Nurse Practitioner Is Now the Hottest Job in Healthcare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NPs generally max out around $150k and many make 90k. That's after spending $150k for schooling beyond a bachelors.

It's a flexible career but it's not a money maker. Hard to live off those salaries (becomes a homeowner, etc) in an area like the DMV unless you're married to another income.

It seems like every NP we know lives in a "luxury apartment," drives a leased Porsche Macan, and is always at a pricey concert or on a trip. They all blow their money, while still having student debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing patients as a provider is an incredibly rigid career and hard as a mother. there is no "oh sure , I can come in and read to my kindergartener's class next Friday." no, those patients were scheduled 6 months ago.

MDs are in control of our schedule and yes we can move patients. It happens all the time. It happens to me when I see my own doctors. No big deal, we all know we have families.
NPs are not allowed to move patients unless they go through the MD and we do try to accommodate when possible.
The majority of docs are able to be at all the parent events they want to attend, though it helps to be highly organized and aware of how the school schedule works, ask at the beginning of the school year and block accordingly. One of my kids had doctors (and a dentist) as the room mom many years. I did it for my other child for two years. My colleague who is a single dad doc did it one year. Being a mom or a dad and a doctor is no less compatible with family life than a lawyer or engineer or professor. Gone are the days when one is the only doc in a group or one of two and on call all the time and running to the hospital. Those who work in hospitals swap call or shifts with colleagues all the time for kid stuff or other reasons.

I mean …being a lawyer isn’t all that “compatible”…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Article on WSJ https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/nurse-practitioner-is-now-the-hottest-job-in-healthcare-a98e0bc8

NP seems like a great career, not sure why it's not as talked about as pre-med especially esp given many weed out of the latter by end of freshman year.

They do not make the same salary at all.
They are never in charge, they do not have control over their schedules or vacations like docs do.
They do not have the training to manage the most complex patients nor identify the rarer cases in primary care.
The insurances used to reimburse similarly for NP versus MD visits as NP were "overseen" by MD. That has changed in the past 5 years and is almost gone. The lower reimbursements make physician groups and hospitals less likely to hire as many NPs because they are not the financial boost to the bottom line as they once were.
The online training is terrible and a huge red flag. No one prefers to hire them now that we all have seen the poor quality of the education. These are predatory programs and should not exist.
The recent surge in medical school financial aid is rapidly making the cost for 4 years of medical school the same or less than 2 years of the reputable(non online) NP and PA schools. Med school financial aid, merit and need, has exploded this cycle and will continue to grow, after the loan limits happened. It is happening at all MD programs not merely the very top or the weaker ones. They all want to get the best students they can get for their relative level of med school and are using merit $ to get the class they want. The top 25 or so have need based aid for all who are admitted.
Even with loans for 4 full years of medical school, the low-end doctor salary of 250k for primary care will pay off 4 years of loans much faster than an NP salary for 2 yrs of school loans. For specialist MDs, they make 400-600k and beyond, while the NP in those areas if they can even get a job in that area make 110-120k, only 10k more than primary care NP.

This post is spot on!
I'm an NP married to an MD. I trained 20 Yrs ago and back then you could go to graduate school and become an NP for around 30-50k. Almost everyone who did so were experienced RNs and most forms required 2-3 years of acute care (i.e. hospital based) nursing experience for admission.

Now the NP graduate programs are like 150-200k!!! You'll never recoup
that an NP because you're going to be making 120K as an NP vs the 100k you were making as an RN. it makes zero financial sense. Also, the idea of going straight to graduate school AND many of the programs being online (!!!) is complete lunacy.

That is so interesting, I'd love a breakdown on why that happened. It sounds predatory, frankly.

