<p>I’m on a flight back from Frankfurt, only to head to DC tomorrow for a niece’s Bat Mitzvah. On Sunday, we go to ShawD’s nursing honor society induction. The pinning is in two or three weeks. </p>
<p>ShawSon was asked by a 2nd year business school student who has started and sold a couple of companies to be the CTO/co-founder of a new company. The student will be the early funder. ShawSon described it to me and it could be a good idea, but he is struggling to make time to get his assignments done and sleep. No time/energy for dating. I asked him how he would find the time to also do a new startup. I said, “The good news is that in the program that you are in and with your background, this will not be the last such offer you get. It might be the best, it might not, but you don’t have to latch on to this one.” We’ll see what happens. The Wild West.</p>
<p>When we took ShawD to Costco this past weekend, she said, “How would you feel about my moving to California after I graduate from the NP program? I’ve lived all my life in the Boston” (actually we live in the exurbs) “except for one semester in a small version of Harvard Square. So, I thought I would try California.” Well, who knows as in the summer she was thinking Detroit and the State Department, but if she does, it would strengthen my desire to start spending winters there. She absolutely loves her program, especially as she sees what she would be doing as a nurse practitioner. It does seem like she will have opportunities everywhere. According to US News, “For the best salary potential, go west – to San Jose, Calif., specifically, where the average salary for nurse practitioners was $125,450 in 2012.” In an ideal world, ShawSon will introduce her to one of his classmates (he offered that when she was thinking of moving to Detroit) and she’ll find a well-heeled mate to go along with a job so she can actually afford to live there. But, then she won’t need our help with a two-family house. </p>
<p>One of her friends from another school keeps saying, “You are so smart. Why don’t you go to medical school?” She says, “I would be able to handle medical school, but why would I want to do that?” I get to start work in one and a half years. ShawWife said, “People might think about it for the money or the prestige.” ShawD said, “I will start earning money right away and won’t have to take big loans and wait four plus years to start getting paid so I don’t know if higher income is such a good reason.” At her white coat ceremony, the only intelligent thing the speakers said was a quote from a practicing NP who said, “Don’t try to be an MD. We are doing something different.” AFAIK, she seemed to be differentiating between what I will call patient-centered care (which seems to be how the NPs think) rather than symptom-centered care (which seems to be the orientation of most but not all MDs). Much more caring in the patient-centered model, which I think matches ShawD’s personality. But who knows?</p>