advice

Yesterday I finally met with my erstwhile primary care provider, a nurse practitioner who's partly my inspiration for this, and whom I'll call June. She has always seemed to me to be a happy, well-balanced person who enjoys her job, does great work, is responsive, knowledgeable, etc. She's been by far my favorite PCP, and I've changed to a different one only because her clinic about 1/3 as far away from my home as June's is. June was encouraging about nursing in general, and about me being a nurse in particular, but has made me reconsider my original intent of doing an intensive immersive program in which I'd complete my R.N. and M.S.N. within 3 years.

June said that she did this sort of program, worked her tail off, learned tons, but when she finished school felt like she was thrown into work as a practicing clinician with not nearly enough supervised clinical experience behind her. If she had to do it over again, this is definitely not the path she would take. The program I've been looking at requires about 500 clinical hours, and she says this is far too little. She recommends that I become an R.N. and attempt to find work in an E.R. for a year or two to gain experience and exposure, and only later, if I decide it is worthwhile to pursue the M.S.N. and become a nurse practitioner, should I return to school. June said there are definitely E.R. nurses who earn more than she does, but of course as a nurse practitioner, if one is lucky enough to find work, one has far more control over one's hours, interactions with patients, etc. She also said that the intensive programs are _so_ intensive they make it difficult to spend time with family. My daughter is 2. This does not sound so appealing. So, I have some research to do!