hey y’all. So my dream is to be a nurse practitioner when Im older & I want to get my Doctorate of Nursing. I was just wondering what the steps are to get there & what I need to do to become a nurse practitioner. Thanks so much!
You need a BSN (four year degree), pass your NCLEX certifying exam and then I would highly recommend you work a bit as an RN. A few years of experience as an RN will help you immensely as you learn patient communication, disease teaching and just the experience of knowing what a “sick” patient looks like. Once you have your BSN, you will need your MSN which takes 2 years if you attend full-time or longer if you attend part-time and work. I would NOT worry about attending an Ivy or private school. I’ve been an RN for 20 years and an NP for 5 years and trust me when I say no one cares about where you went to school unless it is a crummy online or weak school. I live in an area where there are at least 4 universities…some private and some public and the ones from the public state university saved a LOT of money on their education and are just as employable as the ones from the private university. Your future employer and nurse manager will only care that you can do the job and have the clinical skills and critical thinking to do the job.
The whole DNP thing…will be interesting to see how it blows over. For right now, DNPs do not make any more money than an NP/MSN. The DNP degree is not so much a clinical degree and includes a lot of theory and research. I am not bashing the DNP, if you want to do that or if you have interest in teaching at the university level then by all means, get your DNP. There is a bunch of noise about DNPs being required by a certain year, but that same chatter has been going on for years and I just don’t know if it will happen. A DNP will cost you a lot of extra $$ and is not required by most employers.
I love being an NP. I have a lot of flexibility in my role and make a solid income and feel (on most days anyway!) I make a difference. Good luck with your career choice.
thank you so much! Im so glad to here you love being an NP 