DeigoT

I signed with up MSN but was cancelled numerous times (the same agency in NY rarely had cancellations). I learned that a part of the reason was my fault since I had only completed orientation packages for 2 hospitals. To avoid multiple cancellations, consider completing orientation for multiple hospitals, so when you are cancelled at one they can call around at others. Another thing I noticed was that some hospitals have their own in house agency, which means they will exhaust that list before going to the staff from the outside agency. You may face a higher likelihood of being cancelled from those.

I think if you google "Maryland hospitals", then go to the individual hospital's website, you will find that like in most places, there are a bunch of openings for nurses. You simply need to find one that fit with your needs and values then apply. My last jobs were in Philadelphia & NY, and I can tell you I make a lot less here but the nurse to patient ratio is not as ridiculous as some hospitals in NY.

I worked there recently, and was pulled after 4 hours. The first 4 hours was on the 3rd Medsurg which a poster suggested to avoid, and the second 4 hours was on 9th floor medsurg. In the short time there, I would agree with the poster, and plan to avoid the 3rd floor. Most of the staff on the 9th floor were very friendly.

I agree with the other posts. I have been licensed in several states, but had to make numerous calls to MD BON to get my license. Another interesting thing, they renewed the license online, but after waiting two weeks and not getting a hard copy, I called the office and was informed "BON no longer issue paper copy of licenses." Apparently this is a recent change, and they said the employers needed to look online to verify that you are licensed. I signed up to work with an agency, and they automatically told me they would look online. I would suggest you first check online to see if you are licensed, then take it from there.

Lived in White Marsh and loved it, but it is about a 30 min or so commute to downtown. Parts of Mt Vernon seems to be pretty nice too.

I think alot depends on the facility. At my job, travelers may register for and take classes available to the staff, however they are not paid for the time spent in class. These classes include chemo certification, EKG interp, critical care course, pain mngt etc. There are also continuing medical education courses which may be free or at a reduced price for nurses. If that fails, manly local colleges offer continuing education for nurses, and there are a host of online classes.

Abetta care recently contacted me with positions in ST. Thomas (minimum 13 weeks). I am interested but the pay seems really low.

I have been an ANP (primary care) since 2001, but I am in transition, so I have not been working as an NP recently.

OOPS! It was a Target, not Walmart.

Ok, so I had my first experience with minute clinic. What a concept! Well I felt a cold sore coming on and felt that a RX for Valtrex may help to stave it off. Called my primary and he was out for the holiday and the answering service didn't seem to know of anyone covering. I remembered reading about the minute clinic and found the closet one in Maryland. Well I drove down, waited at the Walmart for 5 mins then was seen. It was too easy. The NP and I spoke. As it turns out this is her third NP job and she felt it was the best. She liked the hours and the location. She was happy that she didn't have to deal with someone coming in with multiple disorders and insurance issues. She just liked the episodic visit, and didn't care that there wasn't any continuity. She described it as a very laid back job. She also felt the downside was, there was some restriction and little autonomy. For exampe, when I told her why I was there and what I wanted, she looked in a book to see the protocol for that diagnosis. She said she could only precribe what's in the book and exactly the way it is written in the book. Otherwise she thought it was a great job. I was tempted, but just couldn't bring myself to asking the salary. Also, you need to be a family NP since you will be seeing children. There is a website with info on jobs. I believe it is www.minuteclinic.com This definately opens more opportunities for NPs.

She felt it wasn't worth it. As a surgeon she wanted to build a "center of excellence." Well, she had no life. She would sometimes spend nights at work and rarely saw her children. She felt that work became her life. It was just too consuming. It didn't help that 90% of the surgeons in her dept were male and she was the dept chief. They made it really hard for her, and when she complained they basically told her that "maybe she needed to be home with her children and she should get out of the kitchen if it was too hot for her." She just wanted to practice medicine, but there were just too many other things that made it difficult. Her husband, I haven't figured out. They never like talking about why he got out, she would always say "he is happier now." My boyfriend, who is a lawyer, seems to think he may have been sued in the past. Who knows? As for recommending PA to her daughters, she said a PA is able to practice medicine, and in most cases, the level of responsibility and time commitment is not the same. The training takes less time, and the debt at the end is much less. She also felt there is more flexibility with being a PA since you are able to work in different areas without actually doing a residency in that area. Of course I was offended that she didn't say NP. Although she loves the NP role, she felt that her daughter would first need to be an RN and "RNs work too hard and don't get the respect they deserve."

