UMMC Weigh In

[IBSavn]

I am a AGACNP student in my final semester of school. I am looking at applying to jobs soon, and the University of Maryland Medical Center is somewhere that I am interested in working. From what I can read on their website the medical center has a good NP program. However, they always have positions open for NPs. This is concerning to me. I worry that there is a lot of turnover amongst their APRNs. Has anyone worked their or know of anyone who has worked there. I need input.

[Jules A, MSN]

Please take this as what it is, hearsay: but word on the street is they don't pay much and in that area there is plenty of competition so most NPs won't tolerate low wages.

[Jules A, MSN]

From what I can read on their website the medical center has a good NP program.

I have zero information about that program but do you think their website would actually say they don't have a good NP program?

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I wouldn't gauge how good a place is to work for based on the amount of job openings especially in a large academic medical center such as University of Maryland. While some of that can be attributed to turn-over, part of it could be due to expansion of services in multiple specialties in an era when resident physician hours are being kept tightly controlled and no additional resident slots are being approved to make up for the decrease in residency hours.

As someone who works for a similar academic medical center (with likely comparable reputation), I know that we always have NP openings in various departments. We also have an outstanding AGACNP program (highly ranked per US News if you believe that) but not every graduate of the program end up working with us. Like Jules stated, there could be other options around and it could be that the grads just found jobs somewhere else. While our ICU ACNP group is composed of more than 50% grads from the affiliated school of nursing, the others graduated from other schools in other states (like myself).

Academic medical centers are known to pay lower than most (especially for physicians) but that is not always the case with nursing employees (including NP's). Sometimes nursing unions are stronger in these places and it does affect the NP salary scale. As a state-funded institution, University of Maryland is bound by law to make salaries public knowledge (as is the place I work for). You should be able to find out what NP's are paid there if you do a search and hopefully compare that to what you think is reasonable.

[Jules A, MSN]

It looks like they are offering an acute care NP fellowship which I think would be an amazing opportunity.