I’m currently applying for an initial NP license and attended an out-of-state program, so the application requires the verification of pharmacology & NP program verification forms to be filled out by my programs Dean.

Has anyone had any issues submitting these documents using an e-signature? I’ve repeatedly called the CA BRN & emailed them, but have heard nothing back so far. I just want to make sure it’s allowed before having my school complete the documents.

I’ve also seen conflicting statements regarding certification verification. Does CA accept electronic verifications, or do I also have to fill out that form & send it to the ANCC to complete?

Thank you!

I have the opportunity to be the medical director for a small esthetician clinic. Mostly they just want to give Botox. I'm in an independent practice state. Anybody have experience with this?

Got accepted into NP school, starting in January. When around would my drug test be? As I am going back to see family for the holidays and they smoke more than chimneys. Thank you!

Anybody here work before the “patient portal” was a thing??? i’m like 30, been an NP for a few years and OMG what was it like when patients couldn’t send a message to your clinic about the most random things that have nothing to do with anything OR questions that are literal essays that require entire appointments to address. what was it like before this? did patients just go around screaming out in the streets??? how did the world just function everyday??? it’s hilarious the things i get sent. i don’t respond myself i just send a message to my MA and then they call or send a message back to the patient. it’s ridiculous lol who thought this would be helpful only way it’s helpful is to tell patients their labs are normal and that’s it. but seriously is there anyone who worked before and after patient portal? would love to hear your opinion

Happy NP Week, everyone! I posted 3 weeks ago asking for page members to share their salaries (see the pinned post in this group), and the response was incredible! I’ve tabulated some of the stats/averages and wanted to share them with everyone.

If you haven’t had a chance to fill out the questionnaire and want to add your salary/benefit info, here’s the link:

https://marit.fillout.com/t/vfyw8PEHj2us

As a reminder, the information functions on the give-to-get model, so once you submit your form you’ll get access to the entire database.

Hey there! I'm currently trying to contact the state DEA office about my questions but they're slow to respond. I was wondering if anyone here could help with some advice/guidance.

My DEA license renewal is up (must be done by the end of this month). I have a new job in another state starting the end of this month. Do I go ahead and renew in my current state or do I renew in the new state and then file a transfer application? I already have my license in the new state, along with a practice address and a supervising agreement. Is there anything I'm missing? Is there some other way to move forward?

I'd be greatful for any info, thanks so much!

Hello all. I've been a nurse practitioner in orthopedic trauma since I graduated. I love it, but had a job opportunity come up close to my wife's hometown which is an area we've been wantingnto move to. Also the hours are daytime m-f. However, it's as a hospitalist. In ortho we don't do too much in the way of traditional medicine. Anyone make a switch like this, and if so, what did you do to kind of get back up to speed? I have a few months before I start and would like to do some refreshing in the meantime.

I went back to school for FNP. Graduated and started travel nursing while studying for boards. I am looking in different states for jobs but it is abysmal right now with the job offerings and openings. Most places looking for new grads have horrible reviews from recent employees along with new NPs stating they are overworked and miserable. Along with that, many are paying less than bedside nurses make even with only 1-2 years of experience. There’s no training and almost all jobs that are classified as potentially good ones want you to have between 2-5 years of experience.

I’m at a loss. I regret going back to school and don’t feel confident about ever working as a NP in general. I felt like it was offered as a great career path with more money, better hours and work/life balance but so far over the past year everything I’ve seen or heard points otherwise.

Can someone help me believe again in this career path? I’m feeling so defeated.

I have been in my new grad role of absolute h3ll for 6 weeks now, and yesterday I found out that the pseudo hr never subbed my malpractice insurance ppwk. Should I be concerned?

Has anyone used Amilee Hollier to prep for Boards? Tell me the good, bad, etc. my school is requiring it.

Just looking for insight on day-to-day role.

Working in rough urgent care setting and had looked at this place for a possible position.

Hi friends!

I took my board exam on Oct 15th and submitted my IL APRN application/required documents on Oct 16th.

IDFPR hosts "IDFPR on the road" events (not sure how often), where you go and they basically fast track your license. They had three representatives and all I had to do was give them my driver's license, they looked me up, and they are in contact with the licensing team over in Springfield. They pushed my application through and I was able to get it in less than 10 minutes and take a picture of it. Showed up on my online portal a few hours later.

License in hand a little less than 4 weeks after applying! (would have been sooner had I known about these events!)

Get there EARLY!

Hope this helps!

Hi all-

I am looking to move out of my state and am looking to apply for aprn license in several other states. I’d like to start with telehealth at first.

There is a huge issue. I do not have an active RN license. I was told by my state (FL) that I didn’t need to continue to renew this and only had to renew my APRN license. I am now looking to apply in other states but they say online I need an active RN license?? I am so worried I will need to reapply and qualify for an RN license? Does anyone have any information if they have had this situation?

Hi everyone, quick question, for those of you who work or worked as a Hospitalist APP position, how many patients are usually allocated to you in a typical day? I got offered a new position—can’t give details here—but heard about 10/day.

