So, you just graduated from your Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner program, passed your certification exam, and accepted your first job. This is an exciting, terrifying, and wonderful time in your life and something that almost all healthcare providers can relate to. 

After the initial rush and thrill have faded, what’s next? Luckily for you, you have already made it through the first steps including passing your exams. Now you want to ensure success in your chosen profession. How can you be the best PA or NP for your practice or hospital? 

Here are 10 steps you can take to get off to a good start at your first job.

10. Find the Best Commuting Option

Whether you are going to be working near your school, back in your hometown, or in an entirely new city, it is important to plan out your commute before your first day on the job. 

If you plan to drive, it is important to know local traffic patterns in your area. Test drive your route to work at the time you think you would need to leave before your first day. This will give you a good idea of how much, or how little, traffic will affect your commute. If this is not possible many apps like Google Maps will give estimations of traffic times, days in advance, based on past traffic patterns. 

If you do not have a car, or plan to commute by an alternative method such as bus, tram, or subway, it is important to again check travel times before your first day. Also, purchase any necessary passes or tickets that you may need well in advance. Public transport, if available in your area, is often cheaper than commuting by personal vehicle but sometimes can be less reliable.

9. Take Some Time Off

This step may seem counterintuitive, but many find it very helpful. If you are not totally strapped for money and can afford some time off before the job starts, it may be well worth it to take it. After starting a new job, it may be difficult to get the time off that you need when you need it. 

Use the opportunity of a new job to take a few weeks off to spend time with family, do some traveling, or simply relax. You worked hard to graduate! Refreshing yourself and coming into a new job feeling revitalized is one of the most underutilized ways to put your best foot forward when entering into a new position. 

8. Review Your Company’s Insurance and Benefits Plan

Insurance benefits are almost as important as any salary that you may receive at a job. For graduating NPs and PAs often you have some knowledge of insurance plans from a past job. It is important to compare any changes that you may be looking at when starting a new job.

While the easiest thing to focus on is the insurance premium it is important to consider other aspects of your insurance plan as well. This could include deductibles, copays, specialist costs, and medication costs. 

It is important to also look at other benefits that you may be getting as part of a new job. Will you be offered a company-sponsored retirement plan? If so, do they offer matching? Will you have an opportunity to earn bonuses? How about CME allowances? These are all important things to consider.

7. Suit Up

This is probably a no-brainer for most people, but you will need new uniforms when starting your first job as an NP or PA! 

If you are allowed to wear scrubs in your role look through what you already own. You may be able to dust off some old uniforms to wear in your new position. If you do not have any now is the time to get some!

If scrubs are not allowed in your position or you prefer not to wear them you may need to pick up some new clothes. Look at discount retailers or outlet stores to snag some deals on some nice workwear. Do not be afraid to buy gently used clothing either!

6. Set Long Term Goals

When moving into any new role it is always important to set some goals for yourself on day one. Doing this will help to guide you and your work in the coming weeks, months, and years. 

It is important to ask yourself what you want out of the career path that you have chosen, and what it is that you want to be able to offer to your employer. When thinking about these things set some concrete goals for yourself that are both ambitious and attainable. You will thank yourself for doing this down the road.

5. Negotiate Your Salary

Negotiating your salary is something that not all jobs offer and something that may already be done before you have even accepted your first job. If this is not the case, however, this can be a vital step to ensuring that you are adequately compensated for your skills and work. 

As a fresh graduate, it can be easy to undervalue yourself in order to get a job that you want. While there is always “wiggle room” it is very important to sell yourself for what you are worth. Know your own worth, compare it to local estimates, and talk with colleagues if you can. Do not be afraid to push your value!

4. Organize Your Schedule

Before your first day on the job make sure to go over what a typical daily and weekly schedule will look like. Even without specifics it is important to know when you will be the busiest and when you will have some downtime.

Doing this type of basic preparation may help you to get a jumpstart on charting before the day starts, or help you to know when you can catch up on charting later in the day or week.

3. Get Your Resources Together 

Having quick access to relevant and specific information will be a very important part to starting a new job as a PA or NP. While most graduates come out of school with a good working knowledge of the fundamentals of medicine many of us don’t have a good grasp of specific information like antibiotic dosing or drug treatment duration. 

Ensuring that you have quick access to reference material from places like UpToDate, Medscape, or Epocrates is critical to success in your first position as a provider. 

Being able to quickly reference this type of material can be essential to the efficiency that is often required in busy office settings or overcrowded emergency rooms. Providers will swear by a membership to something like UpToDate as it quickly pays for itself through gained efficiency. It is important to check with your employer because many companies will pay for memberships to these types of reference sites through CME allowances.

2. Review Specific Material Related to Your Position

Before the first day on the job, one of the most important things that a new NP or PA can do is review job specific medical material. 

If you were starting a job in primary care, review information related to the most common diagnosis that you will see on a daily basis. Likewise, if you will be starting in the emergency room review some of the most common complaints and concerns and practice some of the most common procedures that you may be doing.

Not only will you be more prepared to deal with whatever comes your way on the first day, patients will notice that you are a more prepared and capable provider.

1. Organize Your Licenses and Certifications

One of the most important things to have available when starting a new job as a physician assistant or nurse practitioner is a detailed file that includes copies of all of your licenses and important certification information. Having paper copies of all of this information is ideal. 

This file should include documents like state and national licenses, a DEA license, a state Controlled Drug License, any specific certifications for your position, and malpractice information.

This file can also include a quick access to important provider specific numbers like NPI numbers, state and national license numbers, any Medicare/Medicaid specific information you may need on a daily basis, and DEA numbers.