Guidance for a Nontrad

[sarjasy]

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Would very much appreciate any guidance/advice any of you can provide. I'm 34, in I.T. and looking to make a career change. Have always been strongly drawn to healthcare. I'm working through my options now and have begun taking prereqs. I've considered Pharmacy and Optometry and have mostly ruled both out for various reasons. I'd have to say what I'm most drawn to is primary care, so am now investigating PA and NP.

The PA training is appealing to me in that it's rigourous and medical school like and seems to approach primary care more like a physician (though I don't want to be a physician ). The BSN-FNP is appealing to me on the other hand because I wouldn't have to move and NP's are much more common where I live than PA's, meaning finding employment would be easier (or so I assume).

I do have concerns about the NP, though. First, I'm grateful to nurses and have the utmost respect for them, but I'm just not cut out for some of the work they do. As an NP, I wouldn't be doing some of that work (at least I don't think so), but I'd have to become an RN before I can be an NP, so I will have to do some of it. Secondly, there's the stigma of nursing as a female profession, and well, I'm not a female.

My concerns about the PA route are that admissions seems to be much more competitive (about 10-12% acceptance at the schools I'm looking at), meaning that me walking away from my career that I have now to finish prereqs full-time (to be more competitive and finish faster) is a huge risk (what if I'm not accepted?). Also, I just haven't seen any PA's in my area, making me wonder about the job market for them here.

Just needing some guidance. I'd love to hear any opinions, thoughts, experiences or advice you may have...

Edit: Just noticed this forum is for practicing RN/NP/PA's. Feel free to move if you need to moderators. Also, as to the work that RN's do, I'm talking about the intensely personal aspect of nursing care. Just don't know if I'd be any good at that.

 

[Salamandrina]

Would very much appreciate any guidance/advice any of you can provide. I'm 34, in I.T. and looking to make a career change. Have always been strongly drawn to healthcare. I'm working through my options now and have begun taking prereqs. I've considered Pharmacy and Optometry and have mostly ruled both out for various reasons. I'd have to say what I'm most drawn to is primary care, so am now investigating PA and NP.

I have a classmate that is 35 from IT and doing the BSN now, then he is going to transition to the NP. Not unheard of. The oldest woman in our program is in her 60s. I am in my 30s myself. There are also a lot of young new grads, but I think there is a surprising number of adults that are changing careers.

I do have concerns about the NP, though. First, I'm grateful to nurses and have the utmost respect for them, but I'm just not cut out for some of the work they do. As an NP, I wouldn't be doing some of that work (at least I don't think so), but I'd have to become an RN before I can be an NP, so I will have to do some of it. Secondly, there's the stigma of nursing as a female profession, and well, I'm not a female.

To do the clinical practice you need for the BSN and the MSN, you will need to do some of the things that I think you won't like (I am imagining bed pans, and bed baths here but maybe there is something else you have in mind). I don't know what to tell you about the stigma. Yes, it is there. Yes, people may call you a "murse," but as with women in many of the typically male professions, the only way I know of to change the gender association of a career is to get more gender integration into it. And really, you need to have a level of confidence to be an NP anyway. You will be diagnosing and prescribing. If you can't stand up for your career choice, I have no advice for you. In my program, there are 120 students, only 8 of whom are male. You will be out numbered.

My concerns about the PA route are that admissions seems to be much more competitive (about 10-12% acceptance at the schools I'm looking at), meaning that me walking away from my career that I have now to finish prereqs full-time (to be more competitive and finish faster) is a huge risk (what if I'm not accepted?). Also, I just haven't seen any PA's in my area, making me wonder about the job market for them here.

I can't speak to this. I respect PAs and think they do good work. I don't know about the job offers they have.

Just needing some guidance. I'd love to hear any opinions, thoughts, experiences or advice you may have...

Edit: Just noticed this forum is for practicing RN/NP/PA's. Feel free to move if you need to moderators. Also, as to the work that RN's do, I'm talking about the intensely personal aspect of nursing care. Just don't know if I'd be any good at that.

Just to tell you why I chose an NP route (though I am not going direct like I originally thought I would, I still know I will get there) I like the idea of practicing under my own license. On the other hand, if you are fascinated by surgery, then PA is a better route for you.

Sounds like you have some soul searching to do. We all do really. I right now am trying to decide where to get my professional experience before I go back to Grad School. You have 50% of the people saying you need to start on a Med/Surg floor and the other 50% saying to start where you love (which for me is Peds).

