Is Nurse Practitioner School Worth It? My Honest Experience After Graduation

What's up guys welcome to the nurse nook if you're new here welcome My name is alexis nicole and I make videos all about nursing lifestyle and wellness As y'all can tell by the title of this video. I graduated my np program Like round of applause for myself y'all. I am so Not only relieved but proud of myself that I got through this. This is like Probably one of the hardest things I have done outside of my first round of nursing school, so I'm gonna give myself my flowers and take some time to really just appreciate the hard work I've put in doing this program so to get into the nitty-gritty if y'all are new here I spent the last two and a half years in a neonatal nurse practitioner program. So that program was a master's program some np programs and crna programs require a DNp or rdnp specific meaning you're getting your doctorate. I personally took the msn route Mainly because the school closest to me offered only an msn program And for what I want to do in my career with my np I did not feel that getting the doctorate was worth it or applicable to what I want to do moving forward So that is just a little tidbit on why I went the msn route So I have been a registered nurse in 20 since 2017 So the only reason I went into nursing school was to become a neonatal nurse practitioner So things have come full circle for me And if you have been here since the beginning, you know that my journey took a much different path than I was expecting so like I mentioned previously I Started school nursing school only because I wanted to work in the NICU specifically to become a neonatal nurse practitioner Well when I went to nursing school, I started learning all about adult care Er care and I knew that if I specialized in NICU right off the bat I would lose all of those skills and never get to try anything else because I knew I was going to be in NICU forever so in nursing school, I Became interested in other things and I started off my journey in an adult er which was totally Freaking crazy like very high stress job I was there for about a year and then I decided to move states once moving states I was at that point where i'm like, okay, I want to get into the NICU But at that point it was hard for me to go from er to the NICU Um, so the best option at that time was to go to a pediatric Er, which was in a hospital that also had a NICU so I figured it'd be an easy transition to go from er Uh, sorry pediatric er to NICU because you know Peds kids babies same thing and i'd be able to transfer within the hospital system after I got a little bit of experience though there So every time I get on this camera, I feel like my english just ceases to exist and I start developing speech impediments I just get too excited to share my story with you guys Long story short i'm in the er for about a year the pediatric er for about a year and i'm itching to get in to NICU I really enjoyed my experience in the pediatric er I was actually working with my then boyfriend now fiance in the pediatric er. I built amazing friendships. So I Was initially going in with the intention that I would only be here for a couple months and then go but I actually really really Enjoyed it And by the time I was ready to like, okay, let's get the show on the road I have goals to hit covid hit and everywhere went on a hiring freeze And I really just didn't want to be in Not in a NICU longer than I had to be because I knew I needed a certain amount of experience to get into the NP program So from er, I went to postpartum only because at that time that was really the only place that was hiring And I was just itching to get out of the er And I wanted to do something that was closer to NICU and postpartum if you're not familiar is much More applicable to NICU because you're dealing directly with newborn babies and you can get your newborn Assessment skills up in that environment that can help you in your NICU skills So after being in postpartum for about five months I finally got the opportunity to get into the NICU and that is when my whole journey to NP started before I get more into The nitty-gritty of the NP program. 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I always always recommend it to everyone as a visual learner I just absolutely love resources like this If you guys want to give pic monic a try there will be a discount link down in the description box below so starting in the NICU I Started in the NICU and immediately I knew My next step was to start looking at what I need to get into my NP program So after being in the NICU for about a year, I was able to apply for my NP program Now you do need two years of NICU experience specifically to get into most programs And I had one year at the time But how I sold it in my letter was how applicable my skills that i've gained over the years in er postpartum and pediatric er and how that would be relevant to NICU and also by the time I started clinicals I would have two years of experience. So the first year and a half of the program was really just gen eds patho Pharmacology nursing policy theory all those classes So I wasn't actually doing any clinicals in the hospital which is why I was able to start before having the two years of experience because I wasn't actually In clinicals with direct patient contact until I reached that two years i'm going to be very blunt with you the first year and a half of the program was honestly quite easy I was not in clinicals. All of my work was online. I really ever didn't have to go to Campus, which is an hour away from me hour and some change depending on traffic. It really was just doing discussion boards doing group projects, which Do not get me started the group projects