Questions for the ANPs out there

You may want to get switch to the FNP route if you are very interested in women's health. ANPs scope of practice does not include prenatal care or pregnant women at all. It makes no sense to me as women = adult but I found out this too late into my program (ANP). You could be employed by someone who only does GYN care but not OB as an ANP. Your program may let you "double up" too (ANP/WHNP or FNP/WHNP). It is another semester in most programs but you would be eligilble to take both certifications. My school was looking into doing that but it is too late for me so I am going to complete my FNP online. Good luck and I hope this helps you.

Thank u, your post helped me. I am more interested in GYN as opposed to OB so maybe going the Adult NP route may be ok for me. However, my dream 1st job would be to work in Planned Parenthood. I do know that planned parenthood has both a strong empashis on gyn and prenatal care. SO maybe this will pose a delimma. Any thoughts?

I would still recommend that you do a Family NP program or a dual ANP/Women's Health so that you will be certified in the areas that you love the most. Are you hesitent to do Family because of the children? That is my suggestion, get the most bang for your buck. As a FNP you can work at Planned Parenthood, OB/GYN and health dept clinics too. I hope this is helpful. Feel free to email me directly.

JackMac or anyone out there, can you not work at the health dept, planned parenthood, or std clinics w/ an ANP degree?

You could probably work at planned parenthood as long as you are not required to do any pregnancy related visits. I don't think PP does prenatal care but don't quote me. You could work at an STD clinic as long as all of the patients are age 13 and over and we all know that younger ones are sexually active . You cannot work in most health departments unless it is very, very large and separates the care. Actually, I just talked to our local health dept about an open position and even though they see very few children she could not hire me until I have the FNP certification and not just ANP. (I just took the cert exam this week, keep your fingers crossed!) I'll say it again, go for the FNP and you will not have to worry about it.