The time has come! I've passed boards, obtained my state license and I am scheduled to have ''temporary privileges'' at my facility next week! This is such an exciting time for my family and me! We've worked so hard for so many years and this is it. The really amusing thing? I opened the mail a couple of weeks ago when my license came through ...

The real tragedy of getting a medical education is not the understanding of your own mortality or quantification of personal risk factors. It's not even the fact that friends and colleagues want you to look at something awful that is growing out of their body (I was sure that was a myth). It is the loss of good television. An EMT friend of mine ...

This has been one of the hardest semesters ever. It isn't just that my clinical hours have doubled, but I am coordinating a couple of different clinical sites, and the work load seems overwhelming. I feel as if I am perpetually behind, behind in reading, behind in studying for the midterm. I rush to enter my Typhon logs within the seven days ...

It is tough for new nurses in accelerated nurse practitioner courses to find a first job. A lot of the places willing to hire new grads want them full time, which is impossible with the work load our training requires. There are some employers that require new nurses to sign a binding agreement to complete a certain amount of hours or pay a ...

If I could give any future medical student advice about the ER, my three most important words would be: Vicks Vapor Rub. When I first entered the ER, I was prepared to be jaded, but I was not prepared for the smells: abscesses, STDs, rotten teeth, body odor, mildewed t-shirts, alcoholics, chain smokers, drug-addicts, and diarrhea diapers, to ...

Last month during the lull of winter break, I had a sudden fear that I would not be able to find a job after graduation. I guess it was because of the lull, no case studies to do, clinical hours completed for the semester, and final grade deemed passing, that I had the time to contemplate a life after school. This month, as my classes resume ...

I really felt prepared. I had done a review course by a company that claims a pass rate of 99%. I had also studied a very well-known study guide, in addition to listening to 2 sets of CDs (one of them for the last year!). I then took 2 ''predictor'' examinations with decent scores that were predictive of me passing Boards. My morning was ...

Each month, ADVANCE for NPs & PAs compiles your comments on the latest issues in our Comments & Feedback column. We'd love to hear from you with topics of concern, the latest news for NPs & PAs, what your state organizations are up to, or anything else that piques your interest. Below are three of our latest Comments & ...

I am sitting in a building erected in a decade when buildings were square and walls could never be thick enough. Brown ivy climbs a brick exterior white-washed so many times that it seems smooth. The old steel radiators chitter like a multitude of sparrows and my seat was built for someone with a smaller number of dietary choices. The nurse who ...

Yes! I proclaim with clinched fists, because I have passed yet another class on my journey to become an FNP. I have only two classes left, and though these two classes are intense, and will occur over the course of the next year, I am beginning to glimpse the light at the end of this tunnel of advanced nursing knowledge.  As much as I ...