Questions on FNP Program

Nursing Students Texas (UTA)

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I completed my RN-BSN from UT Arlington in Spring 2015. I am now planning to start my Masters but had a few questions.

1) Can you take 1 class at a time in the program ? If you take 1 class at a time how long will it take you to complete.

2) Looks like some online FNP programs expect you to stop working during your preceptorship (I think UTMB's website has that). Does UTA's program have this requirement ?

3) For those of you who did your BSN from UTA do we have to apply from scratch again ?

Thanks

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Specializes in ICU.

Hi, I got my BSN for UTA and am in UTA's AP FNP program now.

1. Yes, you can. Be warned that to get financial aid, you have to have 6 credit hours a semester. If you take a 10 week course and a 5 week course sequentially, you can get 6 credit hours. You cannot fit two 10 week courses in one semester going 1 class at a time. This means you will need to pay out of pocket or make other arrangements for classes, and the classes aren't cheap.

I started in 2014 and I'll graduate in 2018, taking one class at a time.

2. UTA strongly recommends going part time, but this is not feasible for a lot of people. I must work full time. It is not a requirement, but it is time consuming. I have a full time job, a family, and school and I have to make sacrifices to at least one of those every week. Free time? What's that? (I'm writing this from work during a slow time, BTW)

You do not get to pick and choose your courses like you did with your BSN at UTA. They give youy a course map and that's what you're going to do. Now, you CAN email your advisor and ask for this or that, or even take a semester off if you need to, but it's not a "do your own thing" program like the BSN was. I really dislike that aspect of it, but it is what it is. I'm on my 6th class right now, and I have 3 more academic classes and then it's all clinicals.

You have to give a lot more for the FNP program. It's not all writing papers. I never thought I'd say that I missed writing papers, but I miss just writing papers. The tests are proctored via webcam, and not the webcam in your laptop. You have to buy an external webcam and a tripod, show your ID to the camera, etc. Pretty involved. In Assessment, you have to find an adult and pedi patient to videotape assessments on. I think we have to make a total of 14 videos, and two of them are interactive i.e. the lab faculty is skyping you instead of you just doing it on your own time and submitting it. It's not easy, and they throw these requirements at you at the last minute like it's no big deal.

If I sound like I'm complaining, well I am. It can be a mess. But, I am learning a lot and I do feel I am becoming more and more prepared to be an FNP. Hopefully, the program will mature and they'll get rid of some of the more ridiculous things. I know there's a significant dropout rate, with students bailing for other programs. I plan to stay to the end.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

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Are the classes 5 weeks long like the RN-BSN program? And can you choose to do all clinicals at the end? Do you get to choose where you would do your clinicals? How many clinical hours? Thanks in advance[emoji106]🏻

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I know this post was from quite some time ago. Do you know how many people have dropped out? Just scrolling through some of the forums, its pretty disheartening of the experiences of the UT FNP students. I definitely don't want to become a statistic and am willing to work hard, BUT I will not put myself somewhere that is setting me up for failure.

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