I graduated NP school in May 2018 and took my first staff job in June 2019; urgent care. Two days of training and then I was left alone seeing 25 to 35 patients a day. I was exhausted. I was underpaid. And I kept thinking: I did all this schooling just to feel like this?
Four months in I quit. Two weeks later I landed my first 1099 NP contract in New York City. A six-month assignment. And for the first time in my career, I finally understood what freedom looked like as a nurse practitioner.
That was 2019. Since then I've contracted in New York, DC, California, and Washington. I've stacked locums, direct contracts, and remote telehealth work, I am now licensed in 10+ states. I've built a system that lets me choose when I work, what I take, and when I walk away.