When did you decide to become an NP?

pedspnp · Apr 11, 2010

it was about 2 am on a dark stormy night in the er when i hurt my back trying to keep a patient from falling right then and there it was like a light bulb going off in my head not too say it wont happen as a PNP but the odds are less

Medic09, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Apr 12, 2010

I started thinking about it when I had a Chief Flight Nurse who was an ACNP. Now that I have a stronger itch to get a grad degree, I know I want to continue my clinical education. NP is the way to go, from what I can see. I've been brainstorming it with my PCP who is a PA and FNP, and my wife who is a Family Practice doc. I expect to start applying to schools in the fall. If I were ten years younger I would think about med school. At age 52 I don't want to start paying off student loans when I'm in my sixties.

Spacklehead, MSN, NP · Apr 12, 2010

It was gradual progression for me. The more I learned, the more confident I became, and the more I wanted to do, - especially in the ED, and I started looking into programs. I initially considered going the CRNA route but then became pregnant and realized I just couldn't dedicate two years of my life to full-time school while also working and raising a family. Finally, after eight years as an RN and two kids later, I decided to go back to school. It was something that just came to me while I was thinking about it. It was the best decision I ever made. No more eves, nights, weekends or holidays, and a decent salary to go along with that. I honestly can't complain!

carachel2 · Apr 13, 2010

It was a gradual thing for me. I became insanely bored in a job I had previously loved, but realized as I moved through my 40's there was just no way I could physicallly handle the nursing jobs that *didn't* bore me. Also, I have a passion for patient teaching and love the challenge of meeting patients where they are in order to help them move through necessary changes.

And also, I vowed never to work another Mother's Day, Easter or Christmas. EVER.

Dixiecup · Apr 13, 2010

When I couldn't pay my bills!

gerry79 · Apr 13, 2010

I was at work and noticed how we (the nurses) were running around like crazy, struggling to subdue belligerent and combative patients, getting screamed at, kicked, and generally disrespected. I noticed the mid levels collaborating with the docs about care, and how it was the nurses who came to the rescue of those mid levels when a patient started to get out of hand, or needed to be cleaned, or repositioned, and an urgent need to educate myself out of my current position came upon me. At times I sort of feel like a factory worker or a mule. I work in the ED and it is like an assembly line with a never ending stream of patients. Its hard to eat or even use the bathroom. I am also in my mid 40's and dont know if my body will hold up to the pounding of bedside nursing. I am applying to NP school for spring 2011. Wish me luck!

Joe NightingMale, MSN, RN · Apr 13, 2010

I was at work and noticed how we (the nurses) were running around like crazy, struggling to subdue belligerent and combative patients, getting screamed at, kicked, and generally disrespected. ... At times I sort of feel like a factory worker or a mule.

That's the reason I'm looking to get out of med-surg. Just tiresome and repetitive.

VivaRN · Apr 14, 2010

In nursing school all my mentors were NP's. I wanted to be like the people I looked up to.

Christen, ANP · Apr 16, 2010

When I was in HS, I followed an NP for a week. She was such an inspiration to me, I loved her job, her hours, and the money she made! That really started me thinking "wow, I should do this!" I graduated HS, got my BSN shortly thereafter, hurt my back at age 20 picking up an unconcious patient, worked in the ICUs for a few years (turn, turn, turn!), and had a friend in her early 40s (and many other RNs I knew) have slipped disks, unable to walk, back sx, etc, and decided at 26 that it was time to get out! I started my NP, and graduate May 8th!