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Discussion

What you are doing completely wrong

So i have been scavenging this website for a while now. It always seems to have the same complaint on the forums regarding nurse practitioners. I can't find a job.” What are your hours”

How stressful is your job”

How much do you get paid”

How much vacation time do you get”

How do you deal with difficult patients”

Once i see somebody ask those questions, I already know why they can't find a job.

YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE EASY

What is the easy you say?

It is doing what takes the least amount of effort to obtain the outcomes you want.

It is going to be a difficult market for many nurse practitioners in the future. This i can say due to the easiness they have made it to get a license. Unfortunately they have removed almost all barriers in regards to obtaining a license to pass rx medicine.

Online, part-time, from your own home, set up your own clinical, pay this and that money and you obtain a masters degree, etc etc.

THE EASY

I do not see many posts regarding, how people can make themselves stand out and land an awesome 6 figure job straight out of his or her program. I just see people wanting the EASY.

So step off of your soap boxes for a few minutes and take a listen, and also take a step into the DIFFICULT.

What is the DIFFICULT?

The difficult is what you don't want to do. Thats right. This is going to SUCK. At least for starters it will.

Step one- pick up and economics text book and read the entire thing this week. Okay?

Did you do it? if not you might as well sit back and continue with the easy, because you don't want to do whats hard in order to RISE ABOVE THE EPICUREANS. Don't know what epicureans are? READ YOUR ECONOMICS TEXTBOOK

.

Okay now that you should have read the textbook you are ready to move on. Do you know what you are doing wrong?

No?

WELL YOU DID NOT READ THE ECONOMICS TEXTBOOK THEN GO BACK AND READ IT NOW.

You are doing what everybody else is doing what is what is wrong. What is everybody else doing?

Applying for jobs online

slacking during clinical

not studying more than they need to

focusing on stuff that does not matter

watching grey's anatomy

going to the easiest and nearest clinical site

not asking preceptors or instructors questions

not ‘networking'

not trying to understand the business of medicine

complaining about not having a job

not walking into offices dropping off your resume in person

not asking business questions to preceptors

not focusing on how the clinics you precept at make more money

not learning other skills besides nurse-practitionering

not reading non-fiction books

not realizing that nobody gives two craps about your previous RN experience

not acting like you want to learn

acting like you already know enough

not realizing that nobody gives even one and a half craps about your nursing research besides the phd teacher in your program

not being persistent

not being willing to move in order to find a job

not reading the economics textbook i told you to read 10 minutes ago

not realizing that advanced practice nursing is not advanced practice nursing

posting selfies on Facebook in your lab coat

going to for profit online programs

thinking about what your job can do for you instead of thinking about what you can do for the company you work for.

not doing things differently

thinking you will have your dream job out of school

Fortunately below i am going to tell you how to succeed and make 6 figures right out of your program like i did without being any smarter or gifted than anybody else.

Just do the opposite of what it stated above and you will be rolling in the dough.

Look for the hardest job

look for the job everybody quit from and apply to it

understand leverage

understand there are more than two options. quitting and staying are not the only two options you have at a job.

do what everybody else doesn't want to do

make yourself like it

be stoic

I did just that and made 165000 last year working 43 hours a week with full benefits. working 7 days on 7 days off nightshift. And i have only been an fnp one year. Right now I'm enjoying my 4th vacation this year since i always get 7 days off.

And i am no smarter than you are. I just followed the above advice

GOODLUCK

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    not realizing that nobody gives even one and a half craps about your nursing research besides the phd teacher in your program

    We totally agree on at least one thing. ;) FWIW my first job out of NP school was $80 an hour, day shift M-F, so I must have done something right.

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    I will say I do wish I had asked more about the business side of things. I had the perfect opportunity with one of my preceptors who actually owned and ran the clinic. Unfortunately that was my first semester so I was more worried about choosing the right antibiotic, etc.

    I must agree with your list, though. For me I was willing to limit myself in geographical area but I (thankfully) found a job with 80K salary (in a rural area with low cost of living) and bonus potential with other good benefits in a care area I was OKAY with doing. Not my dream job...partly because primary care (the job I start Monday) is a bit intimidating to me. I do think I will enjoy it quite a bit and hopefully stay in for the long haul once I get over the intimidation factor.

