NP field. Believe me if they had the will, passion, and opportunity to become on, they would. Those who don't will give a reason not to do it right away. Some professors/doctors I know said you need it some say you don't, those who said you don't need it say, the NP field is vastly different with of course some similarities to RN, but does not mean you'll be a better NP. There is a reason to get RN experience of course when becoming an NP, but it doesn't seem to be a very valid reason. Seems to be a subjective/opinionated one as I said before. The question is, is it essential, if not, that speaks to something.

Hi everyone, I have a related question similar to that of the OP. I am a current RN that aspires to become a NP. I have been having a hard time finding a full time hospital job.. however I did not want to simply "stay at home" and just prepare for next semester. What did I do in the meanwhile? I located a pretty good volunteer position at a Senior Center taking bps, performing health and medication counseling, referring clients to resources in the community, performing health fairs related to issues affected the seniors etc, 2 times a week for about 10 hours in total. I also conduct invariable once in a while volunteer projects with the American Diabetes Association. Long story short, my professors said you need 1 - 2 yrs experience before you could become an NP, yet believe me when I tell you this it is incredibly hard to find jobs in NYC where I live. I apply apply apply and I don't ever get call backs. I guess the economy and job market isn't too good. The thing is that I am concerned if I stay home to work for a year I may not even find a job and I would have wasted a year when I could have finished a year of NP school.. What do you all suggest..? Keep staying in these volunteer RN positions and enroll in an NP program or what.. Thanks.

Right now I am an RN that is almost done with his Bachelors of science in Nursing. I applied to a MS in FNP, most likely getting in. However, I am a little concerned as a lot of people told me that I need RN experience before becoming an NP. On the other hand, some people said it is not necessary, as when you are an NP, you do not do RN tasks. I guess long story short... Is it essential to have RN experience before applying NP? Right now I am concerned if I do not enter into a MS in FNP program in order to gather more RN experience and I still do not get a job, I would not only have not gotten a job, I wasted a year that I could have spent completing a year of a MS in FNP. Right now I Live in NYC, and it is Incredibly hard to find RN jobs, as you know NYC is a tough place as everyone is moving here and wants to live here. ​However, I still want to apply for NP school, since the sooner you apply even without RN experience, the sooner you will graduate. I know a lot of people became NPs without RN experience, what do you think about that? I really want to be an NP, that is the main reason I went into RN school, just to be an NP. Not sure if anyone thinks that selfish, but that is my agenda. I really love the fact that NPs are getting more independence, and have their own license. I contemplated become a MD/DO, however the years are so long and I would be 29-30 when I finish med school. However, if I went straight for NP, I would be 25 when I finish NP school.