I'm curious to see how practicing NPs feel about the proliferation of online NP programs, especially the diploma mill NP programs that accept applicants without prior NP experience. Do you feel like this is watering down your profession and/or possibly causing physicians and the public to have a negative view of your profession? OR, do you think that this is the future of education, and the current method of training NPs should stay the way it is?
I have no dog in this fight, but I constantly read physicians bashing the quality of online NP education, including the lack of clinical hours (<800). I'm curious to see how practicing NPs feel about this.
As an aside, I'm considering doing one of these online programs, so this post isn't meant to bash a specific field, but rather create a discussion on whether or not practicing NPs like the direction that their field is headed in.
Specializes in Former NP now Internal medicine PGY-3.
4 minutes ago, Tegridy said:
That’s a good point. I think cost depends on which type of residency though. Primary care oriented residents are able to take the load off attendings pretty early on. For surgery and really subspecialized stuff they do cost more since there is more hand holding. Also depends on hospital and if attendings are lazy or not lol. NP residents may not cost as much since its primary care which shouldn’t require as much hand holding for that time compared to I guess ortho surg where residents walk in clueless since not a lot of surgery coverage in school
some places use residents as scut work and might profit on them. Mostly IMG heavy sweat shops
That’s a good point. I think cost depends on which type of residency though. Primary care oriented residents are able to take the load off attendings pretty early on. For surgery and really subspecialized stuff they do cost more since there is more hand holding. Also depends on hospital and if attendings are lazy or not lol. NP residents may not cost as much since its primary care which shouldn’t require as much hand holding for that time compared to I guess ortho surg where residents walk in clueless
e places use residents as scut work and might profit on them. Mostly IMG heavy sweat shops
Any type of national formalized residency is going to be expensive, even if it was 25% the cost of a medical resident year, given the huge numbers of NPs being churned out it would be a big chunk of change.
Smaller independent programs have had some success with residency/fellowship programs. These tend to share the cost between the resident/fellow (in the form of a stipend that is below market rate for an NP) and the healthcare system (with some work commitment post-residency).
NPs need to be careful here because adding a residency to counteract poor preparation and poor quality programs is not the best solution. All NPs traditionally had a sort of residency in that all of NP practice was supervised/collaborative with physicians; the push towards independent practice (and perhaps the shrinking of oversight even in supervised practice) is starting to fore the hand on this.
FullGlass, no offense, but I think the obvious reason you don't have a problem finding a job is because you went to Hopkins. Whether that education was truly better/worth it does not matter. You have a fancy name on your resume that shines above the gajillion other NP applicants and even I would be curious as to the quality of an Ivy league nursing school grad.
There are many hardworking, intelligent, clinically skilled nurses who go to NP school to end up having trouble finding a desirable job when they finish.
It's ludicrous to think RN experience is not applicable in primary care. Say you have a DKA or septic patient come into your office? You take some labs and send them to the ER or hospital to be admitted, fine. You don't have to know how to manage them when they are crashing in front of you or have the hands on skill set to perform the tasks required for stabilization which many critical care nurses understand first hand. But I do think it can give you a perspective on where their disease process can lead, and have a healthy respect for the severity of certain problems.
Experience is valuable, wether or not it is statistically significant in your studies.
I'm sure a lot of the FNP grads who are working as bedside nurses would have an easier time finding a job if they were willing to relocate to a more rural part of CA, but none of them want to.My buddy who's practicing as a FNP says there are some jobs our area, just not jobs that are financially worthwhile. Some have no benefits, some have low pay, some are salaried and don't reimburse you appropriately for your time, etc. I think that this is the result of what the market has dictated because THERE ARE SO MANY GRADS in my area. All of the good jobs have a ton of applicants. I can only speak to my area though. I don't follow trends on the California market as as a whole, so you got me there. All I know about are the multiple hospitals i've worked in where it seems like a ton of people who are working the bedside have their FNP or are working on it. Most went to diploma mills, so that could play a factor.
Specializes in Psychiatric and Mental Health NP (PMHNP).
8 hours ago, ProgressiveThinking said:
I'm sure a lot of the FNP grads who are working as bedside nurses would have an easier time finding a job if they were willing to relocate to a more rural part of CA, but none of them want to.My buddy who's practicing as a FNP says there are some jobs our area, just not jobs that are financially worthwhile. Some have no benefits, some have low pay, some are salaried and don't reimburse you appropriately for your time, etc. I think that this is the result of what the market has dictated because THERE ARE SO MANY GRADS in my area. All of the good jobs have a ton of applicants. I can only speak to my area though. I don't follow trends on the California market as as a whole, so you got me there. All I know about are the multiple hospitals i've worked in where it seems like a ton of people who are working the bedside have their FNP or are working on it. Most went to diploma mills, so that could play a factor.
I don't know where you or your friend are in California. There is a very high demand for FNPs in most of the state, not just rural areas. Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, Redding, Chico are very good job markets for new grad NPs. Can also look in the Eureka area. Those are are sizeable cities/towns with every amenity a person could want. Then there are the small towns and rural areas. A new grad NP might have to bite the bullet and take a job in one of those places for a year or two - I did. Many of those small towns and rural area are within a 20 to 60 minute drive of a good-sized town or city, which isn't too bad.
I'm a new FNP and worked 9 years in med/surg as a nurse before becoming a NP. My bedside experience is proving to be so helpful as I transition into the FNP role.
There is a NP student at the office in which I work. She has 1 year of nursing experience at a nursing home and now works as a rehab liaison. She asked the doctor I work with how to give an IM injection. She also has UpToDate access and rattled off information to the doctor I work with in an attempt to educate said doctor. This bothers me on so many levels.
I'm a new FNP and worked 9 years in med/surg as a nurse before becoming a NP. My bedside experience is proving to be so helpful as I transition into the FNP role.
There is a NP student at the office in which I work. She has 1 year of nursing experience at a nursing home and now works as a rehab liaison. She asked the doctor I work with how to give an IM injection. She also has UpToDate access and rattled off information to the doctor I work with in an attempt to educate said doctor. This bothers me on so many levels.
So wait...she asks the doctor how to give (something as basic as) an IM injection, but wants to preach to the physician about medical info she found in UpToDate? Has she no shame?? I'm surprised the doctor didn't rip her a new one for not knowing how to give an IM injection. This was too much for me to read ?
Specializes in Former NP now Internal medicine PGY-3.
Depends how it was handled a lot of preceptors want to know things and ask students to look it up and like to discuss recent changes. Not nec a bad thing to look something up and talk about it
Tegridy
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