Jennifer Vitti

So now that everyone knows what an NP is…why did I want to become one? And “why didn’t I just become a doctor”? When I first started out in my schooling I used to resent that question and get really defensive. Like someone was saying I wasn’t smart enough or I was settling being an NP. Now I take a different, more positive, approach to the question and people usually respond really well to it. I take it as my mission to educate people on how an NP is different from a doctor, both very necessary professions, but also different, in my opinion. The biggest difference, and the reason why I, personally, chose the NP profession, is that an MD (which stands for Doctor of MEDICINE) follows the medical model of thinking, which often focuses on disease processes when working with patients. The nurse practitioner who in my case gets an MSN degree (which stands for Master of Science in NURSING) follows the nursing model of thinking, which looks more at the person as a whole and takes a holistic point of view. Now of course NPs and MDs take a few chapters from each other’s books, but for the most part they generally follow these models of thinking. I chose to be an NP. I considered medicine at one point, I did my homework, and determined that a profession in nursing was what fit my personality and future goals. And then within the nursing careers, I liked the autonomy and the larger scope of practice that the NP had vs. some of the other nursing professions. I also really enjoy primary care and the need for NPs in primary care is large and the job market is supposed to grow over the next few years and even longer. It’s an exciting profession and I can’t wait to get out there and start working!

That’s my explanation in a nut shell and as I said usually it has a pretty positive response from people (i.e. THEY GET IT!), but it often usually leads to one. more. question…”So then how does an NP differ from a PA?!” To be answered…tomorrow!

P.S. Wanted to share that I was printing out my powerpoints and documents for the start of classes this week and I flipped through the first powerpoint of my Roles and Issues in Advanced Practice Nursing class and I kid you not that it has slides devoted to all three of the questions I am answering! (And the powerpoints were just posted today and I started answering the questions yesterday). Guess I did my homework for the first day of class But it just goes to show how common/important these questions are!

~love always~

Jen