Making the decision to advance my career from RN to NP was not an easy decision or a quick decision. I started my nursing career in 2001 as a pediatric nurse in an inner city hospital on the west side of Chicago. It was an eye opening job for a 22 year old from the suburbs, but it was a great experience. After about a year, I moved on to a pediatric department in a community hospital which I stayed at for at least half of my RN career. I’ve been notorious to get antsy when it comes to doing the same thing for too long, so during my RN career I would switch between working weekender shifts, picking up PRN jobs, etc all to have a different experience.
Finally in 2010 I decided it was time to enhance my pediatric nursing career and I moved on to a major children’s hospital in Chicago. It was a great experience and opened my eyes to something I didn’t really see much in my community hospital, a lot of the new, young nurses were going to school to become nurse practitioners. I had a few collegues in my community hospital who went on to become nurse practitioners, but not at the same rate as the newer nurses I was now working with. I don’t know if it was the comfort of community hospital life that made the nurses there less likely to jump into a new career or if it was just the beginning of this change we are seeing a lot of in the nursing community, the push for advance degrees. I feel it is more likely the latter.
Now on to my decision to advance my career. It all started in 2012, after a few crazy days in one of the critical care units as a float nurse. I was tired and done and probably didn’t get home till after 9pm and decided bedside nursing was something I could not do for the rest of my life. So, with a glass of wine in hand (because sometimes a liquid dinner is all you need after a day like the one I had), I researched MSN programs. I love teaching and thought getting my MSN in Education would be a perfect fit. So I sent in some requests for information to several online nursing programs and 3 days later, I received a call from Chamberlain College of Nursing. A few day later, after a lot of consideration and discussion with my husband, I was all registered for Chamberlain’s MSN program on the educator track.
Halfway through my core courses, Chamberlain decided to offer an FNP program and I dove right in. My thought process on it was I can still teach if I want to, but I really do enjoy patient care and as an FNP, I would get the best of both worlds. I do not regret this decision for one minute! I have been working as an FNP now for 4 years and while I do not teach in a formal education setting, I often take FNP students under my wing in their clinical rotations. I remember what it was like trying to find clinical sites and it seems to be 100 times worse now, so I’ve made it a priority to help my fellow nurses out as often as possible.
So now, 18 years after my nursing career began, I can say I am 100% satisfied in the direction my career has taken. I would not trade all of those years of bedside nursing for the world and at the same time, I would not change the path I am currently in. No matter where you are in your nursing journey, you will hear a ton of differing opinions on how the transition from RN to NP should go, but really only you can make that determination yourself. Go for what you believe is best for your life and career and ignore the haters!
xoxo, Tara
That NP Mom 