were a pain in the butt. Oh my gosh I despise group work in A graduate program, but that's neither here nor there Um, it started picking up a little bit once I started getting into my patho and farm classes That was when I started having more exams Before it was just like papers and things like that things that really didn't affect my schedule. I could do it in my free time Um, I honestly didn't realize I was in school For that time I knew I was in school But I say that to say it didn't really affect the flow of my life. I was still able to take trips I was still able to hang out. I never really missed out on functions Unless I had to like study the day before an exam I really was able to just live my regular life Which is why I feel like a lot of people say like oh my gosh I feel like your program flew by because it really wasn't until the last year of school that it Really seemed like I was in school. So the first year and a half which is the first Four semesters my program was a total of two and a half years seven semesters long first year and a half great So the last year of my program, which is this past year 2024 Is when I actually started my clinicals the way that my school orchestrated this program is it was Straight didactic and then the last three semesters were clinical And clinical is the part of the program that started making a woman out of me y'all I always say like this nmp program has made a woman out of me. It has really Tested my patience my confidence my abilities my belief in myself Like all of the above and to be transparent. I also found myself comparing myself quite often to other classmates in my program mainly because I have Pretty much. I believe there was one other student that had like similar experience to me but out of the whole program I had like the least amount of NICU experience and so Just based off of years in the NICU. I felt that a lot of people around me just simply knew more about neonatology And that made me feel really insecure because I was like I should know More I should you know, I should be past this or I should be doing that and i'm just gonna say that is a very very unhealthy way of thinking Everyone learns at their own pace. Everyone's on their own journey. I have to I had to keep reminding myself like Alexis, they have years and years of experience on you There is no reason why you should be at their level You will get there eventually you learn these things over time You can't expect to have one-fifth the experience and have all the same knowledge and tidbits You're not being fair to yourself And so this is how I had to speak to myself essentially through this program to build myself up It wasn't only that once I got into the clinical setting That is what really really made me realize like okay. This is serious Being a neonatal nurse practitioner is very very intimidating if you're not too familiar with what we do I can just quickly walk you through my day as a student So I get in there about two to two and a half hours before rounds I go through all of my patients charts and get numbers which means i'm looking at vital signs for the past 24 hours I'm looking at eyes and nose I'm looking at the plan of care and i'm coming up with a head to toe Note to present to the neonatologist In rounds and that is the most Nerve-wracking thing I have ever partaken in essentially every day is a Performance I am in front of a medical team and I am reading off of my plan of care That I just made in the morning off of however many patients and I am presenting Numbers i'm presenting My assessment and presenting what i'd like to do for this patient today, for example I can say okay. This is a you know, 500 gram baby We're on simb volume guarantee Our total volume is five per kilo peep of five rate of 35 our gas this morning was seven two five sixty two I'd like to take our rate up to 35 And start some lasix on this baby the x-ray from this morning looked a little bit Consistent with pulmonary edema. So blah blah blah blah And you have to through each section Is like that and it's very intimidating because it's a huge jump from bedside nursing to where i'm just Listening to the team round and i'm just reading back the orders When you have to be the one to make your assessment put together a plan And present the plan to sometimes it's not only neonatologist, but there's other nurse practitioners on the team There's dieticians there's pharmacists all the bedside nurses are there as A baby student that is so ******* intimidating you guys so that is why I say this program made a woman out of me because I have learned to kind of push through those Really insecure moments and mind you you're a student. You don't know as much as a neonatologist at that point Nor I don't know if I will ever know more than my neonatologist Hopefully not because that is who i'm working under so they should always know a little bit more than me but as a student knowing a lot of times i'm like, I don't know what i'm doing and so It was just very very Humbling to be in that position Where you feel essentially vulnerable and open and you're presenting a plan. It's like I don't know if this plan is right of course you Consult with your preceptor and if something is wildly off they're going to be like, okay No, let's do this instead or like what about this? But still being able to kind of facilitate that and put that all together and present it is definitely something that was You know eye-opening for me for me clinical was the most difficult part of this program This last semester was a beast because I had to complete 32 clinical shifts in This four month semester, which is honestly more like three months Um, so I had to take pto Every single week I worked about one max two days a week um For