Will there be too many NPs?

Specialties NP

Published

It seems that there is a huge trend of RNs going back to school and choosing NPs instead of other emphasis (CNS, Education, Leadership, etc). There are so many online colleges and actual "normal" physical schools offering NP programs that its made me though if there will be a point where there will be TOO MANY of them?

Is NP a career that you foresee being completely saturated and difficult to obtain a job in the next 5 years? What are your thoughts?

If i could go back I woulda prolly done software engineering

If it requires math, it makes big bucks most of the time.

Agreed! 90K-150K off a bachelors in computer science! Crazy good. However...society will always need medicine and healthcare. Computers/phones/gadgets? ...debatable

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Less and less young people are pursuing stem degrees. I'm 23 and will always have a small regret for not pursuing a biomedical engineering degree. Not so much for the money, in fact not a lot to be made starting off and many end up in medical school. I just love math and science.

I wish NP education would be more intellectually stimulating, based off what I've read from fellow coworkers NP texts - the material is superficial and not hardcore pathophysiology.

I hope CRNA will satisfy my craving for hard sciences.

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I have been a nurse for a long time and 15-20 years ago only a handful of nurses got into NP programs and they were very demanding. It seemed only the best made it through to practice, but now any nurse with any GPA is welcomed and pushed along to graduate and the quality of NPs being mass produced is scary! Granted there are many great ones or ones who will become great but the majority I see are diluting the quality of the profession.

I think the schools need tighter regulation, higher qualifiers to be accepted and we need to reduce the mass of 'online only' programs or the for profit ones. The fear is that with the glut it will drive salaries down and totally destroy the reputation the NPs have enjoyed to this point.

I have seen a trend of providers moving away from NPs and taking PAs as the quality of new graduates has fallen sharply over the past -8 years.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
I have been a nurse for a long time and 15-20 years ago only a handful of nurses got into NP programs and they were very demanding. It seemed only the best made it through to practice, but now any nurse with any GPA is welcomed and pushed along to graduate and the quality of NPs being mass produced is scary! Granted there are many great ones or ones who will become great but the majority I see are diluting the quality of the profession.

I think the schools need tighter regulation, higher qualifiers to be accepted and we need to reduce the mass of 'online only' programs or the for profit ones. The fear is that with the glut it will drive salaries down and totally destroy the reputation the NPs have enjoyed to this point.

I have seen a trend of providers moving away from NPs and taking PAs as the quality of new graduates has fallen sharply over the past -8 years.

I'd like this a thousand times if I could. You will get flack for ID-ing the elephant in the room but every thing you have said is true and exactly what I'm also seeing in my area.

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Specializes in Family Practice, Primary Care.
yeah a lot of law stuff can be automated now with like rocket lawyer and stuff like that. Used it for a business i owned a year or two ago (small business) never had to consult a lawyer for anything. Unless your from a big 15 school your law degree is just a glorified liberal arts diploma basically.

Apparently the best degrees now are math degrees, stats, actuarial science, raw math, etc. Followed by engineering, medicine, dentisry etc etc.

If i could go back I woulda prolly done software engineering lol :(

If it requires math, it makes big bucks most of the time.

sorry to go off topic >.>

My brother graduated from a local law school that's part of a state school last year and has a job at a major US consulting law firm so that's kinda inaccurate.

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Specializes in Family Practice, Primary Care.
I'd like this a thousand times if I could. You will get flack for ID-ing the elephant in the room but every thing you have said is true and exactly what I'm also seeing in my area.

I think the proliferation of online schools will do us in, plus lowering requirements all around. Direct entry programs should be gotten rid of completely. Do I know direct entry grads from my program that were amazing in school and now in practice? Yes, but they were a small minority of the students in the direct entry program. I've mentored direct entry students who were new grads, and they fumbled for the first few years of practice, and that is all it takes to start leaving a bad impression with employers.

And I GET that people have hopes and dreams and need something that fits their life because they have kids. I get it. But as an NP, you are in charge of people's LIVES. We can make life or death choices, have to make accurate diagnoses, know when to refer, know when an endocrine condition is mimicking something that we thought was cardio/neuro/something else. I take my job VERY seriously. And I'm sorry to say, NP school should not cater to those that need flexible mommy schedules. You want to be a mom? Great. But NP school shouldn't go online or change how it runs to make life easier for you. Wait until your kids are older to go back to school, or delay having kids until your career goals are met. Lowering standards shouldn't be the option. And not everyone deserves to be an NP; if you don't have the brains for it, you shouldn't be doing it. All the whining I see over in threads about not passing boards makes me cringe. NP boards, to me, were miles easier than the NCLEX (and I finished the NCLEX in 75 questions in 30 minutes). If you cannot pass boards, you are not safe to practice, point blank. Stop complaining about what the world owes you if you can't pass muster. YOU'RE the problem, not the exam, not the profession.

