Having lunch the other day with one of my nurse practitioner classmates, we were discussing nurse practitioner and nursing groups. We both agreed after spending our first year out of school and trying to be active in our organizations, we need a group we can apprecate. Where are all the young nurse practitioners? We went to numerous dinners and society meetings, but the members were mostly comprised of our grandmothers. Ultimately, our goals for nursing rights and nurse practitioner scopes of practice are the same, but there is a significant difference in opinions on how to achieve those goals.
Just like when I was a new nurse, there is this wall up between new graduates and seasoned practitioners. There should be a network of newbies who can help guide each other, but still be connected to some seasoners who know what they are doing. There are so many questions...Should I try to start up my own practice, where are the good reasonable doctors, who is willing to train, any good conferences out there, where did you learn how to do that???
I would be interested in joining a group of relatively new nurse practitioners with experience of less than five years. I think that it would be a great opportunity to get together and discuss trials and tribulations, stumbles and falls and find out who is mentoring them. Perhaps this smaller "sub group" of newer graduates could piggy back to some meetings with more seasoned nurse practitioners and we could network together. We love you, Granny, but we never could fully relate.