I think it is seen as a "large increase" more so because, as you mentioned, there had been a decrease in applications to med schools for many years, and most schools have kept their enrollment numbers the same. Over the years, many theories had been given for the decrease in application, some of which were already mentioned here...litigation, decrease automony, insurance bureaucracy, less remuneration etc. It was also believed that the tech boom took some of the students who ordinarily would have applied to med school, and now that the tech boom is over..... You mentioned "flat enrollment or a drop in enrollment," but I think the changes in the number of applications might give a better picture of the interest of lack thereof in medicine. Enrollment will not give a true picture since schools like GW received 8000+ applications this year for 100+ seats, Jefferson got over 7500 for less than 250 seats, Drexel got almost 8000 for less than 230 seats (although most candidates have applied to several schools). The other thing is, many schools have a set number of students they will accept (regardless of the number of applicants) and have kept that number the same for decades. Therefore a flat enrollment doesn't really give good information. It is also rare for a school to have a drop in enrollment. They may have a drop in applications, but they usually have many candidates from which to choose, and when that fails, they they have a wait list to choose from. Some, such as the ones mentioned in the article have recently increase their numbers due to pressure (many many qualified candidates with Mcat >30 and science GPA >3.5 are in other professions since they didn't get into med school). What I am finding rather interesting though, is the number of people who have gotten into medicine and are getting out. Mommd (or is it Mdmom ?) website has so many dissatisfied doctors. I also have a personal friend who is an excellent surgeon, and at 42 has left medicine to write a book. Her husband was a family practice physician and he left the profession 10 years ago. My friend said she would encourage her daughter to become a PA instead of a physician.

Actually to the contrary, this year marks and upsurge in applications to med school. www.aamc.org/newsroom/pressrel/2005/051025.htm

If travelling to Philly is not too difficult for you, UPENN offers it as a part of a continuing ed program.

I definately agree with the need for more clinical hours. If you are fortunate enough to have your first position in a practice where your colleagues are very sharing and supportive, then great. But if your first job out of NP school requires you to sink or swim (so to speak), then if you are not fully prepared clinically, you may be in for some trouble. The type of trouble that could be prevented with more clinical exposure and greater confidence in your abilities.

I totally agree. I, as well as other students in my program did more than the required numbers of clinical hours. Even with that, some of us felt as though we were not fully prepared for the responsibility we were about to assume. I remember communicating this to a practicing NP, and she said "we all had the same feelings, but you fake it till you make it and eventually you will pick up the knowledge you need on the job." I was horrified. I am all for some kind of formal mentoring and supervision after graduation.

Thank You Sunqueen. Hadn't even thought of the possibility of housing problem. Any comments on the Broward General or Imperial Point? I believe they are from the same system, and suprisingly someone in HR told me Boward General is considered the "indigen hospital because of our clientele." I really don't mind caring for the poor or underserved. I am more concerned with how management treat nurses and how nurses treat each other.

I also posted this in the travel nursing forum. Just wondered if anyone knows about this facility? What is the work environment like, staff attitude towards travelers/seasonal/agency, med-surg nurse to patient ratio, housing near the hospital etc. Any info on this or any other Ft. Lauderdale hospital would be greatly appreciated.

Wow, you are from the Bronx? Small world, so am I. I currently reside in Philly but I still maintain my Bronx residence (1 floor rented). I don't mind you asking questions. That is what I enjoy about forums like these...the sharing of info. Personally, I think going the ANP route vs. the Woman's health, even if you want to end up in woman's health, is the smart way to go. As an ANP you may do woman's health or anything else within your scope, but it doesn't work the other way around. My former preceptor is a Woman's Health NP and she loves it, but has mentioned that her focus was too narrow. There are limitations as to what she is able to do. Actually, there is a moderator here who did woman's health then went back for the FNP. I think the FNP offers even more opportunities than the ANP, but if you are like me and have no interest in working with kids or doing OB etc, then I don't think it matters. In terms of the amount of exposure to woman's health, you will be very active in determining that (atleast if the program is still the same). We were required to do a specific number of clinical hours, and since primary care is the specialty, it was expected most of it was done in a primary care setting. I think people were asked to make sure they did atleast 24 hrs. of woman's health. I can tell you, I enjoyed woman's health, and did more than twice that. I also enjoyed HIV and spent additional time there. I went to a physician's office in Rockland County and felt it was a waste of time, and decided not to spend too much time there. Areas that I liked or found challenging, I stayed longer. As I said, back then, you made the arrangements with your preceptors and they were usually accommodating. As far as jobs, back in 2001 in NY, it was a challenge to find NP jobs. I remember some classmates being very concerned and unhappy as they felt they graduated and there weren't many jobs available. I think it is much better now. I actually taught for 1 year, then relocated to Florida for a job. The job was great, (learned alot), but boy.... I felt that NY was much more NP friendly. The facility I worked for really placed a lot of limitations on the "physician extenders," and all our (PAs and NPs) orders had to be co-signed by the MD. I think that was just an individual facility thing. I do have another friend in another part of FL who felt there was some limitations to practice. Right now I am in Philadelphia, and there seem to be many NP positions here. I also spent time in Maryland, and saw many openings there. I really don't know what the practice environment is like in MD though, and maybe someone else who is more knowledgeable about NY can comment on the current NY market. I think once you are in the program, especially if your are working for a hospital that hires NP, you need to start networking early. Some of my classmates recieved NP jobs where they worked as RNs. I would seek out other NPs and PAs at NYP as they can point you in the right direction. Maybe a semester or two before you graduate, you could speak with the recruiter. As for papers, there were some in the research and nursing theory classes etc. Once you get to patho, it's mainly reading and integrating what you learn with your clinical experience + lots of case studies (which I loved). Physical assessment is reading and practice lab + your practical exam. Pharmacology was a lot of memorization (of course you had to understand what you were studying but you needed to know classes of drugs, indications,actions, S/E, why you would prescribe one over the other, etc). I think I didn't care too much for the nursing theory class, but loved the patho, pharm and PE. I loved learning that stuff and putting it all together. I actually plan on returning to school next year. Good luck DeigoT

