My Nurse Practitioner Journey

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

Welcome to My Blog

So, I’ve decided to start a blog….great idea in my head, but I definitely am on the struggle bus as to how to start my first post. So, I think I am just going to start by introducing myself and telling the world what I am all about.


My name is Tara and I am a mom, wife, and family nurse practitioner. That’s an easy enough start, right? I think so, but the little voice in my head isn’t 100% sure and then I have a little voice upstairs looking for me and wondering what we are going to do today on my day off. I’ll deal with the second voice in a minute, but let’s focus on that first voice.


The first voice, the one in my head, wants me to tell you all about why I chose to write a blog. I definitely am not a writer. I mean personally, I have always despised writing. I say that because all the writing I really know is grad school papers in APA format. I despise APA format!! At least I know no one is grading my blog post, though hopefully, someone is reading it!


Anyways, back to why I chose to write a blog. I often read posts in nurse practitioner groups about RNs who want to go back for their advanced degrees but at the same time either have a family or want to start a family and they question whether or not it is the right time to go back to school. Should they hold off starting a family until they are done with school? Should they wait till their kids are older? Are they able to continue working full time or should they go part-time or PRN? Do I have all the answers to all of these questions? No, not really, but I can talk about my experience and hopefully that helps others in their decision making.


My other goal with this blog is to show that no matter how “Instagram perfect” other moms may want you to believe their lives are, the reality is that most of us are a hot mess express trying to keep it all together. I mean there may very well be moms who do have it all together, but most moms I know are facing some struggle in doing all the things they think they need to do to raise happy, healthy, well-rounded kids, having a happy relationship with their significant other, keeping the house in order, and maintaining a successful career (whether it be outside of the home or not). Maybe just maybe I can give some sort of insight to let you know you are not alone.


Lastly, I will throw in some tidbits helpful to both the new and experienced NP. Being a nurse practitioner means you are always learning and I know the importance of sharing learned experiences with others. That is how I work with my colleagues and I hope to share those learned experiences with you.


Well, it is now time for me to get to that second voice and get him ready for the day. So sit back, grab a glass of your favorite beverage (personally I’m a coffee in the morning, wine in the evening kinda gal), and enjoy some light reading.

xo, Tara