IsabelK

What the heck is a Noctor-really? I'm a Nurse Practitioner. I'm not some fake physician. I am, however, a doctor. You can call me Dr. K if you want, but I usually go with Isabel. I think murse is well-stupid. We're all nurses. What am I, wurse (woman nurse)?? And I don't like mid-level provider. I do not provide mid-level care. And if I did, who the heck provides low-level care? As for Advance Practice Clinician or Provider-don't even get me started. I'm Dr. K. I'm a Nurse Practitioner. I'm not any of the above

I agree. Each state has regulations about what you can prescribe and when, especially the scheduled drugs. Do what your BON has said-you'll be able to prescribe those meds soon enough. Don't jeopardize your license by prescribing them before the BON says you can.

~Looks down at self: nope, not short (okay, I am short), not capsule shaped, and not (thank god or I'd be having my LFTs checked) yellow.~ On a more serious note: I know NPs I wouldn't go to, just like I know MDs I wouldn't go to. I know NPs who can't think their way outside a box with a big hole cut in its side. The same is true of MDs. Oh, and PAs, social workers, psychologists, etc, etc, etc...No profession is immune from the bad eggs. But there are studies consistently showing NP outcomes to be as good or better than MDs when doing the same work, especially in primary care, family care, and internal medicine specialties and sub specialties. I'm not at home right now, but I wrote a paper about it in my DNP program and it hasn't changed. The outcomes indicate that NPs can and do provide strong, solid healthcare. In order to do that, an individual NP has to be bright, engaged, and know when to get help. This is (or should be true) of any healthcare provider-none of us can know everything. I am very, very good at what I do, but I am not, for example, a specialist in nephrology. I get help for that. Getting help and admitting I don't know something doesn't make me a minion or stupid. Part of the reason we-as nurses-still face these attitudes is the lack of consistency across the country for LPN, RN, and APRN education. We visibly argue amongst ourselves. We are not cohesive in our message. Unfortunately, if we don't clean up our own mess first, we're still going to be facing these attitudes.

If you want some online stuff, here's 3 of my favorites: Netce.com Westernschools.com RN.com There's about 20 websites I use regularly depending on what I'm looking for. Also check out Fitzgerald, APEA, and Barkley and Associates. Live stuff is easy to find. One of my favorites is the MER conferences. Half days giving you time to run around and enjoy wherever you are. Also get involved in your state NP association. Most, if not all, of them have one day and multi-day conferences throughout the year. I don't know where you are, but I just did a 4.5 day conference in NYS and got 28 credits from it, including 16.5 pharm credits.

I have to do a certain amount of education to maintain my certification. My employer also requires continuing education. All of the NPs and other APRNs I know actually like learning. Did I really read that question correctly?

On my lab coat Isabel K, DNP Nurse Practitioner On my signature: Isabel K, DNP, ANP-BC

I'm still an RN. If you're asking if I miss bedside nursing or being a unit manager, nope....Love what I'm doing now.

I graduated from Loyola University New Orleans' MSN - DNP program in 2015. I did the NP, not the executive leadership, track. The first question I remember them asking was why I wanted a DNP. Then it went to issues I'd had with being an RN and an NP and how those impacte my decision to go on. The interviewer also asked what I planned to do with the DNP when I graduated. Um....there were others but I don't remember. Some aspects of the program can be disorganized, but about 30 of my starting cohort of something like 50 did the program in the planned 2 years. We had a few more join us in 2015 who had taken longer. It was a tough program but worth it...

Just to comment on the paystubs--my company has a VPN (we're all technically telecommuter) and we all log in to see our pay stubs. We can download them and save them as PDFs.

Actually, it is a legitimate order in some of the LTCs I work in where smoking is still allowed for some of the residents. Do I agree? Nope, but I also feel like if you're talking about someone in his or her 80s or 90s and this is one of their few pleasures in life, I provide the education and then write safety orders. Family or friends have to provide the cigarettes and the facility has designated smoking monitors and times. I know of at least a few folks in each of those buildings who like being the smoke monitor because they go out and smoke, too. Most of the buildings, though, are smoke-free now which I like much better. I also write orders for alcohol for the intermittent resident as long as the family or friends provide it.

Not sure...but it's endemic in some of the nursing homes. I would hazard a guess and say "none of the schools I attended" because all my instructors would have killed anyone who didn't get vitals and record them....

No, thank god....but we also made sure to print the tele strip for the same timeframe...lol. By the way, he never did that again....

Many schools set it up for you to do the two at the same time. If you can do it that way, why not? I didn't do it that way, but some of the folks who graduated with their DNP with me graduated having done the DNP-FNP route. All of them said it is doable and most of them had kids. A few worked full time, too. I didn't do it that way because I didn't realize I could, but then again the DNP was a really new degree when I was getting my ANP. Waiting a few years for programs to get up and running probably made sense then, but enough programs are set up to do the DNP-NP route that if I were going back to school I would do it that way.

1. I worked full time while completing my program. I did have a hard time getting my clinical in, but I also found that working per diem during my last semester helped. Per diem made it easier to bring in cash and I had a lot more flexibility about when I worked. 2. I did the MSN-ANP. I found it to be easier in some ways because it was more focused on a specific age range and I already had been a working RN for several years. In other ways I found it much more difficult because it was a whole new way of looking at health and providing health care. My worst rotation was women's health/gyn. 3. Yes, I love being an NP. Really liked being a staff RN, disliked being a unit manager, loved being a staff educator and infection control RN, but being an NP is just overall a better fit. I actually like going into work. 4. I did a part-time online program with one week intensives yearly (went down three times, once at the beginning, and at the beginning of years 2 and 3). Also went down at the end of year 3 for graduation. The course schedule was: summer, fall semester, spring semester, summer (repeat). In the summer we all took two 3 credit classes. Same in the fall and spring. I found the program to be difficult but not impossible. The worst part was trying to find local preceptors, but the school did help with that as well.

One of my favorites when I was a hospitalist NP: I'm sitting on a tele unit at end of the night shift finishing some documentation. Nurse doesn't realize I'm sitting there. Calls on-call hospitalist to report a death. Hospitalist orders: "EKG to make sure he's dead". Um....I could see on the tele monitor that the man was dead. I went in with the nurse and pronounced the patient after listening for a heart beat for one full minute and monitoring for respirations for that same full minute (by the way the patient was a DNR/DNI), called the on-call hospitalist who still insisted on an EKG. We ran it. Definitely asystole. I took it down to him and made him sign it off as "dead". Then we could release the body.