Help!!! What's a Healthcare Practitioner Certification.

Monica RN,BSN · Feb 23, 2004

When a nurse completes a Masters in Nursing Program, they then can pick a specialty. These are called graduate certificates, such as Nurse practioner, Nursing education, geriatrics, and many others that a nurse could complete on the Master's level.

Hope this helps!

Monica

ResearchRN · Feb 24, 2004

I checked out the website: http://www.rluniversity.com/default.asp

Sounds too good to be true to me, but you never know.

suzanne4, RN · Feb 24, 2004

1. As of last week they still were not on California's list of approved school's of nursing.

2.. What would be the reason for them to offer a full four year scholarship?

What are you giving them? A Nurse Practitioner program in the US is only 2 years. Why are they giving free scholarships to foreign-born nurses and not to US citizens? Something sounds very, very fishy. Before any of you do something like this talk to California Board of Nursing first and get their opinion. Are they having you sign a contract to work for so many years after finishing? :uhoh21:

suzanne4, RN · Feb 24, 2004

Even the title "Healthcare Practitioner Certification" sounds fishy. We do not use that title in the US. There was another thread about this program also, but the nurse never followed up about it.

lady_jezebel · Feb 25, 2004

I agree -- this school does not sound legitimate. That is why they are focusing on international candidates, without a doubt. And offering "scholarships" to attend their program? What kind of debt would that eventually place you it?? And what would be your up front costs?? Do not even consider programs that lack credidation, they are scams.

We need nurses in the US. If you're interested in attending graduate school here, why not find a university hospital? Most of them offer free or reduced-rate education if you agree to work for them in exchange. I'm at the University of Washington in Seattle, for example:

http://www.washington.edu (can do a search for both the UW medical center & the nursing school from this link)

Nuru99 · Feb 25, 2004

Hello all,

Thanks so much for all the info + advise you've been giving me. I did a bit more digging in the "nurse resisdency" program and basically it comes down to this. According to them The Residency Program is an educational program designed as a career

ladder for RNs.

There are 3 levels to it Level 1 which is the certification part (Takes 4 years to complete with 3 years being a clinical component and the last year having a theoretical component

Level 2 which is the credential i.e BSN program

And Level 3 which is the MSN program

Apparently each level credential represents advanced training as a Healthcare Practitioner.

This is part of an email they sent me

"Upon graduation, Certified Healthcare Practitioners typically earn

between $75,000 - $120,000 USD while specializing in any of the following

areas:

*ER

*Maternal/Child

*Med/Surg

*Neonatal ICU

*Oncology

*Peds

*Perinatal

Regardless of what credential level you choose, your Arlington University Scholarship will cover the cost of your tuition, books, supplies, uniforms, computer, as well as providing you with a yearly $2,400 USD Health Insurance subsidy and a TAX-FREE living expense allotment of

$30,000 USD annually. During this time you will also receive a yearly housing subsidy ranging between $18,000 and $24,000 USD depending on the cost of living in the area where your residency takes place.

Arlington University's academic year consists of two semesters totaling approximately 10.5 months. The remaining six weeks are vacation periods where you are free to travel the country or go home and visit friends and family. The residency program works off of "rolling admission".

Upon acceptance into the residency program you will receive a personalized course schedule and calendar outlining the start date for each of the two semesters required per academic year. Since, Arlington University has Residency Programs starting in most of the major cities through out the US we give our candidates the option of telling us what area they would prefer to perform their Residency in.

Having spoken to one of the "course leaders" I've found out that the program is aimed mainly at Canadians

Yes you do have to sign a contract that says you have to work for hospitals

1 selected by them as them (but they say they have several to chose from)

2. you are tied to working for them for a least 4 years

3 To remain eligible to receive scholarship funds, Scholarship Recipient must maintain a full-time student status

4 To maintain full-time status the student will complete 168 clinical lab hours per month within the clinical lab setting (that's over 40hrs per week is that normal)

There's a list of 10 furthur conditions which you have to sign including penalties of not completing your 4 years level 1.

The scholarship is funded by the Healthcare Practitioners Scholarship Associates Fund (HPSAF) and conveyed to Scholarship Recipient through Arlington University.

Needless to say I'm not going on that program. I already have a Bsc don't want to spend 5 years getting another one. I was just curious when they said that the health care practioner had more autonomy than a NP and hadn't heard of that particular title before.

Thank all for the info.

Double thanks for the info on checking out wether the university is an approved school of nursing

and UW site.