Anyone an ANP and feel dissolusioned?

[SlB09]

ANP here, more and more frequently I find myself getting really frustrated being in this role. I've had a meeting today that's basically got my goat and need to rant! I feel like you go from the top of the nursing tree to the rock bottom of the medical tree and are treated as such with a total lack of understanding by colleagues just the amount of training/education/skills acquisition and knowledge you have.

Anyone else get sick of having to constantly prove yourself, not being able to refer to certain dept or getting referral letters sent back to the Dr instead of you?
(absolutely don't think I'm a doctor by the way, I know my limits etc).

In reality I'm not going to go back tk University to study medicine so this is me for now and I'm starting to think that maybe I just need to pursue something completely different where I don't feel either imposter syndrome or completely fed up most of the time.

How do you cope with this if you've felt it before?

Just bumping for you. I'm not an ANP but a nurse on a development programme towards advanced practice and I see where you're coming from. Do you work in primary care/hospital setting? I'm.in.the community and one thing I have noticed here is that our ACPs are fully respected - not necessarily seen as mini doctors, but because we work fairly separately from medics they're respected in their own right. Possibly not using the range of clinical skills that you are, though.

@Anotherunimaginativeusername thankyou for replying.

I'm in abit of an odd set up so I work for a primary care network and am alligned to a GP practice but also heavily involved with community services and I think you've probably hit the nail on the head with the difference in working environments. When you work primarily with nurses there is a good understanding of the educational/experience/level of autonomy or even in Trusts where nursing is represented at a senior level and the roles of advanced practice are utilised really well/embedded into the workforce it seems a much better working environment in terms of the advanced role (on the whole I'm sure it's not all like that!). However I did once have a paramedic say to me 'don't you think you should ask the GP?' in a very patronising way (it was something completely innocuous/standard). I don't mind off patients as they have little awareness of the role to be honest and I can take that on the chin.

I think in primary care they have such little understanding of it all and dare I say it their views of NP's havnt moved on as the scope of practice has and now the ACP workforce coming along, its just deeply frustrating and demoralising but I'm never going to change that on my own. I don't think they even want to understand to be honest and I've worked with some lovely really helpful and supportive Gp's who still don't 'get it' but also don't attempt to.

Also in my area of the country it seems like any QI!/ service improvement etc has to be led by a GP or have gp involvement or it literally goes nowhere which is also sucking the life out of my soul . I'm my last job it was really encouraged and facilitated!!

Any way massive rant over hahaha I think I just need to take stock as to whether primary care is for me really.

Not an ANP but a doctor - I think you have nailed it with 'not going to change the world on my own'

I work in a field where until quite recently nobody thought we did much, all my patients think I am a nurse anyway (which there is nothing wrong with but I am not one and they only think that because I'm a woman Grrr) and the assumption that you are stupid becomes grating.

TBH most community projects have a GP attached even if they do none of the work, it's just normal commissioning.

Your paramedic was just rude! As another AHP, you would have expected some solidarity!

Referral letters sent back to the Dr - probably go back to a generic 'registered GP', it's not personal, I don't check who sent the referral when I write my letters, I'm too busy just like you.

I find in my job generally I enjoy the bits I enjoy and try to ignore the bits I don't as there is too much for one person to fight every battle. You know you are awesome, ignore the other fuckers and don't let them grind you down.

@AnnaMagnani thanks for replying, it's funny I was having the same convo with one of our female gp's the other day and she said exactly the same re thinking she's a nurse because she's female etc! It's shitty but there's definately a 'thing' for everyone no matter what profession your in, suppose I just need to develop a thicker skin to survive without going mad!!!!

I think it makes me more sensitive to things that really don't matter like ref letters etc and your right I need to ignore all that. Yeah you'd hope for solidarity but it seems a rare thing out there now!!

Hope you've survived the craziness of the last year (I know you've been open and working hard )

We were just talking at work about how in our (Scottish) trust ANP seems to be the role of the day! There have been loads of new posts created in all different specialities which in paper seems really good lots of opportunities for progression etc BUT when you speak to ANPs in the roles it’s a total mixed bag! Some are basically just following the medics around and making sure wards implement their plans of care with no real input and others are very autonomous, running their own clinics with one doc floating around for support.
Most doctors at first treat them like staff nurses, don’t understand the role or respect it unfortunately. But you’re so right that other nurses totally get the extra training and study means you’re pretty much at the top of the nursing ladder when it comes to practice!
There’s definitely a feeling in my area that ANPs are being recruited to fill gaps in specialities that would normally be filled by STs but there just aren’t the same numbers now.
That paramedic could do with being reminded that the public used to think they just drove ambulances and there was no real awareness of how skilled they were either!

Yep ACP roles are in abundance now but it was part of the five year forward plan plus the course is under the apprenticeship levy so essentially no cost to the employer (other than educational/clinical support) but it's open to AHP's aswell.

I think it's really good, there's alot of really capable and well educated people out there and it's great there's a role to move into.

It's designed to be the same competencies as an ST3 so your right with that one, in acute would be on the medical rota etc sk it's going to be hard to get away from that and for colleagues to see it as a role unto itself if that makes sense!

I'll keep on plodding in for now