What concerns me are the undergrads who go directly from bachelor's degrees to NP programs with no WORK experience whatsoever, regardless of what that work experience is. Writing papers only helps if you are interested in writing papers, then you learn, but like Psychdude said, we are providers not english teachers with a minor in nursatology. You can word questions to test understanding of concepts, not just rote memorization also, unfortunately most nursing professors don't know this. I know what you mean with the way you portrayed undergraduate nursing education in your post. Once I got past my ADN the rest of my nursing education was fairly lack luster. Nurse practitioner school is also significantly more affordable than medical school, making the opportunity cost even greater. I am an experienced nurse (cardiac and psych) and I am in my second year of NP school to be a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Which one would be preferred amount you all? And do not try to use blooms taxonomy to try to refute this. Mar 24, 2020 - Explore Kristina Mendicino's board "Np school" on Pinterest. Ill be content if they add in a pure biochemistry class, physiology (not this pathophysiology mixed stuff, I mean you need to learn how stuff is SUPPOSED to work before you learn about the problems associated with the body..... and undergrad A and P was laughable also) and add more clinical hours. Furthermore, I agree that any master's level education should be rigorous. Some schools require 1-3 years However, once admitted the goal is to facilitate the students success through the program. I completely agree with you that for new graduates whom have had only a few years of RN experience should undergo a fellowship/residency of some sort. II also have concerns about the trend towards not securing preceptors. yes, good nps, just like good mds and good rns can have a shit school gpa. Did you find NP school to be more difficult, as difficulty, or less difficult than nursing school? Obviously, that type of stuff isn't something you remember long-term if you don't work with it on a daily basis, but it provided some clarity. I agree with the comments that the faculty NEEDS you to do well and as such they are more vested in you over all. OP, my two sisters in-law go to the NS you just described. I found graduate school to be easy despite attending a credible state university. I just started an MSN program. There are requirements in terms of succession through the program in terms of grades (I.e., only grades with B and above can advance, majority of courses should be taken in the nursing school, there is a set time frame for degree completion). One year, thats it, the transition between RN to APRN is so great too much RN experience can hurt some people, but you need at least a year to make sure you can at least function as a human in public. Regarding nursing experience. The NP preceptorship were mostly graduates of the program and are familiar with what I needed to learn. Of course, there are always exceptions ... but that is what most people find. I too believe biochem, perhaps horizontally aligned with physiology as prereqs to pharmacology and pathology would be great. Did you find. Are we being prepared sufficiently? The school arranged our clinical rotations and I lived in the immediate area where the school was located so the facilities I rotated in are all within easy driving distance. So here you are, with those shiny letters “RN, BSN” at the end of your name. -Do you think we are doing enough to prepare future NP to practice safely, -What are your recommendations for the standards we should be held accountable to. Clinicals are a huge part of NP school, but they can be very overwhelming in the beginning! There are concerns about the current system from my perspective. If nothing else it would be a rate limiting step for programs. If it weren't for them, I would possibly be starting in March instead of January. My degree is adult/geron NP, btw. I agree with most of what you've said. When I say bad, I mean are the teachers still trying to weed you out all the way through the program. How hard is advanced patho, pharm, etc going to be? Has 12 years experience. I was just wondering how hard it is to be a nurse practitioner. 4. See what it is really like to be an NP student in this fun, visual walkthrough of psychiatric nurse practitioner school, from Dr. Melissa DeCapua. Has 27 years experience. There will always be exceptions, and some 20 somethings are mature and wise beyond their years. Our mission is to Empower, Unite, and Advance every nurse, student, and educator. Graduate school is hard enough; keeping your work organized and neat will make your life a little less stressful. 5 Things to Consider Before Pursuing a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) The DNP is a degree, not a role. NP school is tough, as it should be. schools and written by M.D.'s. We should at least have been provided 5000 multiple choice questions prior to graduation. Join today to exchange industry and career related information and advice. Non competitive would be making the program itself harder. What I’ve done, this time, is enroll in a top 10 Big East family nurse practitioner (NP) program. The faculty all actually work as NPs and therefore they have a foot in the real world..i always felt undergrad faculty did not. Since 1997, allnurses is trusted by nurses around the globe. Thanks for the reply Jules! The graduate level course work is definitely challenging but I have always felt a lot of support and respect from the faculty, with 1 or 2 minor exceptions. I personally don't know anyone who hasnt been a nurse for two years in my program. Show Up for Socially-Distanced Class. Any graduates or students of NYU's acute care NP program here? There is less need to "weed out" as most students have already shown themselves to be capable nurses. They don’t really prepare you for this in school. My program accepted 10% of those who applied. Very childish I have to