Pulmonary NP

[BrooksC]

Hi there, 

I am currently a CVICU nurse and I have just begun FNP school. I am interested in a specialty after graduation and I have been considering pulmonology. I am wondering if it is possible to do pulm without an acute care NP. Ideally I would like to see patients in a clinic or inpatient setting but I have no desire to work as an acute care nurse practitioner. Is this even possible?

Thank you,

Christie

[DizzyJ DHSc PA-C]

You can do pulm without an acute care NP.  You could have issue doing inpatient rounding only if the hospital has a restriction that inpatient NPs must be acute care trained.  

[BrooksC]

Thank you so much, your response made my day ?  Do you have any advice for me to help me improve on my chances of getting a pulm NP position that I can work on while I am in school?

Thanks again.

[DizzyJ DHSc PA-C]

I would be sure to do pulm rotation.  More then one would be good.  Hopefully, mingle with the right pulm office and get a job offer.  

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

You should want to do acute care if you want to take care of acutely ill adults, pulm or otherwise. Don't you want to learn about arterial blood gases, and invasive hemodynamics, and mechanical ventilation? You would be much more valuable to a PACCM group than if you did primary care/FNP. 

I don't understand your statement that you have "no desire to work as an ACNP" - in what regard? If you want to work inpatient, that means you DO want to take care of acute issues. You can also work outpatient specialty clinics for PACCM taking care of acute pulmonary issues.

No agenda except I think you sound confused about what is required for a pulmonary NP . Can you work for a pulm group as a FNP? Perhaps, depending on your state and employing facility. But you'd be relying on on the job training, and your ICU nursing background more so than your FNP training.

[pro-student]

On 10/15/2020 at 1:06 PM, ghillbert said:

You should want to do acute care if you want to take care of acutely ill adults, pulm or otherwise. Don't you want to learn about arterial blood gases, and invasive hemodynamics, and mechanical ventilation? You would be much more valuable to a PACCM group than if you did primary care/FNP. 

I don't understand your statement that you have "no desire to work as an ACNP" - in what regard? If you want to work inpatient, that means you DO want to take care of acute issues. You can also work outpatient specialty clinics for PACCM taking care of acute pulmonary issues.

No agenda except I think you sound confused about what is required for a pulmonary NP . Can you work for a pulm group as a FNP? Perhaps, depending on your state and employing facility. But you'd be relying on on the job training, and your ICU nursing background more so than your FNP training.

Most MD-pulmonologists are also trained in critical care since there is such more overlap especially for inpatients. You might be able to get a job in an outpatient pulm clinic but, even there, it would be desirable to have acute care training. 
 

If you mean you don’t want to work exclusively in an ICU setting or as an intensivist NP, you should know that that is only a small subset of acute care. More and more states are moving to line up with the Consensus Model which basically means primary care NPs, such as FNP, should not be managing patients with acute illnesses or chronic diseases with significant exacerbation whether they are inpatient or outpatient. Even if your state hasn’t legislated the Consensus Model, it is still best practice and working outside it is not a good idea for professional and liability reasons. 

Based on your career aspirations, it would be wise for you to either look into switching to an acute care NP Program or planning on doing a post-masters certificate as an ACNP.