Pros & Cons?

Thank you for your reply!

I know I either want to be an Adult NP in an office setting (working with a specific population), or a Geriatric NP.

What is your healthcare background?

CrazyPremed

No formal background, only what I've gleaned from years of illness and research. :wink2:

I plan to enter an RN to MSN program. (Please, I want no debate here about the merits of experience, etc. )

I'm looking for the pros and cons commonly experienced by folk. I'm hoping to get a decent number of responses. I edited my subject title (hoping that works, haven't been posting on the board much). I'm looking for a "day in the life" kind of thing, too.

I'd love to hear from NPs in any field, whether working at a hospital or office. Adult, Family, Geriatric, Women's Health....

Thanks! :biggringi

Wow! That's some schedule and responsibility! I, too, thrive on chaos, so I was chomping at the bit reading this. :)

Thank you for responding.

Any other takers?

I'll bite....

I get up at 830 and drive like a wild woman to make the 54 miles to my rural ER job on time. Which means I usually make it by 11:10am.

I look at the 5 charts in the rack and think..... my goodness but these people do get out early. Put stuff in locker and go out and begin to see those waiting. Who are they?? You never know in advance. Sometimes it is a "head cold Wednesday" or it might be "heart attack Tuesday". It is the luck of the draw.

Typically, I will see a wide variety of ER patients with the following complaints, not necessarily in the listed order or on the same day.... headaches (migraines and those only called migraines).... toothaches (the infected and the broken)... foreign bodies in orifices and eyes (thankful that the orifice is usually the ear or nose).. head colds.... pneumonias.... heart attacks... dysrhthmias.... TIA.... stroke.... abdominal pain is my favorite mystery.... UTI... lots of orthopedics... lots of pediatrics.. respiratory failure.... seizures.... overdoses.... CPR in progress... car wrecks (some walking and some wishing they still could walk).... bike wrecks, lacerations, burns.... DVTs .. PEs.... and let's not forget our special patient population with psychiatric challenges... gun shots, stabbings, beatings..... little old ladys just looking for some company....families convinced something has drastically changed in mama (we have seen her more in the last 7 months that they have, but they know something is dreadfully wrong)....COPD patients wishing for just a little more air....people who feel vomiting once is a true medical emergency....fevers... pregnant people with pregnancy problems...people wanting pregnancy tests..... occupational injuries of all types but usually at least one with a fall from a height that shouldn't be fallen from....fingers cut off and in plastic bag waiting for the opportunity to be grafted back to their original position.,.. people brought to be cleared medically for a trip to jail.....sexually transmitted infections.... let's not forget back pain... injuries to any part of the body that can be injured... sickness to any part of the body that can be sick....

I sort out about 35 - 40 of them before I go home very tired (like right now).

Basically, if you have never seen it in the ER, it doesn't exist because we see it all.

Thank you for "biting."

I wondered why you called attention to not forgetting the "special patient population with psychiatric challenges." That's kind of insulting, don't you think? I happen to be one with "psychiatric challenges," but I live a full and productive life. It's little wonder there is no coverage parity with this kind of attitude, and I don't care if you were trying to be insulting or not. Nobody likes being called "special." You hear that about those who are developmentally disabled, too. "Oh, Timmy. He's SPECIAL. You know, he rides the little bus...."

Starphoenix,

ERNP was not trying to insult you. You would have to be a nurse, PA/NP or ER MD to understand the specific problems of treating a medical problem in someone who also has underlying psychiatric problems. It is simply something you would have to experience to understand. I freely admit that I can not know what is like from the pts end either. I won't go into detail about my experiences but let me say that the mental illness often causes the pt to complicate and sometimes obstruct their medical treatment. Not all pts with mental illness have this problem, but we see the extremes more often than the average as health care providers. Try to remember that this site is a place where nurses speak freely about their experiences as nurses.

Thanks, and best of luck on your journey toward a new career.

Thank you for "biting."

I wondered why you called attention to not forgetting the "special patient population with psychiatric challenges." That's kind of insulting, don't you think? I happen to be one with "psychiatric challenges," but I live a full and productive life. It's little wonder there is no coverage parity with this kind of attitude, and I don't care if you were trying to be insulting or not. Nobody likes being called "special." You hear that about those who are developmentally disabled, too. "Oh, Timmy. He's SPECIAL. You know, he rides the little bus...."

I wouldn't be too quick to lecture the nurses or NPs on this board until you have worked in their ranks. If you ask for the "nitty gritty" and then in return scold a nurse practitioner for not being politically correct, you are going to put people off. The correct response is to listen. Caring for people all day long requires a tremendous amount of fortitude and emotional muscle. After the patients get what they need from us, we try to be supportive by listening to one another rather than policing each other's choice of words. On a different note, I have noticed that some of the very best nurses have health challenges. Illness can be a great teacher. Good luck with your research.

I've worked ER as a tech and understand the "special" challenges spoke of in a previous post. Some of the homeless who frequent the ER are mentally ill and are not taking medications required to manage their symptoms, which can present all sorts of interesting situations for the ER team. Nope, I don't think it was meant as an insult. I just nodded and said, "Yep."

Not especially dealing with mental illness, but speaking of challenges in the ER, I've told my wife often that I fought more in my two years as an ER Tech than in the previous 35 years of my life or since. One thing I learned in the emergency room was to keep your focus because you never know what's coming through those doors.