Anyway,

 

[bryanboling5]

Would very much appreciate any guidance/advice any of you can provide. I'm 34, in I.T. and looking to make a career change. Have always been strongly drawn to healthcare. I'm working through my options now and have begun taking prereqs. I've considered Pharmacy and Optometry and have mostly ruled both out for various reasons. I'd have to say what I'm most drawn to is primary care, so am now investigating PA and NP.

The PA training is appealing to me in that it's rigourous and medical school like and seems to approach primary care more like a physician (though I don't want to be a physician ). The BSN-FNP is appealing to me on the other hand because I wouldn't have to move and NP's are much more common where I live than PA's, meaning finding employment would be easier (or so I assume).

I do have concerns about the NP, though. First, I'm grateful to nurses and have the utmost respect for them, but I'm just not cut out for some of the work they do. As an NP, I wouldn't be doing some of that work (at least I don't think so), but I'd have to become an RN before I can be an NP, so I will have to do some of it. Secondly, there's the stigma of nursing as a female profession, and well, I'm not a female.

My concerns about the PA route are that admissions seems to be much more competitive (about 10-12% acceptance at the schools I'm looking at), meaning that me walking away from my career that I have now to finish prereqs full-time (to be more competitive and finish faster) is a huge risk (what if I'm not accepted?). Also, I just haven't seen any PA's in my area, making me wonder about the job market for them here.

Just needing some guidance. I'd love to hear any opinions, thoughts, experiences or advice you may have...

Edit: Just noticed this forum is for practicing RN/NP/PA's. Feel free to move if you need to moderators. Also, as to the work that RN's do, I'm talking about the intensely personal aspect of nursing care. Just don't know if I'd be any good at that.

Well, I'm 32 (almost 33, but I won't say it until I have to!) and I'm in nursing school. I'm not the oldest person in my class (as I feared I would be). I'm also a guy. I'm not the only guy in my class either. Out of 120, I think there are only about 20 guys. I've not noticed a stigma so much as I am...unique. I just finished an OB rotation and much to my pleasant surprise, I did not have ONE woman refuse to let me observe/help with her delivery. I actually got more experience than most of my classmates because I sought out the opportunities. I did have one woman on my previous Med-Surg rotation refuse to let me give her flu shot - she was ok with a student, just not a MALE student (if you don't know, the flu shot goes in your arm...)

I did the same thing you're doing with going back and forth between nursing and PA. I really leaned towards PA (for a lot of the same reasons you mentioned) but ended up going this way because I eventually want to be a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. There are PAs who work in the NICU, but NNPs are by far more common.

I think that the job market plays a big role. If you want to do primary care, I don't know that NP vs PA either offers you an advantage unless where you are prefers one or the other. For a lot of PA programs (and there are PA folks here who can speak to this better), some sort of experience is required. If not required, almost every place prefers it.

A lot of nursing is not a lot of fun. I don't look at it as something I have to "get through" though. I'm sure that I'll learn lot as a nurse. Every job has it's down sides, it's just a matter of whether or not the downsides are a deal breaker.

I decided that I'd like nursing whether or not I ended up going on the the NNP role by working with nurses. I was a CNA/Tech in two major hospitals and worked in several environments while I was in college the first time around. I saw what it was really like - upsides and downsides - and decided I liked the upsides enough to put up with the downsides.

So, I don't know if any of that helped or not, but I hope it did. Look at where you want to go - what is the end goal. Now figure out the best way to get there. If the best way turns out to be NP and you have to put up with some crappy parts of being an RN along the way, will you really mind?

Good luck,
bryan

 

[oldManDO2009]

I am an RN and was an RN when it was not cool to be one and got a lot of gender comments. I am now in medical school but have worked with a lot of PA's and NP's.

my 2 cents;

There are a lot on NP programs out there and they vary GREATLY in the kind of education they provide and how successful you will be in finding a job after completing one of these programs also varies greatly. It is not unheard of for a nurse with an FNP to be working as a floor nurse because she/he does not have the experience physicians are looking for. These on-line degree programs have caused a lot of concern about the quality of education and the set up your own clinical experience is shady at best. try allnurses.com for more info on this subject.

EVERY PA I have worked with appeared at least ready to manage patients. I have worked with some great ones who were really experienced and able to manage what ever walked into the door and of course new PA's that were wet behind the ears and needed more guidance. The education that PA's go through is consistent, far more rigorous and I think better prepares the PA to start off day one as a mid-level provider.

I have looked at many of the NP programs as a nurse interested in getting my FNP but had serious concerns about the science preparation and content of the "core" courses. I did not think a year of "advanced" patho and pharm prepared me for patient management - so I went to medical school.

