What would you do?? ugh!

MSN, wisest choice, most options, quickest

I would (and did!) do the NP program now. The DNP is only a recommendation to be required after 2015; may take years to actually be a requirement to have a DNP in order to sit for the certification exams. Anyone licensed to practice prior to some future requirement will be grandfathered in as long as he/she keeps up with all current continuing ed and other licensure requirements.

Thanks mammac5, you wrote exactly what I was thinking...thanks for helping me put things in perspective :)

If nursing works like any other healthcare field (which from my knowledge it actually runs slower), then we will probably not see a mandate for DON for nurse practitioners until around 2020. Sure many schools will probably start adding DON programs or BSN to DON nurse prac programs, but that doesn't make it law. I mean why wouldn't you as a university add a doctorate program to replace a master's program? You squeeze more years and more tuition dollars out of students, increase your student amount which increases your federal or state funding, and you really aren't increasing much workload because DON courses about the masters level are mainly online and require research and very little extra clinical experience.

My field had started talking about going the doctorate level from the masters level in the early 90's. The first year the AuD was required of all new graduates was 2010. It took nearly 20 years to get to this point. As I've said in other posts, I think the shift did nothing but increase student loan debt, decrease interest of some really intelligent people who would have joined the field, and increase money funneled to the universities. It has not moved the average salary for an audiologist one cent since it's creation. Most places are going to take experience over education. I've seen it in occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, and audiology.

Nursing I doubt would be an exception. So if you think you can finish your MSN for your NP degree within the next 10 years you should be good to go and think of it this way, you will be out faster and gaining experience over someone in the DON programs. Afterall experience is liquid gold in the hiring and salary negotiation phase while education is more or less liquid lead.

Good luck!

Thanks Auddoc, you know I def feel the way you do, that this recommendation won't be a requirement for quite some time. But, I have noticed one or two schools (out of many) that have already d/c'd their MSN NP programs so I felt like maybe I wasn't taking it seriously enough. I've already applied to an online RN-MSN FNP program and I feel good about the decision. It's what my gut is telling me to do. Thanks for the advice and input, very much appreciated :)