What are the BEST and WORST States to practice as an NP?

I am speaking primarily from two perspectives here:

1. The degree to which NP's are accepted, recognized, and utilized in that area/state.

2. The degree to which state law recognizes NP's, and grants them autonomy, and privledges such as the ability to write prescriptions.

Anyone know about Minnesota? Is it good for NPs

Specializes in Cardiology, Psychiatry.
One of the worst states: Florida. Prescriptive authority does not include ANY scheduled drugs, which is a real hassle for me since I work in hospice. We have to file our MD protocol annually. We constantly fight the Florida Medical Association in the legislature, they introduce bills to limit us even further and would get away with it if we aren't vigilant. If it weren't for the particular group I work with, I wouldn't be here.

I am right here with you. Florida, by far, is one of the hardest states to practice in.

Specializes in SICU,CVICU,ER,PACU.
That's great-- do anything about practicing as an NP in the metro-Detroit area?

At Henry Ford, NPs are working in all areas and my manager said that they were going to increase the hiring numbers for NPs. It's a teaching hospital with a lot of diversity and very interesting cases.

I find the mentality amongst mid level provider to be quite collegial and learning opportunities are endless.

Hope it helps answer your question....

Hey all what about Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, North or South Carolina??

Im in Michigan and am currently a nurse educator in both the critical care setting of a hospital and a community college. I am going to open my own DBA as home care NP and contract my services.

I am fed up with the AMA and Old boy network that drools all over PAs!!!!!!!!! I am making 100K a year doing this job and can't get near that as an NP very discouraging.

Just a quick correction for the link that was provided by sirI for the Pearson report on NP practice.

http://www.webnp.net/ajnp08.html

then you can click on the "download the pdf version" if you want to review it at length

thanks so much for your help I appreciate it! :reindeer:

Specializes in SICU,CVICU,ER,PACU.

My hubby and I are looking at relocating to 2 different locations: southern California or Austin ,TX. I am all for socal but my hubby argues that cost of living is out of hand there. Nonetheless it is still an option....so, my question to ACNPs is: which one of those locations offer most advantages and great working climate (and yes, the income would matter as well). Working in ICU settings, the whole "opening shop" is irrelevant to me. And yes, I have read the reports you guys kindly referenced to, but beside prescription priviledges and ability to be independant in a private practice, it didn't tell me much about the scope of practice for an ACNP, or the income, or the atmosphere and relationship with docs in critical care settings.

I would really appreciate your input. It is a big move and I'd rather not find out for myself that we made the wrong choice .

Thanks to all of you to continue to contribute to this topic !:smokin:

My suggestion would be to go to the source: the california board of nursing

here's a URL for NP practice regs, etc.

http://www.rn.ca.gov/regulations/np.shtml

hope this helps!

Southern California climate is WONDERFUL!

cost of living IS higher than here in the Baltimore Metro area (probably similar to DC area)

Specializes in ED, Tele, Psych.
Hey all what about Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, North or South Carolina??

Im in Michigan and am currently a nurse educator in both the critical care setting of a hospital and a community college. I am going to open my own DBA as home care NP and contract my services.

I am fed up with the AMA and Old boy network that drools all over PAs!!!!!!!!! I am making 100K a year doing this job and can't get near that as an NP very discouraging.

Arizona and New Mexico are good choices - but to avoid the old-boy network, stay in the more urban areas. check the Pearson report for comparisons.

Hi to everyone,

I know this thread has been going on for quite a while, so I hope some of you are still interested! I am considering a move to Boulder, CO. So far, I've only found openings for NP's in Denver. I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion about the job market in Boulder, or about the commute from Boulder to Denver (or really any opinion about living in that region in general...lol!).

Thanks for taking the time to help!

Specializes in Psychiatric, Detox/Rehab, Geriatrics.

Well, Pennsylvania might be one of the best states for NP's to work, but for Clinical Nurse Specialists, they are just NOW getting title recognition. CNSs don't even have prescriptive authority in PA, which is pretty sad as there are more states that have Rx authority for CNSs and every state around PA has prescriptive authority for CNSs. It just saddens me because I really want to be a Psych CNS, but to get that Rx authority, I'll either have to move to another state, or move close to one of the bordering states, which would place me at least 2 hours from my friends and family, something I don't want to do, so I'm pretty much stuck with going for a Psych Np program, not that there's anything wrong with Psych NPs, I just like the way the CNS programs for Psych are set up as compared to the Pysch NP programs in this state, as there's more emphasis on psychotherapy in the Psych CNS programs in PA.

Specializes in ER, ICU, Med/Surg, Pedi.
I am speaking primarily from two perspectives here:

1. The degree to which NP's are accepted, recognized, and utilized in that area/state.

2. The degree to which state law recognizes NP's, and grants them autonomy, and privledges such as the ability to write prescriptions.

You guys can check the yearly pearson report to get information on each state for FNP practice. Thanks.

+ Join the Discussion