I started NP school in 2022 but then paused it prior to starting clinical because I was travel nursing and didn’t have the capability to commit to a location for clinical then. Since then I have relocated and moved to Cali, but I have so hesitant to go back to school.

I feel like part of the reason if not being sure how to secure a preceptor but the major part of it is I actually have no idea what I want to do with the degree afterwards. I am in the Bay Area so I feel as if NPs don’t make much more than bedside and have so much more responsibility but maybe it’s worth it not being at bedside? What’s your pros and cons? One day I say yes I’m going to and then the next I’m not so sure!

I really want to sort my brain out because I really want to further my career but I am at a loss of where to go from here…

Hi all!!

I’m currently on track to start my Family NP program, but just attended a Neonatal NP informational session that really aligns a lot with what I wanna do.

FNP was always kind of the default for me. I previously worked in a primary care clinic with a bunch of FNPs and it was always a “duh” thing for me. But now that NNP is an option, I want to explore before I make a final decision.

Of course FNP and NNP job responsibilities are very different and I’m aware of some. I just wanna ask what are the pros and cons of both that you can identify (and ofc trying to stay as objective as possible…if at all possible)

Things to note:

• I’m not too worried about work-life balance. If there’s a will, there’s a way. Schedules are adjustable.
• Plan is to move back home to SF/Bay Area permanently after grad
• I’m pretty flexible at the moment with decision. Nothing holding me back (ie family, kids, etc)
• I have no RN experience aside from clinicals. I’m in an accelerated program that segues into MSN. And before you say anything about how new grad NPs should have rn experience before working as an NP, I wholeheartedly agree!!!!! My plans are to finish school, work bedside for a few years until I feel confident, then transition to NP. Any advice surrounding that would be nice too, but pls keep the judgement out.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer!!! 🫶🏻

Edited to add last bullet point

Hello all, I was laid off from my job with a company I was with for 18 years. My current job was telemedicine for the past five years (thanks Covid). I mainly focused on employee health and wellness, acute care and some chronic condition management. However, since being laid off 10 days ago, I’ve had several pre-interviews that make me seem unhireable. I haven’t sutured, splinted or done procedures in greater than 7 years. I don’t have peds experience except for being a mom and in school. I’m not sure what to do to sell myself at this point. I told the one company I’d be willing to do any hands on training for free to get caught up and still no bueno.

Any words of advice? Any tips or tricks?

I’m a family nurse practitioner by training but have done primary care and then employee health/wellness/occ med

Hi I’m graduating this May 2025 and feel underprepared as a budding psychnp. Both of my internships have largely been a lot of shadowing but not much hands on problem solving or even writing a note/sending in a script.

I’m nervous how under prepared I feel.

Are there practice books that present cases and give you suggestions about what/how to prescribe?

Edit: We learn about what/how to prescribe in school and I get some experience in my internship but I think I could be getting a lot more hands on experience and want to augment my education

Looking for some general advice and recommendations.

When looking at getting insurance credentialing for BCBS MA and Masshealth they are requiring an arrangement with a physician with admitting privileges to a local hospital … how do I go about finding someone

It's my second time testing, and it's not getting any easier. Maybe that is a good thing, but that test was absolutely brutal, and the pass rate is going down. It's the hardest test I've ever taken. I used the Sarah Michelle FNP study guide and did her question bank religiously. I also have the Leik book and did questions and "test hints" from that book. 1st time I took it, I thought I was doing well but still failed, albeit not by much. On my second attempt, I thought I failed it, but I passed. During the test, a wave of test anxiety hit me because I was getting hard question after question, and then I thought I was going to run out of time. Just breathe, know your stuff, and give it your best shot.

Z71.1- Person with feared health complaint which was not found

I work in Peds so we often have parents in bring kids for "just not sure if something is wrong, seem off," or "maybe pulling on ear, could it be an infection" and I have often used "teething syndrome" or "fussy baby" or "otalgia" in those cases depending what is going on.

But sometimes we have parents bring in a totally healthy kid for something like "I heard strep was going around and she is fine but I wanted to check if she has it because we are leaving for Disney in 2 days," etc. And I just realized I could use the code Z71.1 for "feared health complaint not found," aka. "Person is perfectly fine."

Super useful for me, thought it might be for you too

Hi, I have almost a decade of RN experience and almost 20 yrs of direct patient care. I’m preparing to graduate with my AGPCNP and want to apply for residencies. Does someone have an example of a new grad NP (or anticipated) resume I can see for an example? Has anyone seen a good example on LinkedIn?

20+ years nursing - 12 years now emergency mostly and primary health on the side. Post COVID emergency was bonkers. Seeing 20 odd patients daily but having to treat in corridors etc due to space. Left and went into urgent care but now seeing even more patients daily and working with medical officers content to see 11 patients over 10 hrs to my 30. I have ADHD and am medicated but I am done. I can’t work like this anymore and sick of 1) the workload inequality (especially as they make twice almost 3 times what I make and we see the same patient types) and 2) the lack of exec in addressing the issues. I could regulate my own workload but the nursing team depend on me to keep it flowing. I would feel bad about letting them down.

