Self-Employed APRN First Assist - A Realist Career Path?

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I am a BSN student. I am considering a career as a self-employed APRN First Assist. By self-employed, I mean an APRN FA who bills insurers for assistable cases and who is not an hourly or salary paid employee.

Is this a realistic career path? I have watched some NIFA videos and it seems like a lot of things have to come together for a self-employed APRN First Assist to stay busy and well compensated. These things include successfully courting surgeons and hospitals that need and want the services of a RNFA. The career path just seems uncertain to me because it seems like an APRN FA is very dependent on the good graces of a 3rd parties.

I happen to live in a town with huge surgical and medical device industry as well as an RNFA certification program and a school offering a DNP-AGAC so I’m really in an ideal spot for this career.

The limited amount of information I have found about compensation suggests a busy self-employed APRN FA can earn very good money.

Specializes in ICU, Trauma, CCT,Emergency, Flight, OR Nursing.

Hey there, maybe you are jumping the gun a bit here. You are in the very very early stages of becoming a RN and yet you are already talking about making"very good money". Are you sure that nursing is the right career choice ?? How about you first become a RN and what that means? To me it seems that you have no vocation for actually being a nurse and actually caring for human beings . Do you have a personal nursing philosophy ? Do you know what being a nurse entails ? If money and status are the sole drivers of your ambition , you are going to burn out fast and are going to detest your career. 

13 minutes ago, RickyRescueRN said:

Hey there, maybe you are jumping the gun a bit here. You are in the very very early stages of becoming a RN and yet you are already talking about making"very good money". Are you sure that nursing is the right career choice ?? How about you first become a RN and what that means? To me it seems that you have no vocation for actually being a nurse and actually caring for human beings . Do you have a personal nursing philosophy ? Do you know what being a nurse entails ? If money and status are the sole drivers of your ambition , you are going to burn out fast and are going to detest your career. 

Your concerns are unfounded. I cannot give a more detailed reply because I have mountain of things to do as student nurse in a 12 month program.

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