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I have been a nurse for a long time and 15-20 years ago only a handful of nurses got into NP programs and they were very demanding. It seemed only the best made it through to practice, but now any nurse with any GPA is welcomed and pushed along to graduate and the quality of NPs being mass produced is scary! Granted there are many great ones or ones who will become great but the majority I see are diluting the quality of the profession.

I think the schools need tighter regulation, higher qualifiers to be accepted and we need to reduce the mass of 'online only' programs or the for profit ones. The fear is that with the glut it will drive salaries down and totally destroy the reputation the NPs have enjoyed to this point.

I have seen a trend of providers moving away from NPs and taking PAs as the quality of new graduates has fallen sharply over the past -8 years.

This is so true. From the lax admission standards (especially of those direct admit, no RN experience needed programs) and significant variation in clinical hours (my school required 650; a colleague's school required 500), to the terrible preceptor situation for many students, the NP programs could use some major improvement and standardization across the board in order to prevent a reduction in the perceived integrity of the profession.

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I frankly dn't see any problem. Look it is very difficult to kill a patient. You have to be extremely reckless to actually kill someone. Care and compassion are the most important factors in being a good healthcare provider. The rest will come with muscle memory. Frankly, anyone can be trained to become a healthcare provider now with all of the resources that we have via the Internet.

Again, the studies have shown that NP programs are comparable or even better than MD programs+ residency in improving the overall health of patients. Even with lowering our standard, it is not as if we are recruiting incompetent folks. We are getting college graduates who are pursuing masters degrees.

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Specializes in Family Practice, Primary Care.
I frankly dn't see any problem. Look it is very difficult to kill a patient. You have to be extremely reckless to actually kill someone. Care and compassion are the most important factors in being a good healthcare provider. The rest will come with muscle memory. Frankly, anyone can be trained to become a healthcare provider now with all of the resources that we have via the Internet.

Again, the studies have shown that NP programs are comparable or even better than MD programs+ residency in improving the overall health of patients. Even with lowering our standard, it is not as if we are recruiting incompetent folks. We are getting college graduates who are pursuing masters degrees.

You're kidding, right? It is NOT hard to kill a patient, at all. Prescribed an ACE inhibitor to someone but didn't check their potassium and it was already high and they love eating bananas and potatoes? Very easily could become an arrythmia. I have seen numerous patients have godawful outcomes due to well-intentioned practitioners not knowing enough. Peeing blood due to putting someone on warfarin on levaquin as well? Seen it.

Care and compassion ARE NOT the most important factors in being a good healthcare provider, knowledge and skill are. I've had surgery twice this year, and trust me, I went to the BEST surgeon in the area even though he's known for being a socially awkward jerk. No complaints here, as his surgical skill was great. My other surgeon was amazing and compassionate in care, but I cared more that he came highly recommended as the best in his field, even though he was a socially awkward jerk.

I don't know about you, but I went to college with people who graduated and I wouldn't trust them to care for a pet rock, let alone a human being. Not requiring the GRE, not having weed out classes to get rid of the weak....that is a problem.

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I frankly dn't see any problem. Look it is very difficult to kill a patient. You have to be extremely reckless to actually kill someone. Care and compassion are the most important factors in being a good healthcare provider. The rest will come with muscle memory. Frankly, anyone can be trained to become a healthcare provider now with all of the resources that we have via the Internet.

Again, the studies have shown that NP programs are comparable or even better than MD programs+ residency in improving the overall health of patients. Even with lowering our standard, it is not as if we are recruiting incompetent folks. We are getting college graduates who are pursuing masters degrees.

This actually made me laugh! Next time a revise my CV I am gonna lead with care and compassion and state to an employer they should hire me because its hard to kill a patient..

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
This actually made me laugh! Next time a revise my CV I am gonna lead with care and compassion and state to an employer they should hire me because its hard to kill a patient..

And since hugs are free you can work for $45 an hour! :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Unfortunately it is all too easy to kill a pt!

We are on-boarding two NPs currently at our practice. Both come to us with 2 years NP experience and both are VERY sharp. They were only RNs for just 2-4 years prior to becoming NPs. They are both very competent to handle pts. They ask questions, look things up, study on their own time, have great attitudes and will benefit our practice and pts.

So - even though they are young (in their 20's-30's) they both have initiative and take full responsibility for their own education and orientation.

I think NPs whether old, young, experienced, inexperienced - its all about their attitude toward the profession as to how they will be perceived. Yes - there are those that barely squeak by, those that do the bare minimum but the majority do a great job and go above and beyond for their pts.

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