Thinking about becoming a NP. Have some questions for you NP's out there!

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 31, 2017

I am getting ready to start an FNP program with 8 week sessions (2 sessions per semester). People in the program that I work with are still able to work full time (three 12 hour shifts per week) and complete school. It gets a bit stickier when you start clinicals because you have to devote 16 to 18 hours per week to on-site clinical time. Once I start clinicals, I will be working Fri, Sat & Sun to keep my week days free for clinicals & school work.

I did have the option of doubling up on the non-clinical courses so I could finish in 22 months instead of 27. However, those who have done it said it wasn't worth the stress and it only saves 5 months of time. Not that long in the grand scheme of things.

TheRuralNurse · Mar 31, 2017

Thank you for your reply, SopranoKris. It was very helpful!

allnurses Guide · Apr 6, 2017

1. Were you able to work full time while completing your program?

There are a few things to consider here including school full or part time, working weekends or weekdays, your family/friends/self, etc. But I think the most important question is should you? As you mentioned before, this is a big investment. You want to make the most out of your investment, so consider that first. By your final semester in most full-time programs you will have three days of clinical, one or two days of classes plus the work you need to complete outside the classroom.

2. How would you compare the difficulty of MSN-FNP schooling to nursing school?

A quality NP program will be significantly more academically rigorous and require significantly more self-directed work than a similar undergrad RN program.

3. Are you happier as an NP than you were as an RN?

The RN role wasn't for me, I was never comfortable in it, but the NP role is a great fit.

4. Did any of you graduate from a program similar to mine, if so, how did you like it?

Is your program a local established program? If not, make sure you talk with as many local NPs and local employers as possible before investing:especially in tighter markets your program may be the difference between a good job and a bad job or even no job at all.

Cwoods · Apr 6, 2017

1. Were you able to work full time while completing your program?
2. How would you compare the difficulty of MSN-FNP schooling to nursing school?

In full disclosure, I am still in school in a FNP/ACNP program; however, I thought I might add my 2 cents.

I have been able to work full-time. My program is a B&M program. I have taken a couple of online classes, but they were fluff and were not clinical in nature, i.e. theory, health promotion.

With that said, I'm starting clinicals in the summer. There is no way on earth I could work full-time and keep up with the clinical and classroom demands of the program. My program is academically strenuous and if I treated it like undergrad, particularly RN-BSN (what a joke), I would get buried by my professors.

I realize people have obligations that keep them from quitting work while in school, but it's imperative to realize the gravity of the position we are seeking. Being a nurse practitioner is a high calling. Treat it as such.

chiromed0 · Apr 6, 2017

I worked full time and pretty much lived my normal life. Now, my normal may be a bit too much for someone else. Yes, you can work and do the program. No, you can't have much of a social life and you will pretty much check out of society for a few years to get it done but the payoff is worth it. You get paid more as a base for the rest of your career and you get to make some (maybe all) the decisions for someone's treatment plan. That's cool but you also have to assume all the responsibility for your decisions. So is it worth it to do it? Depends. Do you like the grunt work of nursing? If so, then you may want to be on the front lines as an RN and just work more or in a specialty. If you like more managerial level decision making then you probably would like advanced practice nursing. I'd say if you're young enough, motivated enough to finish then there really is no professional reason not to do it. There may be personal ones. I put off the transition until my son was through HS and onto college. I can tell you that there are days I really miss bedside nursing (I can't believe I even said that) b/c of the immediate personal reward of helping someone. However, I do not miss the hospital bureaucracy AT ALL. I get bored with clinical work but I'd rather be bored then on edge every shift with a patient "circling the drain." That kind of stress makes you dread going into work and unfortunately (depending on your job) can be your daily RN work. So only YOU can decide if APRN work is right for you but there is very little downside to doing it and the advantage is you can ALWAYS STILL PRACTICE AS AN RN if you want. You can't do that the other way around. Being an APRN makes you a better nurse so why not do that? Either way, both professional positions are needed and you can feel good about either decision. There is no wrong decision here...just decide how involved you want to be in your profession.

LadysSolo · Apr 7, 2017

I attended a brick and mortar program, they recommended we not work during the program but since I am the support of my family, I had no choice. I worked full time during the program, and only had trouble getting my clinical hours in - I had to burn all my vacation time to get the clinicals done. In my undergrad program, I felt like they were trying to "weed us out," in my Master's program I felt like they wanted us to succeed. I was not unhappy as an RN, but I really enjoy the autonomy as a Nurse Practitioner. Just be sure you like paperwork, it is worse as an NP than it ever was as an RN - YMMV. BTW, I would do it again (become an NP) if I had it to do over.

orangepink, NP · Apr 7, 2017

1. Were you able to work full time while completing your program? Nope, I quit working to go to school full-time. Some people are good at balancing work, school and family life. I am not one of those. I did however work 2-3 jobs prior to going in to NP school so I saved a lot! Best be realistic about yourself so you can make the right decisions.

2. How would you compare the difficulty of MSN-FNP schooling to nursing school? It's challenging (I don't like the word difficult) because you are now attempting to think beyond nursing practices. I remember when we first did a patient case study and we were asked to write a SOAP note, my first item on the plan section was PT/OT eval hehehe

3. Are you happier as an NP than you were as an RN? Yes. I had severe lower back pain as a RN and being an NP helped a lot but did not eradicate it. I like interacting with patients as an NP. I just wished I had better supervising physicians. I had to learn a lot on my own.

4. Did any of you graduate from a program similar to mine, if so, how did you like it? I was in an online program. The way the curriculum was laid out could have been better but I did more studying on my own.

