where to start in moving from Primary Care to specialty?

[westcoastgirl]

I worked as an RN in primary care and I work as an ARNP in primary care.

I like my job now and really don't have much desire to work in a hospital setting. However I would be interested in eventually exploring some other outpatient settings, in a few areas that I am interested in and have some comfort in.

Did anyone else with FNP do this and how long did it take you? my ideal scenario would be to get several solid primary care years under my belt, then start with a part time job in a specialty area (I am especially interested in nephrology, derm, GI), in this ideal world I'd still keep a part time primary care NP job even if it's locums only, which is pretty possible at where I work right now.

A bunch of my classmates went directly into specialty care and I'm kind of wondering if they did it the right way while I went about wasting time? I also tend to attend primary care focused CME events and so don't feel like I'm networking much with specialty docs, then again I am not in a hurry to go there so how much networking can I realistically be doing right now anyway?

Sorry for the rambling but I'd like to hear from those of you who thought about doing this, did it, or decided against it and hear your thoughts!

[JDCitizen]

I worked as an RN in primary care and I work as an ARNP in primary care.

I like my job now and really don't have much desire to work in a hospital setting. However I would be interested in eventually exploring some other outpatient settings, in a few areas that I am interested in and have some comfort in.

Than take your time...

Did anyone else with FNP do this and how long did it take you? my ideal scenario would be to get several solid primary care years under my belt, then start with a part time job in a specialty area (I am especially interested in nephrology, derm, GI), in this ideal world I'd still keep a part time primary care NP job even if it's locums only, which is pretty possible at where I work right now.

My first job was with a hospitalist / nephrology group; it was intense. Great job, met great people, lots and lots of networking. When I was in school I wanted a hospital based job. Had a hospital job wondered about an office job. Now have an office job want back in the hospital more.

A bunch of my classmates went directly into specialty care and I'm kind of wondering if they did it the right way while I went about wasting time? I also tend to attend primary care focused CME events and so don't feel like I'm networking much with specialty docs, then again I am not in a hurry to go there so how much networking can I realistically be doing right now anyway?

Learning, developing is never a waste.

Most of my CME confrence time was with other NPs and PAs.. The geographic area that these confrences attracted people from resulted in a large group of people who didn't know each other. Unless it was a long mutiple day confrence the actaual networking part seemed a little over stated.

Now the drug rep dinners I have been able to attend the networking potential was great. Area doctors, NPs and PAs were always involved and usually we spent 2-3 hours together not related to the drug program.

Sorry for the rambling but I'd like to hear from those of you who thought about doing this, did it, or decided against it and hear your thoughts!

One has to find what one wants to do and sometimes school/clinicals is just not enough. So narrow focus or broad focus just depends on you. I am 45 and still have more school / training in my future. My FNP training covered a broad area now I want to focus with more narrow training. Hope to be finished by retirement...

[ANPFNPGNP]

I worked as an RN in primary care and I work as an ARNP in primary care.

I like my job now and really don't have much desire to work in a hospital setting. However I would be interested in eventually exploring some other outpatient settings, in a few areas that I am interested in and have some comfort in.

Did anyone else with FNP do this and how long did it take you? my ideal scenario would be to get several solid primary care years under my belt, then start with a part time job in a specialty area (I am especially interested in nephrology, derm, GI), in this ideal world I'd still keep a part time primary care NP job even if it's locums only, which is pretty possible at where I work right now.

A bunch of my classmates went directly into specialty care and I'm kind of wondering if they did it the right way while I went about wasting time? I also tend to attend primary care focused CME events and so don't feel like I'm networking much with specialty docs, then again I am not in a hurry to go there so how much networking can I realistically be doing right now anyway?

Sorry for the rambling but I'd like to hear from those of you who thought about doing this, did it, or decided against it and hear your thoughts!

Get a solid base in primary care and then branch out if you want. I did it the wrong way and went into a specialty right out of college, even though our instructors warned us to get a couple of years of primary care under our belt first. Even though the specialty jobs pay more, I could never specialize again due to the boredom. I love primary care b/c we get to see everything under the sun.