my last semester just be just to be able to complete all of those clinical shifts because it would have been impossible Without that or I would have been in the hospital seven days a week If not now I am part-time i've been part-time this whole program, but even with my part-time hours To be able to make the on-campus days to be able to complete all my clinical days Be available on days to take exams and have like at least one to two days to study prior to exam That was really the only way that I could get through that. Um without Mentally crumbling so I would say this semester this past semester was definitely the hardest semester of this entire program Which makes me so much even more so relieved that this program is done But in all do I think np school is worth it. I have not started working yet. So i'm just going to use my experience So far that I have seen in school and tidbits. I have learned along the way I would say confidently np school is worth it if if You know exactly what you want to go into I have come across a lot of people that feel that Np school is just the next step they have to take, you know, they want to further their career They don't really know what to do. So they feel like going to np school Is just the next The next thing on the list without really having any direction I think if you don't have any direction and you're just doing np school to do it. I don't recommend Moving forward with that decision np school is not only a lot of money. It's a lot time commitment And there are some jobs that are not that much better paying than bedside nursing I'm, very fortunate in the fact that neonatal nurse practitioners Are among the highest paid nps out there? I mentioned this before but i've already accepted a job offer more on that in another video and what my salary is compared to my bedside salary is Significantly, uh increased so for me Just off of the salary. I think it's definitely worth it. I think the autonomy I get as a nurse practitioner I think that's worth it I think that being able to challenge myself and being the one doing the Brain work as far as looking at the overall picture making a plan of care tweaking vent settings tweaking medications Being able to follow the patient's care tweaking the tpn and seeing how that presents I really enjoy that part of it and I really like taking more Of course my patient load is a lot more because i'm not at the bedside but I really enjoy looking at patients on my aerial view and being able to tweak things and see how that pans out so I feel like as a practitioner I use my brain a lot more than I do my body like at the end of A clinical day i'm mentally really exhausted whereas when i'm working bedside physically I am exhausted because i'm like running back and forth, you know, i'm on the ground Doing vital signs assessments doing touch times every couple of hours. I don't really have that experience as a provider It's a lot of like mentally running versus like physically running if that makes sense all in all in my program I would say it was challenging mainly because of the clinical aspect I think For me the clinical aspect did put a lot of stress on my work-life balance and I feel that my ability to You know have free time be active work on my fitness goals be able to maintain friendships Have time to be with my fiancee at home Uh, just do like normal random things that definitely was Not as flexible for me this past year mainly this past semester So I do think you have to really really Know that this is something that you want to do before moving forward. It is a time commitment. It is a money commitment I think if you're not passionate and know exactly what you want to do with this degree I don't know that it would be worth it for everybody But if you know, you want to go into aesthetics if you know, you want to be in a pediatrician's office You know, you want to work monday through friday don't want to work weekends You don't want to be in the hospital like, you know, this is what you want Absolutely 1000 I say that np school is so worth it But you have to know that that's what you want for yourself I think this program has really made me a better person. It's made me more confident It has made me more knowledgeable. It has opened doors for me I'm able to sit at the big kids table now with the attendings the nurse practitioners I get invited to educational dinners. I feel that moving forward in this program has really really Unlocked a door to my life and at the very beginning I was questioning it This is something I had wanted for quite some time Um right before I got into the program, however, I had another opportunity that was social media related and it was either one or the other and I couldn't do both and I Really really sat with the decision like am I sure I want to do np? Am I sure I want to be in the nikki in the hospital forever? And I really really just have to say i'm so so glad I went forward with this decision This program for me has really been life-changing in the fact that you know, i've seen some of my lowest lows During this time and I was able to push through that and come out a lot stronger on the other end I feel that it really built me up confidence wise my ability to assert myself in a professional setting and be professional and Just have more respect for myself if I knew at the beginning of this program what I know now and my experience I would still do it all over again So I hope that answers your question if np school is worth it. Thank you guys so much for watching this video I have so much that I could talk about about np school now that i'm done So stick around don't forget to like follow and subscribe if you want to see more videos again I'm, alexis nicole and thank you guys for watching