I will get flamed for the biased opinion - I just flat out think PA's are better prepared. Now I am sure there are some IVY league programs out there that graduate excellent FNP's but that is not the majority of FNP's I have had experience with. The FNP's I had worked with went to part time on-line programs with mixed clinical experiences. Many set up their own rotations which consisted of mostly family practice, so there was little exposure to surgery, internal medicine, OB, etc. I will hear that nursing school does all this and blah, blah, blah....That is an over rated argument - I went through nursing school and it prepared me to be was a nurse not a mid-level provider.

Anyway, if you do not like some of the stuff nurses have to do then go to PA school - you will be glad in the end that you did and avoided the I am an FNP working on the floor dilemma.

 

[princekc]

I am an RN and was an RN when it was not cool to be one and got a lot of gender comments. I am now in medical school but have worked with a lot of PA's and NP's.

my 2 cents;

There are a lot on NP programs out there and they vary GREATLY in the kind of education they provide and how successful you will be in finding a job after completing one of these programs also varies greatly. It is not unheard of for a nurse with an FNP to be working as a floor nurse because she/he does not have the experience physicians are looking for. These on-line degree programs have caused a lot of concern about the quality of education and the set up your own clinical experience is shady at best. try allnurses.com for more info on this subject.

EVERY PA I have worked with appeared at least ready to manage patients. I have worked with some great ones who were really experienced and able to manage what ever walked into the door and of course new PA's that were wet behind the ears and needed more guidance. The education that PA's go through is consistent, far more rigorous and I think better prepares the PA to start off day one as a mid-level provider.

I have looked at many of the NP programs as a nurse interested in getting my FNP but had serious concerns about the science preparation and content of the "core" courses. I did not think a year of "advanced" patho and pharm prepared me for patient management - so I went to medical school.

I will get flamed for the biased opinion - I just flat out think PA's are better prepared. Now I am sure there are some IVY league programs out there that graduate excellent FNP's but that is not the majority of FNP's I have had experience with. The FNP's I had worked with went to part time on-line programs with mixed clinical experiences. Many set up their own rotations which consisted of mostly family practice, so there was little exposure to surgery, internal medicine, OB, etc. I will hear that nursing school does all this and blah, blah, blah....That is an over rated argument - I went through nursing school and it prepared me to be was a nurse not a mid-level provider.

Anyway, if you do not like some of the stuff nurses have to do then go to PA school - you will be glad in the end that you did and avoided the I am an FNP working on the floor dilemma.

oldManDO2009: you're a very honest men!

 

[Febrifuge]

There's been a lot of good advice here; I'll add what little is unique to my situation.

I'm 37 now, and I was 34 or so when I decided to chuck my previous career (customer service-type stuff for an Internet company) for healthcare. I went through the whole decision-making process, considering everything you've mentioned, and wound up in PA school after a stint as an ER tech. The tech role was nice because I could do it part-time for over a year, before I quit my day job.

For me, the deal was that the ED turned out to be the perfect kind of a working environment, and much like yourself, I eventually concluded that many of the RN tasks were things that I would grow to dislike. I got my experience and point of view in a very busy, academic, inner-city Level One Trauma hospital ED, so that skews everything. The nurses ranged from fairly decent to utterly amazing; the smartest and most capable people I know are RNs, hands down (followed closely by the faculty docs who write textbook chapters and do research).

But after a couple of years seeing everyone do their thing, I decided that I could become a good nurse, but not an excellent one. The ways in which it's a tough job are ways in which I am limited in how much I can improve, and the ways in which it's an awesome job are things that don't motivate and inspire me as much as I might have thought. And this is important because, as you say, if you're going to be an FNP (or any other flavor of NP), you need to put in your time as an RN.

And yes, I know there are programs that can accelerate and shorten the time you spend as a floor nurse on the way to NP-hood, but in my opinion too much shortcutting there only hurts you as a provider, and of course your patients.

I was pretty convinced I could get into med school, and through med school, but at my age and with my disposition, I was also fairly confident that the absurd work hours and political/ departmental nonsense of residency would get to me. I really just want to treat sick people, and don't care about a lot of the other "doctor stuff" that makes the whole grueling experience worth it for a lot of people. When I discovered that PAs existed, it all got a lot clearer.

Since I'm at a school where there is also a four-year med school, I have been amused and frustrated to note that on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis, this PA program is way more intense than this MD program. Especially as an older student, I just don't have the stamina, the relative lack of other responsibilities, or the study habits of my 23-year-old, just-finished-undergrad classmates. But the program is of course much shorter than med school, and it's just one more quarter now until we're in clinical rotations. It's do-able for us older students, but it hurts.