Do you regret becoming a nurse practitioner?

Or do you regret the fact that you’ve let the charting get sooo bad that it consumes all of your free time at home, causes you to work 60 hours per week (unpaid time), despise your job, and regret becoming a nurse practitioner….

Maybe it started with a missed dinner. Then another. Then entire weekends. All sacrificed to catch up on charting.

You thought becoming a nurse practitioner would mean more autonomy, better pay, and deeper patient relationships—but now you’re spending 60 hours a week in a job that barely pays more than you made as an RN, dreading every after-hours login to your EHR.

If you’re asking yourself, “Did I make the wrong choice?” you’re not alone.

But here’s a better question: Do you really regret becoming a nurse practitioner—or do you regret that charting has gotten so out of control that it’s robbing you of the career you once dreamed of?

Let’s dig into the truth behind this question—and how you can take back your time, your purpose, and your life.

Challenges Nurse Practitioners Face

Nurse practitioners put up with a lot. This career is one of the most rewarding in healthcare—but it also comes with some serious baggage that no one warned you about in school. It’s no wonder you regret becoming a nurse practitioner!

Here are just a few of the burdens many NPs carry:

❌ Getting paid less than an RN
In some cases, nurse practitioners are working longer hours with higher liability—only to find their take-home pay isn’t all that different from what they made as a floor nurse. No wonder they regret becoming a nurse practitioner.

❌ Spending hours fighting insurance companies
It’s exhausting trying to convince a third-party payer that your patient does, in fact, need that MRI or medication. You just want to take care of the patient (because the patient deserves better care), but spending hours on a prior auth is exhausting.

❌ Constant disrespect for nurse practitioners
Being told, “I want to see the real doctor,” or having colleagues disregard your clinical decisions because of your title can be demoralizing, especially when you’re providing high-quality, evidence-based care. No wonder you regret becoming a nurse practitioner.

❌ Charting on evenings and weekends
Perhaps the most soul-sucking of all—your personal time disappears into the black hole of unfinished notes. You clock out at 5 but keep working until 9. Then you start again the next morning, already behind.

These challenges can make even the most passionate APRN question everything:
Did I choose the wrong career? Am I cut out for this? Do I regret becoming a nurse practitioner?

Regret Becoming a Nurse Practitioner?

Here’s the thing: You didn’t go to grad school, take on student debt, and step up as a provider just to feel this way. You wanted this. You worked hard for it. And you’re still a skilled, compassionate, competent nurse practitioner.

But you’ve likely been operating in survival mode for so long. Putting in countless hours of charting. Energy spent on fighting insurance companies on behalf of your patients. Feeling unappreciated and disrespected. Which causes you to regret becoming a nurse practitioner.

You can’t control everything wrong with the modern healthcare system—but you can control the way charting takes over your life. And once you do that, everything starts to shift.

Taking Control Starts With Charting

Charting is more than just documentation—it’s the anchor that either grounds your workday or drowns your evenings. When it’s efficient, you leave on time. You no longer have to stay late, miss important life events, and feel defeated. You don’t have to regret becoming a nurse practitioner.

Here’s how to take your time and power back:

✅ 1. Shift Your Time Management Mindset

Stop trying to “catch up” after work. It drains your time and energy away from your personal life. Instead, focus on building habits that protect your time during the workday.

• Time block your schedule so you know when you’re seeing patients and when you’re documenting.
• Use the “one touch” rule: If you start a chart, finish it. Don’t save it “for later.”
• Minimize distractions: Silence alerts, shut your door when documenting, and keep your phone away unless necessary.

You don’t need more hours—you need more focus during the hours you already have.

✅ 2. Master the Problem-Focused Note

Nurse practitioners are notorious for over charting! But longer chart notes do not equal better documentation. You can write a concise, problem-focused note that qualifies for the exact same E/M code as a rambling one.

• Stick to the pertinent positives and negatives.
• Use smart phrases/templates intentionally—not as a crutch, but as a framework.
• Document for medical necessity, not just completeness.

You can cut your charting time in half just by learning to focus on what actually matters in the note.

***Click the link to learn more about how to create problem-focused chart notes you can sign in less than 5 minutes!

✅ 3. Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Many nurse practitioner waste hours second-guessing themselves.

• Double-checking doses they already know.
• Rewriting notes to “sound smarter.”
• Rereading every chart because they’re afraid they’ll miss something.

This isn’t a charting problem—it’s a confidence problem. And it’s completely normal. But imposter syndrome is costing you precious time and mental energy.

Instead, remind yourself: You’re the provider now. You’ve trained for this. You know what you’re doing. Trust your clinical instincts and move forward with clarity.

STOP Charting at Home in 90 Days

Regret doesn’t come from the job. It comes from being exhausted, overwhelmed, and out of alignment with why you became a nurse practitioner in the first place.

You didn’t sign up to spend your evenings editing SOAP notes. You didn’t sign up to be dissatisfied in your APRN job. You didn’t sign up to regret becoming a nurse practitioner.

You signed up to create change in your patients’ lives, and to have more control over your career. It’s time to reclaim that.

Imagine this:

🔥 You’re home by 5:30 every night and truly present in the moment (not stressed about how many open charts you have to finish after dinner).
🔥 Your weekends are wide open—maybe even free enough to take a trip with your family.
🔥 You’re no longer dreading your inbox or EHR every morning, you can focus on caring for the patient.
🔥 You feel confident, efficient, and proud of your work. You learn to love your nurse practitioner job again!

That’s exactly what you’ll learn in the STOP Charting at Home in 90 Days program. It’s designed specifically for APRNs who are stuck in the cycle of endless charting and nurse practitioner burnout.

Inside the program, you’ll learn:

• How to write fast, compliant, and problem-focused chart notes
• How to develop time management habits that actually stick
• How to retrain your brain and overcome the perfectionism that’s slowing you down

This is more than a course—it’s a mindset shift. And it’s the path to reclaiming the joy and balance you thought you’d lost.

You don’t regret becoming a nurse practitioner.
You regret that charting has taken over your life.

Let’s change that.

If you’re tired of staying late, bringing charts home, and watching your personal time vanish, now is the time to take action.

➡️ Join the STOP Charting at Home in 90 Days program—and rediscover what made you fall in love with this career in the first place.

***Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you subscribe to Freed AI Medical Scribe. This is at no extra cost to you, but does help me continue to run the NP Charting School. Thank you for your support!