say. It is a bit hard to practice advanced nursing without having practice nursing first. Unfortunately there are programs now that I have concerns about, though I have limited interaction with those programs and haven't seen any data on it. Has 7 years experience. Yes. Competitive would be making entry to the program harder. Would it be fair to assume that PA education and MD education is more rigorous than nursing school, we should expect the same. allnurses.com, INC, 7900 International Drive #300, Bloomington MN 55425 I find clinical to be more mentally taxing, yet I look forward to going. FALSE. That will weed out the weak and make the lazy still have to kick butt to pass. As stated above, the teachers seem to me to be very invested in our success. I'm in an AE MSN program and as one of my professors put it "you've already proven you deserve to be here, at this point we are going to do everything we can to make sure that you succeed." You made it up that beast of a mountain. Maybe that is why I didn't find it so hard. Ill be content if they add in a pure biochemistry class, physiology (not this pathophysiology mixed stuff, I mean you need to learn how stuff is SUPPOSED to work before you learn about the problems associated with the body..... and undergrad A and P was laughable also) and add more clinical hours. I went into it with a BS in Biology/Medical Technology, so I had a lot of the hard sciences. I can tell you based on my experience that graduate school (specifically the NP program I attended) wasn't like that. And like most esteemed professional achievements, it does require hard work, sacrifice, and resilience. Our members represent more than 60 professional nursing specialties. And this is a good school, with a good reputation. I think you find it to be a great decision, as I have. Besides family, school should be your top priority. There is a level of weeding out, but not everyone can pass a rigorous program. It makes me feel like I have something to go on now as I consider grad school in the future! I feel that NP school is much harder, but more enjoyable than undergrad RN school. In the masters program there was a lot more reading, a lot more writing assignments. In pharm they teach you what such and such medicine works on such and such receptor, but unfortunately before pharmacology you never heard of that receptor, so its useless information unless you take the time look it up yourself. I find myself studying 10 hrs per day on top of trying to manage 20+ week clinicals. I am currently two years into the program with two semesters and 350 clinical rotation hours to … I feel like my teachers are working hard to prepare us to be clinicians. I also think that preceptors need to be more criticaland at least fail out those that can't function as humans. Learning can be self-directed. 1. At least the initial post says for only people who have graduated to respond, so the seemingly large crowd of all knowing np hopefully shouldn't chime in on this topic and say that nurse practitioner school is equal to med school and all of this other ridiculous stuff they like to say. 1-612-816-8773. Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy. Our members represent more than 60 professional nursing specialties. Make it hurt, make it burn, make it painful so only those who really want to do the job can make it through. And people try to argue that writing papers is better learning than tests. My preceptor recently asked if we took neuroanatomy as part of our PMHNP program. 0 Likes. 2. With that said, here are my recommendations for surviving the next two years, succeeding in your program, and coming out of school ready for your new professional role. Has 7 years experience. But wait! Unlike undergrad, you are the only student in the clinical setting and the preceptor is with you one on one. allnurses.com, INC, 7900 International Drive #300, Bloomington MN 55425 It did allow for some people who worked during the day to attend after work (though not as convenient for those with young kids). I'm completely against requiring RNing oneself before becoming a NP. Add in biochemistry, physiology, 1000 clinical hours. When you start clinicals it will be a bit more work! I didn't feel "babied" in the program, except that there was excessive attention paid to test scores and gpa when we know in the real world nobody cares. It actually makes financial sense in a lot of ways not to graduate people. There were individual projects as well as group projects in most of the courses. I also think there needs to be more research about the role of RN experience because the extant data is limited and in fact favors less rather than more. But there is still a little needed as not every nurse is cut out for graduate level work. Thank you for your reply. Specializes in Mental health, substance abuse, geriatrics, PCU. 1-612-816-8773. I'm considering UTMB's Adult and Geriatric Nurse Practitioner program but I don't think I can handle 2 more years of catty instructors eating their young. Some courses may still be very challenging, will require hard work, and some people will not perform up to the standard.2. Finally, check out www.allnurses.com. The number of schools offering NP now combined with the minimal nursing experience new grads seem to have is going to likely either require fellowships or our outcomes will suffer, imo. Other than advanced patho which I found challenging likely because it had been decades since I had taken A&P my opinion is that NP school was ridiculously easy and I went to decent brick and mortar schools. My personal opinion is that some programs have produced quality NPs for decades and they continue to do so. We have a duty to our patients and at the end of the day we are responsible. assess a community (why), compare and contrast nursing theories (who cares), promote a goal of Healthy People 2020 (clinicians don't read this), research a topic of interest and approach an entity about a policy related to that topic and draft a change to that policy and try to motivate them to adopt your policy (not happening), etc. Regarding nursing experience. hey look an anti np thread on a reddit sub. I would favor a model for NPs that resembled what is seen in CRNA programs. 