It reminds me of what happen to the librarian career over the last 30 years or so. You used to be able to get library jobs with a BA, then the masters in library science emerged and that gradually became the standard until it became impossible to get a librarian job in almost any library setting without an MLS. Then 20 years ago I started seeing more dual degree librarians, JD/MLS, MBA/MLS, etc. because of requirements for librarians with specialized research knowledge. But the math doesn't make sense. A JD/MLS has five years of graduate school totaling over 200k, and even with recent salary increases is going to top out at maybe 180k (and is much more likely to wind up in a role making 100-150k with no or very limited opportunities for advancement). Why would anyone ever pursue that? Yet I'll see it requested as a qualification for roles in law libraries and know maybe a dozen people with this background. All women.

I think credentialism for women is often a trap. They'll create a masters or certificate program for a female-dominated industry with the promise of higher salaries or a leg up in hiring, and women are particularly susceptible to this spin because they are more likely to doubt their qualification for a role or to not apply for roles unless they meet 100% of hiring requirements. But then it just becomes a cash cow for universities who then crank out more and more people with the same credential, thus devaluing it. The credential then becomes essential to proceed in the profession but offers no additional financial value.

Like I said, predatory.

The programs are cash cows for universities that need the money. This isn’t going to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Article on WSJ https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/nurse-practitioner-is-now-the-hottest-job-in-healthcare-a98e0bc8

NP seems like a great career, not sure why it's not as talked about as pre-med especially esp given many weed out of the latter by end of freshman year.

They do not make the same salary at all.
They are never in charge, they do not have control over their schedules or vacations like docs do.
They do not have the training to manage the most complex patients nor identify the rarer cases in primary care.
The insurances used to reimburse similarly for NP versus MD visits as NP were "overseen" by MD. That has changed in the past 5 years and is almost gone. The lower reimbursements make physician groups and hospitals less likely to hire as many NPs because they are not the financial boost to the bottom line as they once were.
The online training is terrible and a huge red flag. No one prefers to hire them now that we all have seen the poor quality of the education. These are predatory programs and should not exist.
The recent surge in medical school financial aid is rapidly making the cost for 4 years of medical school the same or less than 2 years of the reputable(non online) NP and PA schools. Med school financial aid, merit and need, has exploded this cycle and will continue to grow, after the loan limits happened. It is happening at all MD programs not merely the very top or the weaker ones. They all want to get the best students they can get for their relative level of med school and are using merit $ to get the class they want. The top 25 or so have need based aid for all who are admitted.
Even with loans for 4 full years of medical school, the low-end doctor salary of 250k for primary care will pay off 4 years of loans much faster than an NP salary for 2 yrs of school loans. For specialist MDs, they make 400-600k and beyond, while the NP in those areas if they can even get a job in that area make 110-120k, only 10k more than primary care NP.

This post is spot on!
I'm an NP married to an MD. I trained 20 Yrs ago and back then you could go to graduate school and become an NP for around 30-50k. Almost everyone who did so were experienced RNs and most forms required 2-3 years of acute care (i.e. hospital based) nursing experience for admission.

Now the NP graduate programs are like 150-200k!!! You'll never recoup
that an NP because you're going to be making 120K as an NP vs the 100k you were making as an RN. it makes zero financial sense. Also, the idea of going straight to graduate school AND many of the programs being online (!!!) is complete lunacy.

That is so interesting, I'd love a breakdown on why that happened. It sounds predatory, frankly.

It reminds me of what happen to the librarian career over the last 30 years or so. You used to be able to get library jobs with a BA, then the masters in library science emerged and that gradually became the standard until it became impossible to get a librarian job in almost any library setting without an MLS. Then 20 years ago I started seeing more dual degree librarians, JD/MLS, MBA/MLS, etc. because of requirements for librarians with specialized research knowledge. But the math doesn't make sense. A JD/MLS has five years of graduate school totaling over 200k, and even with recent salary increases is going to top out at maybe 180k (and is much more likely to wind up in a role making 100-150k with no or very limited opportunities for advancement). Why would anyone ever pursue that? Yet I'll see it requested as a qualification for roles in law libraries and know maybe a dozen people with this background. All women.

