What is your on-boarding experience?

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I am a new NP with an outpatient group affiliated with a large hospital. I started in September, and am pretty much on my own with weekly 1h education pieces for the entire group. If I have a question I reach out to others and people are mostly supportive. Nobody really comes to me with feedback, per se. I just hear I'm doing great, which feels so good to hear, but I do not feel this is not helpful feedback at this point. I have a lot to learn, and I know it. Am I just causing trouble for myself if I seek structure? What is training like for other new NPs?

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I can somewhat empathize. I started roughly a couple months ago and was told my onboarding would be 6 months. My supervising physician is only on site a couple of times a week. She is however accessible by phone which has been my saving grace. There are a couple of providers I feel comfortable going to for questions, but I'm mainly on my own too. They have slowly ramped up my load which has helped. I'm currently seeing half of what other providers are seeing, however that will change soon for me. As it stands now, I cross reference EVERYTHING I do with my medical apps. EPOCRATES Is my best friend. I do nothing without her consulting. Uptodate is also my very good friend, though I reserve him for when I need more in depth info. With these two buddies, I've been able to keep my questioning to a minimal. Good luck!

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I was lucky in that my first psych NP job was with the State in a forensic setting. Meaning no pressure to make numbers, but some fairly intensely mentally ill people. I had a caseload of probably 15-20, with weekly notes required, and most pts were relatively stable. I had time to look everything up. I had time to intensely research the cases. I had a person or two to consult with, but mostly I was on my own after the first few days.

You don't say how many pts you see in an average day. You are told you are doing great. I think more specific feedback is not forthcoming, people only tell you when something is wrong.

Employers are expecting us to be pretty much good to go, even as a new grad. It sounds like you are. You are perhaps fortunate that your program prepared you, or you prepared yourself

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I started in a specialty practice (nephrology) with no nephrology experience. I had a structured 4 month orientation, once a week in-person lectures with MDs and then I was with an experienced NP for the rest of the time. It took that long to get hospital and dialysis unit (FMC and Davita) credentialing anyway.

At the end of 4 months, I knew what I didn't know - lol.

It gets better. After 3 years I was pretty knowledgeable. Now after 12+ years I'm the "go-to" person.

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

My starting out sounds similar to you. I was fortunate in that my final rotation of school clinicals was with the physician that ultimately hired me, so I was comfortable in the environment, but I was essentially thrown out there and flying solo from day 1.

As long as the providers around you are supportive you should do well, and it sounds like you're adapting well. I clung to uptodate for my first year or two. It's like the ultimate backup.

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