5 comments. You see another, higher mountain to climb in the distance: the nurse practitioner mountain. Mandating a minimum requirement of two years should definitely be implemented. share. Specializes in Nursing Professional Development. Pound that information vigorously into our brains, so even those not interested in learning are forced to. My ACNP class was maybe 8 students (this was in 2002-2003, a time when the program wasn't as popular). Share this article: So you’ve survived nurse practitioner school, passed your national board-certification exam, and — with your head barely above water — you’ve struck out into the job-hunting jungle. Has 10 years experience. If we are gonna make 6 figures, then we should get vicariously mentally demolished by the amount of information provided. However, this would also change the economic model and would inhibit a student from pursuing an easy degree at for-profit-online-university.com. Plus if you don't understand the different types of receptors and how medicines interact with them (one week of pharmacodynamics and kinetics don't cut it) your basically throwing medicine at people that you assume just floats into the cells and fixes stuff. The NP preceptorship were mostly graduates of the program and are familiar with what I needed to learn. Nothing about either undergraduate or graduate (NP) nursing was difficult. You study tirelessly for the Graduate Record Exam, apply to stretch schools and back-up schools, anxiously prepare for interviews, and cross your fingers. The school certainly has admission criteria in terms of GPA and relevant nursing experience and not everyone gets an invitation to enroll. But there is still a little needed as not every nurse is cut out for graduate level work. In a nutshell, you just described PA school. I think there needs to be more science oriented prerequisite course work and greater admissions standards. Grad school (in all tracts) is usually better in relation to the undergrad problems you describe. Has 1 years experience. At first, becoming a nurse practitioner is this noble idea motivated by compassion, benevolence, autonomy, ambition, and a lot of other feel-good stuff. Going forward we will need to start calling you Dr. PsycyGuy. I think biochem is helpful along with more physiology. Is it worth getting an Adult-Gerontology NP degree. SRNAs say they have their noses to the grindstone all but the 3-4 hours of sleep they get each night, and they have some of the brightest, toughest, smartest instructors there are, who make life almost unbearably difficult… allnurses® Breakroom - Trusted since 1997 is the largest site for nurses, students, and educators with a strong focus on nursing. I am supportive of students but I also challenge them no matter how good they are. Most of the students are older and you will be more of the norm. I think we need more research honestly. Our mission is to Empower, Unite, and Advance every nurse, student, and educator. Then go back to grad school. Working during NP school. Repeatedly over the past few years, Forbes has ranked nurse practitioner as one of the top-paying jobs for women, and the website Monster continues to include nurse practitioner as one of the best compensated jobs in the country. Since 1997, allnurses is trusted by nurses around the globe. Are you still treated like children and stressed to the point of mental illness throughout the entire program. Nurse Practitioner education should be more difficult (of course in a different way) than you previous degree in my opinion. In short, are you treated with a little more respect, and as an adult in NP school? Particularly, the assigned paper topics are laughable, i.e. Your work experience matters a lot more than your academic performance. Compared to physician residency training, which includes a lot of assigned reading and conferences, NP training is deficient in both content and required hours work. See more ideas about nursing notes, nursing study, nursing tips. I tolerated some aspects of NS but I am enjoying the learning and level of intrigue that NP school brings. I owe my admission to them because they kept calling and checking on the status of my application which made me work on it faster to meet a November deadline. For grad school I was looking for a higher quality program. The students usually have a more positive attitude about their work ... WANT to be in school ... and there is more cooperation between students and less competition.Of course, there are always exceptions ... but that is what most people find. The students usually have a more positive attitude about their work ... WANT to be in school ... and there is more cooperation between students and less competition. If we are gonna make 6 figures, then we should get vicariously mentally demolished by the amount of information provided. However, the amount of paper writing and research involves makes it more akin to majoring in history or English. Our members represent more than 60 professional nursing specialties. I am doing well in school as a sophmore in college making mostly A's but it can be a struggle. Day in the Life of a Consultation-Liaison PMHNP Working as a consultation-liaison psychiatric nurse practitioner was by far the most dynamic and challenging clinical job I have ever held. This is a topic for those whom have already graduated Nurse Practitioner school; what was your experience? allnurses is a Nursing Career & Support site. All the students in my class graduated and are all practicing. Some courses may still be very challenging, will require hard work, and some people will not perform up to the standard. NO PAIN NO GAIN. Becoming a NP is one of the most difficult things you'll ever do. You can word questions to test understanding of concepts, not just rote memorization