IsabelK · Apr 8, 2017

1. Were you able to work full time while completing your program?
2. How would you compare the difficulty of MSN-FNP schooling to nursing school?
3. Are you happier as an NP than you were as an RN?
4. Did any of you graduate from a program similar to mine, if so, how did you like it?

1. I worked full time while completing my program. I did have a hard time getting my clinical in, but I also found that working per diem during my last semester helped. Per diem made it easier to bring in cash and I had a lot more flexibility about when I worked.

2. I did the MSN-ANP. I found it to be easier in some ways because it was more focused on a specific age range and I already had been a working RN for several years. In other ways I found it much more difficult because it was a whole new way of looking at health and providing health care. My worst rotation was women's health/gyn.

3. Yes, I love being an NP. Really liked being a staff RN, disliked being a unit manager, loved being a staff educator and infection control RN, but being an NP is just overall a better fit. I actually like going into work.

4. I did a part-time online program with one week intensives yearly (went down three times, once at the beginning, and at the beginning of years 2 and 3). Also went down at the end of year 3 for graduation. The course schedule was: summer, fall semester, spring semester, summer (repeat). In the summer we all took two 3 credit classes. Same in the fall and spring. I found the program to be difficult but not impossible. The worst part was trying to find local preceptors, but the school did help with that as well.

RunNP · Apr 9, 2017

1. Were you able to work full time while completing your program?

My program was a brick and mortar and I worked full time at first then switched to weekends only plan when clinical picked up pace.

2. How would you compare the difficulty of MSN-FNP schooling to nursing school?

Nursing school was cake. I don't ever remember being stressed out with studying. NP school was more difficult in spots. My issues were from vague instructions and a few professors who took enjoyment in creating tricky and misleading test questions.

3. Are you happier as an NP than you were as an RN?

I am happier with parts of my new role. When I started as an NP the treatment is so different. RNs get treated like children in a hospital setting with how many minutes from the hour you clock in to time stamps on your charting. It could be suffocating at times, but when I clocked out my time was mine. In the NP role there is stress of a different kind. I worry about making a mistake or missing something. I selected to work in a specialty group and underestimated how much of a gap there was from my knowledge base and the expectations. It is a daily struggle.

4. Did any of you graduate from a program similar to mine, if so, how did you like it?

No, i selected a traditional NP program because I wanted the interaction with other students and instructor and my husband was finishing up his fellowship in the same city.

Riburn3, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP · Apr 13, 2017

So my questions for you NP's...
1. Were you able to work full time while completing your program?
2. How would you compare the difficulty of MSN-FNP schooling to nursing school?
3. Are you happier as an NP than you were as an RN?
4. Did any of you graduate from a program similar to mine, if so, how did you like it?

1. Was able to work fulltime throughout. When the final semester of clinicals came I used some stored up PTO to take some days off here and there to help me finish the program.

2. I found the MSN-FNP program to be a bit easier if only because I had been working as a nurse for a long time so grasping concepts was easier. When I was in nursing school everything I was hearing was brand new material and my first day in clinical was the first time I had been in a hospital since my birth. It's also different in that faculty and staff treat you more like professionals with respect, versus being dumb dumb undergrads. The mentality shifted from a get rid of the weakest links in undergrad, to "we are all going to help everyone get through this". Some people still struggled and left, but nothing like my undergrad program.

3. I was happy as an RN, but now that I'm an NP I can't ever imagine going back to bedside or administrative RN work. While I truly believe being an RN with experience is very helpful to building yourself as a good NP, the roles are so different and I just have so much more job satisfaction as an NP. I work for the same facility I was at as an RN, and the quality of treatment I receive being a provider is infinitely better. I hear about NP's being disrespected by physicians, but where I am (which is still a collaborative state), physicians fully embrace NP's and treat us with respect. The same goes for my interactions with hospital admins as well. It's nice.

4. My program sounds similar, at least the first part does where you are taking one class at a time. Once clinicals hit though they were all one semester long class where we had both clinical and didactic assignments do. Still wasn't bad though. We also had instructors come and evaluate us at clinical sites and were required to be on campus for more evals and skills.

Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP · Apr 17, 2017

1. Were you able to work full time while completing your program?

I'm nearing the end of an acute bricks and mortar program. I work full time and the program is supposedly "part-time" but that's a fallacy...it doesn't feel part-time at all. I'm tired, exhausted and stressed and I barely have any days off. I work Mon-Fri, go to school on Wednesdays while still working remotely, and do clinicals on the weekends and take ETO days to fulfill clinical requirements too. It's way too much for this girl. I'll be taking a semester off even though I only have 2 semesters left. If I don't take time off something is going to implode.

2. How would you compare the difficulty of MSN-FNP schooling to nursing school?

Night and day. It's a LOT of work. Way more reading, assignments....busy stuff. For example, despite doing 24 hours of clinicals a week, and going to class and working, my classes require that I write two complete physical assessment SOAP notes each week, do at least 200 pages of reading, do a detailed research-based presentation and still do reading for critical care stuff that I need to know for my clinicals, and there's also Shadow Health virtual assessment assignments and a multitude of other things. It's complicated, detailed and labor-intensive.

3. Are you happier as an NP than you were as an RN?

I worked in the ICU...I was tired and burnt out but I miss it. I miss the camaraderie and the environment but I knew it was time to move on.

4. Did any of you graduate from a program similar to mine, if so, how did you like it?

My program is great. It's at the top school in the State, well-organized, has a great reputation and finds all my clinical placements for me. Top notch.