Question about quality of work environment

MS, APRN, BC, FNP · Aug 8, 2006

Being a primary care provider isn't like working at Wal-Mart. You stay until the job is done and see what needs to be seen. I am often charting for an hour or more past my time to leave at the end of the day. I have a 2 hr lunch scheduled in the middle of the day. This way I can make sure I at least get 30 minutes sometimes. Summers are slower, and I actually get an hour sometimes. Coding alone can be quite time consuming.

KimHFNP · Aug 9, 2006

You are right, we don't work at Walmart. However, I have seen a lot of complaints on this site about how NPs don't feel that we are treated right, or paid enough. Does anyone think that we bring some of this attitude on ourselves, bc we are so willing to do 'whatever it takes' with no material compensation? It is almost like, "hey, we are nurses and we work because we love it- not because we need the money (or want it). We do it because we are 'saints' and you don't have to pay us enough or treat us right..." I don't know. I became an NP, and not an MD because I wanted a 9-5 well-paying job in the medical field. Now, having said that, I am a good NP and I love the patients and I love helping people. But I will not and cannot do it for free. If I wanted to stay late, etc, I would have become an MD and would be getting paid substantially better. I am willing to take less money to have the schedule flexibility. Now, I know many of you out there are working as NPs and still do not have the flexibility and are still only getting paid for the hours that your clinic is open and not for any over time that you are working. I personally do not think that is right. Just my opinion. I do not think that I am being 'selfish' , however, to expect certain things from a work environment-even if I spend my whole life trying to find it.

MS, APRN, BC, FNP · Aug 9, 2006

I'm not sure, but it sounds like your being paid on salary. In that case I can understand you feeling like your being robbed in a sense. Every hour you stay longer than you need to, you are getting paid less. I wouldn't do it. I get paid $50 an hour whether I'm charting or seeing a patient, so I make more money the longer I stay. I do this for the money not because I'm Mother Teresa. Don't get me wrong, I care deeply for my patients and they know that, but I wouldn't be there if I weren't getting paid. I do what I do and I do it very well, and I expect to be compensated for it, or I'll do something else.

Typically, I see $60,000 dollar a year NP jobs advertised, and I think employers are robbing NPs. This has got to stop. A productive NP can easily see 25 to 33 patients a day. I bill 50-60,000 dollars a month (approx $600,000 a year). If I recoup only 60% of that, that's $360,000 minus approx $100,000 for my compensation, and that's a tidy $260,000 my employer makes. It's easy to see why he seldom shows up to work. I mention these numbers only to make some NPs aware of what they should be making if they are in a busy productive practice. Don't sell yourself short if your productive, competent and independent.

I think a fair wage for a productive NP is a salary with a productivity bonus. For example: $80,000 salary with a 20% bonus on all the billing over $160,000. For me this would come to around $160,000 which also happens to be the average physician salary. This would still be very profitable for my employer. My 2 cents anyway.

NPs need to start realizing what their worth and not settling for less. Your worth is determined by what you bill. Find out what you bill.