I think credentialism for women is often a trap. They'll create a masters or certificate program for a female-dominated industry with the promise of higher salaries or a leg up in hiring, and women are particularly susceptible to this spin because they are more likely to doubt their qualification for a role or to not apply for roles unless they meet 100% of hiring requirements. But then it just becomes a cash cow for universities who then crank out more and more people with the same credential, thus devaluing it. The credential then becomes essential to proceed in the profession but offers no additional financial value.

Like I said, predatory.

Library directors around our lake house in flyover country make great money and retire with a fat pension. It's a cush gig. They do literally nothing all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NPs generally max out around $150k and many make 90k. That's after spending $150k for schooling beyond a bachelors.

It's a flexible career but it's not a money maker. Hard to live off those salaries (becomes a homeowner, etc) in an area like the DMV unless you're married to another income.

It seems like every NP we know lives in a "luxury apartment," drives a leased Porsche Macan, and is always at a pricey concert or on a trip. They all blow their money, while still having student debt.

Are you stalking them on IG or something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NPs generally max out around $150k and many make 90k. That's after spending $150k for schooling beyond a bachelors.

It's a flexible career but it's not a money maker. Hard to live off those salaries (becomes a homeowner, etc) in an area like the DMV unless you're married to another income.

It seems like every NP we know lives in a "luxury apartment," drives a leased Porsche Macan, and is always at a pricey concert or on a trip. They all blow their money, while still having student debt.

Are you stalking them on IG or something?

She sounds like the typical depressed broodmare with 3 kids, an old minivan, and a husband that won't touch her anymore. Then she scrolls social media and sees successful childfree women and flies into a rage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing patients as a provider is an incredibly rigid career and hard as a mother. there is no "oh sure , I can come in and read to my kindergartener's class next Friday." no, those patients were scheduled 6 months ago.

MDs are in control of our schedule and yes we can move patients. It happens all the time. It happens to me when I see my own doctors. No big deal, we all know we have families.
NPs are not allowed to move patients unless they go through the MD and we do try to accommodate when possible.
The majority of docs are able to be at all the parent events they want to attend, though it helps to be highly organized and aware of how the school schedule works, ask at the beginning of the school year and block accordingly. One of my kids had doctors (and a dentist) as the room mom many years. I did it for my other child for two years. My colleague who is a single dad doc did it one year. Being a mom or a dad and a doctor is no less compatible with family life than a lawyer or engineer or professor. Gone are the days when one is the only doc in a group or one of two and on call all the time and running to the hospital. Those who work in hospitals swap call or shifts with colleagues all the time for kid stuff or other reasons.

Very dependent on specialty, employer, and level. It's highly variable. You can't compare the experience of an experienced pediatrician working in a family practice to a urologist fresh out of their fellowship working in a hospital. Totally different schedules and demands. It's like comparing a District Attorney with a trusts and estates lawyer.

Actually most MD jobs once you are out of residency and fellowship are similarly flexible. All the new MDs in the adult multi-specialty group can swap shifts or call any time they want, everyone helps because people helped us when ours were young. We all get 6 weeks of vacation once past 5 years, 4 weeks before that. Many of us have spouses who are docs in various fields from ER to OB to hospitalist/ICU, ENT, pediatrician. Most of us have kids in overlapping school systems and we all block time for awards days, meet the teacher days, first-grade guest reader, etc. It is a great career with significant flexibility considering the sky high salary. I know DCUM thinks 300k is low. Normal people know it is high. It's high enough with two salaries to be full pay for multiple children at private schools from K to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NPs generally max out around $150k and many make 90k. That's after spending $150k for schooling beyond a bachelors.

It's a flexible career but it's not a money maker. Hard to live off those salaries (becomes a homeowner, etc) in an area like the DMV unless you're married to another income.

It seems like every NP we know lives in a "luxury apartment," drives a leased Porsche Macan, and is always at a pricey concert or on a trip. They all blow their money, while still having student debt.

Not a single NP I know lives like that.