I definately agree with VickyRN. And they wonder why there is difficulty recruiting full-time faculty. I have been told by a friend of mine who teaches, that some of the students who graduated from the program with an associate degree will have a higher starting salary than her current salary. And she has been doing this for several years.

Thank You. Will definately keep that in mind.

I have been an RN for several years (have a masters in nursing), and will be starting meds school next year. I agree, med school is certainly not for everyone.

Congrats on your Hunter acceptance! I graduated from Hunter's primary care adult nurse practitioner program in 2001. Dr. X, who is still the coordinator, is the best. She is very supportive and her goal is for you to succeed. There was one professor who started back then and many students had trouble with her, but I don't see her listed on the faculty directory anymore. Otherwise, they were very supportive. Hunter is a CUNY school, therefore some of the perks you would get from a private school might not be readily available at Hunter. Will you get a good education? Absolutely! Will you need to be proactive and do some homework and groundwork? You bet! I don't think the program was difficult, but it was definately challenging. I studied more than when I worked towards my associate or bachelor degrees, and in both of those programs I was top of my class. I think in advance practice programs in general, you realize the tremendous level of responsibily. It forces you to study for understanding versus just to get an A. (If I remember well, you must maintain a 3.0 in order to stay in the program). I worked about 30 hours most week while I attended part-time (7-9 credits). Some people worked full-time, others part-time and a few did not work. I think it will depend on how demanding your job is, as well as your family responsibities. When I started my clinicals, I had to get really good at time management since I was usually in clinic 2 days for 8 hours, + my classes, + work. With clinicals, you can be really flexible. Most of the details you will work out with your preceptors. I don't know if this is still practiced, but back then we were responsible for securing our own clinicals. We were told we would simple have to take whatever the school had if you weren't successful in finding a spot. I was initially concerned since friends of mine attending a private school in Manhattan had their clinicals arranged for them by the school. It actually turned out fine and it forced students to become proactive in their learning. You learn quickly the types of experiences you want and you try to obtain that. Usually, you make contacts with hospitals, clinics and doctors offices in you area. Some will say no, others will say yes. You may also find it helpful to speak with students who are a semester ahead of you. People were good about sharing their contacts. If you are in the Bronx, I know a fabulous woman for woman's health. She is still my friend today. I have two contacts for a primary care clinics, and another for an HIV clinic. The HIV clinic was a really good experience. Hunter student health (main campus) is another contact. It is good for early clinicals since the learning is somewhat limited. You get a lot of practice doing physicals as students need to be cleared in order to participate in sports. I also suggest (and I am sure Dr. X will also) you get one of those NP review books early on. They offer great preparation for patho exams. Make sure you read and understand the explainations. Utilize the media center (I think on the M level). The tapes are great for self-learning. Lots of Physical Exam tapes and tapes that go over different diseases. For the Physical Assessment class, there is a practical exam you must pass. Make sure both you and your partner practice. Let me know if you have any other questions. Congrats again, and enjoy the ride.

Anyone know of companies with assignments in Jamaica?

Just wanted to add, that $57/hr did not include the times spent selecting patients (which had to be done the evening before clinicals) or times spent grading care plans.