So now I am contemplating just getting up and moving to a remote primary health clinic in the outback. Away from friends and family - so a bit isolating - or dropping hours in urgent care and doing some private work (in Australia so Medicare has improved)

I am really unsure of what to do next. I know the status quo is not doable.

Hello everyone. I have started working at a Value Based Care clinic focusing on seniors a few months ago in an urban and underserved area. If you're familiar with the Value Based Care model, you know that it focuses more on the underserved population. My particular clinic serves primarily an African American and Hispanic community. Most of the staff including the Center Medical Director and Practice Manager are black. I am not, which considers me the minority race. This is something that I was ok with. I was looking forward to working with the underserved population because they need it the most.

I love most of my patients. They're for the most part thankful and tries hard to be compliant with healthcare advice. There's not as much to be said with the staff. The MAs are incentivized for completing "quality" measures such as retinavue, FIT card, creyos (long memory) test etc. They focus so much time on that with the patients that it gets me so behind. A lot of my visits are 20 or 40 minute slots depending on the visit type. I have tried the focus for each patient and not to complete all the "quality" tasks if we have back-to-back patients. Unfortunately she does not listen to me. She still does what she wants to do. Our clinic closes at 5 and at around 4 pm, there's still 3 patients to see. Instead of the MA being aware of the time, she continued to do her own agenda. I lost my patience today and I finally just walked in and started the visit so that I won't be behind. There are other things that she does like make up vital signs, including temperature and weight. Today, when patient had URI symptoms, the vital signs sheets stated she was afebrile, but I went ahead and checked the temperature again and she had a low grade fever. Another issue was that she put in the wrong weight, putting 20 lbs more in the vital signs sheet for a person with heart failure. I was about to change his treatment regimen because I didn't want his HF to get worse. We have Gchat groups that I specifically have her and another support staff person in it. I noticed she disappeared off the group chat and blocked me from adding her back again. I have delegated tasks for her to do through the chart, only for her to send it back without any action.

I have voiced these concerns with the management over and over again, and they have stated that it's my responsibility to make sure the vitals are correct and I should give the MA a break. They think me giving the MA constructive criticism is "condescending" and that I do not have respect for their culture. Tomorow there will be a meeting with me, the practice manager, the MA and the center manager. I doubt anything will be resolved because they will probably side with the MA. How can I get my point across tomorrow? I really need help.

I currently work at a large university hospital. They offer a 2-year dermatology fellow wherein you work alongside the derm residents. It's about 80% clinical and 20% didactic. We get drained in dermoscopy, suturing, procedures, and obviously general derm. At the end of the program, we're able to sit for the Dermatology Certified NP exam.

The only downside is the salary is atrocious to start. First year is 66K, second year is 75K, any position after is 105K with no incentives (rigid university tiered salary system). My plan would be to finish the fellowship then go work in a private practice where I could make more money. Does the salary seem absurdly low to the point where I should just wait it out and try to find a private practice who will take on a new grad? I currently make 120K is hospital medicine.Seeking opinions on dermatology fellowship offer.

I don’t really know the point of this - I guess I just need to talk this out. I am a new nurse practitioner, second month on the job. Just had an absolutely terrifying experience with a patient regarding controlled substances. Knives were involved, cops called, glass was broken- it was a mess.

I can’t do this. I have no idea what I am going to do. I’m now scared for my safety here and at home. This sucks. I made such a mistake.

Hello, I Hope everyone is doing well and I appologise for the length in advance. I am technical college student currently getting my associates in Applied Sciences. I've known I wanted to go into healthcare because I come from a medical family (some are or were EMTs, medics, nurses, scrub tech) and I have a love for medical science in general. Recently after talking to my advisor I've narrowed it down to either Nurse Pactitioner or Physician Assistant. But according to my advisor I need to pick one because I'll need to change my major to ADN for the NP (or stay in AAS for PA) so I the credits I earn apply to the degree I get. Ive tried asking my family but they all basically said "they can't speak on careers they don't work".

Also while looking into how to become a NP I've seen that most people work as a nurse for a while before going into a NP program and getting their MSN. I'm aware I have to get my BSN before all of that, that being said some hospitals in my region offer programs where they pay for your ADN to BSN education while you work there. So I would get good clinical experience and have it to where I can go straight into a NP program after getting my BSN.

So the questions I have are;

1. How/why did you chose to be a NP?
2. Pros/cons you've experienced?
3. Is the second paragraph a good way to get my career most efficiently if I go that route?

Any further advice or comments would be appreciated!

Hi, I have this vision about opening a women’s health resource center in an RV. It would provide birth control, pregnancy test, possibly quick ultrasound etc . Pls, is this a good idea or should I forget it.

Thanks. Any input will be appreciated.

Hey team!

We get a lot of questions about selecting a program, what its like to be an NP, how to balance school and work, etc. Because of that, we have a repeating thread every two weeks.

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ALL questions pertaining to anything pre-licensure need to go in this thread. You may also have good luck using the search function to see if your question has been asked before.