also, unfortunately most nursing professors don't know this. In pharm they teach you what such and such medicine works on such and such receptor, but unfortunately before pharmacology you never heard of that receptor, so its useless information unless you take the time look it up yourself. It shouldn't be that easy to get into any advanced degree program. I also did not have to find my own preceptors, which is one of the reasons I chose this school. “Nursing school is not always black and white, just like real life,” says Samantha S. Though it’s difficult Will H. says carefully reading the question, placing yourself in the scenario and trusting your instinct is both the hardest and most necessary thing. How hard is NP school? Nurse practitioner school interviews are fraught with anticipation, anxiety, and uncertainty, so let us start with the basics: how to prepare, how to dress, what to bring, and how to follow-up. I didn't find NP school to be terribly difficult-the volume of work was more challenging than the subject matter. There are times I wanted to quit, times I thought I wasn't going to make it, finances are tight when you have to work at clinicals instead of a job where you get paid, but it's worth it (to me.) I went into it with a BS in Biology/Medical Technology, so I had a lot of the hard sciences. In this episode, Matt talks about his journey, why he chose to be an NP, and why now he's choosing to go to medical school. As an older, non-traditional student, I hated being treated like a child. Ill be content if they add in a pure biochemistry class, physiology (not this pathophysiology mixed stuff, i mean you need to learn how stuff is SUPPOSED to work before you learn about the problems associated with the body..... and undergrad A and P was laughable also) and add more clinical hours. The things that made me feel that there is a more supportive environment is the fact that our classes are in the evening hours. I think there should be a minimum of 2 years of RN experience, additional pharmacology and a reduction of the multitude of nursing fluff courses. Figure out if CRNA or NP is for you. Test, test test test test, multiple choice tests out the rear, then they can elaborate to preceptors in clinical to verify their understanding. Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine. I am also concerned about the easy admission standards I see in some schools. The proximity of the school was a big factor in my choice of undergrad programs (besides being one of the few public accelerated BSNs). You must, in order to understand the concepts fully and pass tests, do a lot of reading on your own. She’s a nurse and single mom who went back to school in her early 40s, finished her bachelor’s degree in nursing, and is now studying for her master’s degree at the University of Washington, where she’s on track to graduate as an advanced registered nurse practitioner next spring. Cut Down Work Hours. Specializes in School Nursing. I didn't care too much about group projects because the likelihood of getting a good grade relies on the dependability of your group mates. 3. That will weed out the weak and make the lazy still have to kick butt to pass. After I finished my master's I read a biochem text and had a lot of ah ha moments. Specializes in Behavioral Health. If the instructor doesn't like you, you fail. Hello, carachel2, does ut arlington fnp brick and mortar program arrange clinical sites for students? I put my students through their paces. Find out which programs and which individuals are successful and why then make sure accreditation requires these features. Mine has personally has. UT Arlington has a fantastic program if you are still looking. The instructors made things more difficult than they had to be.. and when they were angry at the behavior of some students, the entire cohort was punished. The faculty is usually more invested in their academic careers and in the success of their students3. I wasn't overly stressed out by my undergrad program and the grad program was harder by comparison. :). Each class is 3 hours long. Next … Add in biochemistry, physiology, 1000 clinical hours, two step board exam (one basic science based, one clinically based) and we will have competent providers. For example, other degrees include a Doctorate of Philosophy in Nursing (Ph.D.), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). I'd like to see all programs incorporate fellowships. By using the site you agree to our Privacy, Cookies, and Terms of Service Policies. Possibly combined. Since 1997, allnurses is trusted by nurses around the globe. research a topic of interest and approach an entity about a policy related to that topic and draft a change to that policy and try to motivate them to adopt your policy (not happening), etc. Clinical placements are 1:1 rather than a group so there are more opportunities to take control of your own learning experience. allnurses is a Nursing Career & Support site. What hasn’t changed is the notion that the foremost duty of the school nurse is to support student learning by keeping students healthy and safe. Posted Jan 7, 2018. But no basically its not adequate, not hard, doesn't completely prepare us clinically, and our board exam is a lol. The School is located in University Circle where students have ready access to premier health care organizations. Curious, is this for a school assignment of for personal knowledge? The schools is so supportive. That's how it should be, IMHO. Not all schools operate like that. There is a tendency to use scare tactics, enforce irrational stringent rules, and run students through the wringer in an attempt to make it look like the coveted nursing degree is only attainable by a select few. Anything else I need to know? I think biochem is a seriously lacking element of NP education. I know theres a lot of nursing school "fluff", which I have no problems with. I'm thinking of becoming a nurse practitioner but I'm worried that it may be overwhelmingly hard. Specializes in Urology NP.