    My point for my rant is that if you do all that's listed above you will get a job that pays very well. May not be a dream job. May be hard. But sometimes you have to decide what's more important than just money. For me that was location and I was ok with that.

    You can't have it all.

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    be stoic

    How would that possibly help "roll in the dough"? I think charisma would be better suited.

    And your post in August states you made 150k last year working 52 hours per week. That's a big difference from what you're telling us now.

    And you are on your 4th vacation this year, and we have only had 4 weeks of 2015 so far? How does that work?

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    • Author

    They cut our hours and gave us a bonus. I did calculate it out to about 43 though so the latter is correct

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    sauce, I have a high student debt.....I will call on you when the times comes if I don't get a HRSA job.

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    • Experts

    @sauce - glad you are happy with your choice.

    I've been an APN for 9 years now and while I agree with you to some extent, I still see much progress being made in the APN world.

    Knowing business and the especially the business of medicine is paramount for landing a solid job and continuing to get solid raises.

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    I'm not sure why you consider it easy to get clinical sites during a NP program.

    I personally think it's one of the greatest tragedies in NP education right now that students are supposed to set up their own.

    Additionally- there may be a reason why people are quitting a job and I don't understand why people quitting a job left and right should be an incentive for you to stay there. If I'm going to spend 40 hours a week at a job, I hope I'm going to like it. Life is too short to stay stuck in a career that you hate.

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    I'm not sure why you consider it easy to get clinical sites during a NP program.

    I personally think it's one of the greatest tragedies in NP education right now that students are supposed to set up their own.

    Additionally- there may be a reason why people are quitting a job and I don't understand why people quitting a job left and right should be an incentive for you to stay there. If I'm going to spend 40 hours a week at a job, I hope I'm going to like it. Life is too short to stay stuck in a career that you hate.

    Your comment is truth in failure. NP programs are only designed for one purpose: generate cash for the university. Period. There are those who will have the connections to set up clinical hours, like I did, and those who mope around and hope someone will help them out.

    There is no free lunch in this career. You have to make connections, market yourself, prove your worth, and do more than the next guy.

    This is not a 40 hour per week career. Maybe someday. But in the beginning, you generally have to give a lot.

    Anyone who thinks it's a tragedy that online schools don't provide clinical hours, and that this should be a 40 hour per week career should stay in nursing. They do that for you there.

    Edit - I currently work a 40 hour week in a job that requires only that. But....I take call one or two weekends a month for extra cash, I moonlight by reading stress tests, and I see nursing home patients in the evenings, for extra cash.

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    • Author

    I don't understand why people complain about schools not setting up clinicals. You should research that before going there. Mine set mine up if needed. If you don't like it don't shop there. I don't like certain retailers so I don't go there to buy my food then go to a forum and complain about it. I shop somewhere else.

    If if the only school somebody can get into doesn't find clinicals for you. Retake some classes and get into a real program .

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    • Author

    Sounds harsh but we live in a harsh world.

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    • Guides

    That's not why people can't find a job. Anyone can find a job. They just can't find the one they want in the area they want. People want different things in a job. If earning the most amount of money is your goal, then sure - go for a job no one else wants and good for you.

    Me, I took a job in the specialty I wanted to work in, with the team I wanted to work with. My nursing experience of 15 years was very specialized and is why the position was created for me, so it was most definitely relevant. I prefer to stand out from the crowd by being clinically excellent, rather than reading an economics textbook.

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    Every other medical profession sets up clinical hours for their students. Why should NP education be any different? I agree that I wish there were more brick & mortar schools. This mentality of not caring how others get their education is unsettling- it should be standardized and understood that schools set up clinical sites. If we turn our backs on our future, where will we be left?

    In any case, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't mind working a few extra hours a week reading new literature related to my job and as my patients need them, if my work day has been very busy and I need to catch up on charting, but I'm not going to be married to my job. I have a family and a life outside of work. I guess I'm fortunate in that I'm able to work three 12s a week in order to do that in a hospitalist role, making six figures a year, on day shift for the most part.

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