Nurse Practitioner Inquires

[Thunderylife]

This is for a friend. She wants to do 3 years of Bachelor of Nursing at Monash and then straight away go into Master of Nurse Practitioner. However, people have informed her that she must have at least 5 years of experience as a Registered Nurse before she can do Master of Nurse Practitioner. Is this true?
What can she do to go straight to Nurse Practitioner without going through 5 years as a full time nurse.
Would mean a lot if someone answered this question.

[brenden]

This is for a friend. She wants to do 3 years of Bachelor of Nursing at Monash and then straight away go into Master of Nurse Practitioner. However, people have informed her that she must have at least 5 years of experience as a Registered Nurse before she can do Master of Nurse Practitioner. Is this true?
What can she do to go straight to Nurse Practitioner without going through 5 years as a full time nurse.
Would mean a lot if someone answered this question.

Just looking at Deakin and La Trobe's courses, both specify she needs 5 years full time work experience so, that seems to be true (although I did only check the first two entries on Google, it looks like Master of NP is a course for experienced nurses!

But like, why does she want to go straight to the masters without going through 5 years full time? Does she want to go into academia or does she want to practise as a nurse? And if she wants to practise with a nurse then, presumably, working full-time would be a good thing (?)

Either way, best of luck to your friend!

[heids]

Can confirm that accreditation as an NP requires several years of experience first.  This makes a lot of sense, because you're stepping up into a practitioner role - rather than just following through on other people's orders, you are now making them yourself!  You're able to diagnose, interpret tests, refer patients, develop treatment plans, and prescribe medications.  You won't have the same rigorous training (or role) as a doctor - you need to have developed a lot of clinical skills and knowledge in the workplace before taking this fairly short course.

Start as a normal nurse, work a while, and then you can step up a level.  Just like medical practitioners typically require some intern/resident experience before entering specialty colleges, really.