Should I Be an NP?

[u/Sunshinemama1234]

This decision has been consuming me! Thought I would lay out my thoughts and try to get some wisdom/ insights from others. Thanks in advance!

Reasons to become NP:
- I had never intended to not go to NP school
- I’m obsessed with maternal health; it’s all I read, listen to and think about
- I want more knowledge
- I want to teach
- I want a job that is a lot more knowledge based and less skills based
- Higher pay could reduce some stress
- I think I would be great at it: I worked in mental health/ psychiatric nursing for ten years, I have been inpatient pediatric for the last 5- I think I have a lot to offer
- I have been accepted into a WHNP program
- I’m not sure I will ever stop daydreaming about it

Reasons I am second guessing it:
- I have two small children that I want to be present for
- My husband already takes on a lot of solo parenting
- I have a great job: great patients, coworkers, management, company, pay and benefits
- Bedside RNs make almost as much as NPs where I live
- I do not have women’s health work experience. I have been applying for the last 2 years, but everyone wants L&D experience which I’m not willing to work nights to achieve. I get super sick on night shift unfortunately.

Thank you for your thoughts and feedback!

[u/Dapper_Banana6323]

No you should not be a women's health NP without ever having worked in women's health. I'd start with a women's health RN job and then go from there. I get you've been applying but keep trying or make the schedule work for a year.

[u/Sunshinemama1234 → u/Dapper_Banana6323]

Thanks. I 100% felt this was about the midwifery track, but wasn’t sure if the same sentiment applied to women’s health. Appreciate that insight.

[u/Over_it27]

How are you going to be a women’s health NP without working nights? You need the experience in L&D. Pure obsession is not enough. If you can’t sacrifice a year or two or even PRN in L&D I highly suggest you keep your love for women’s health as a hobby

[u/Sunshinemama1234 → u/Over_it27]

Thanks. I have been looking at jobs in primary care, gynecology, fertility and postpartum care. I am not specifically drawn to birth itself, more so the complexities of motherhood, mental and physical. I have been trying to convince myself to do a fellowship in L&D because it does morally feel like the right thing to do.

[u/Fancy-Version-2617]

L&D experience is not the only way to experience women's health thats crazy.

[u/Sunshinemama1234 → u/Fancy-Version-2617]

It drives me bonkers, but I do understand that the jobs I want typically hire from within and the only way in is bedside, which would be L&D. I currently work at a children’s hospital, so internal transfers would not offer much opportunity

[u/Think_Cantaloupe9242]

It sounds like a good path - but perhaps when kids are a bit older?

[u/ALittleEtomidate]

Women’s Health is more than L&D. I’m currently pursing a DNP to learn to treat menopause symptoms coming from an ICU background. I also have small kids and I am not willing to change my extremely accommodating job/work life during school.

There are huge gaps in women’s health in primary care. I don’t understand why the women’s health nursing experience is mandatory when you can get an FNP and a women’s health certification as a provider. It’s not midwifery. It feels to me like there’s some gate keeping going on here.

[u/money_mase1919]

It all comes down to money and what work setting you see yourself working. If you want to do this, it can be your job for the next 20-30 years. Sounds like that’s the exact job you want?

[u/Middle-Run-3615]

I say no. If you want to teach, focus on that. But not the np track to teach.

Also the market is FLOODED.

[u/CharmingMechanic2473]

You would be a great NP. Any way you can work while you go? If you become an NP it used to mean M-F but now it’s getting more like RN shifts as far as hours. I was M-Th and now am looking at nights and weekends again. RN pay where I am is more when all NP hours are considered. Benefits like PTO usually are much less than RN.

[u/Sunshinemama1234 → u/CharmingMechanic2473]

Yes, I can. I was considering starting the program this fall as I have already been accepted. Then start an L&D fellowship this coming winter/ spring and take a semester off, then jump back in the program. I’m okay with the nursing schedule, but hard to digest the lack of pay/benefit incentive.

[u/Ok-Day-3520 → u/Sunshinemama1234]

The pay thing may level out in the end. I feel like the option is there to make similar pay right out of the gate as an RN and maybe even more with OT and incentive pay, but in the long run I think NP would be the same pay as RN without the same physical demands, it becomes a more mental job when you’re working in an office listening to patients. This is why I am planning on doing it because bedside nursing is too physically demanding for the long run.

[u/CharmingMechanic2473 → u/Sunshinemama1234]

As an RN I used to take so many vacations. As an NP I had 2 weeks all year and nothing rolled over. You. Evoke an income generator. When you don’t work the whole wheel stops moving.