Accepted...have concerns

Nursing Students NP Students

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I recently received my acceptance letter into a local university NP program. The university has been around for some time, but the program is new, so it is not accredited as of yet.

I am concerned about eligibility for sitting for the boards once finished. Has anyone else had any experience with this kind of situation?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and assistance with this situation.

Just for my own piece of mind, I would not go to any school that is not accredited yet. That being said, every school has to start somewhere, and they need to have students for their first few classes. Kind of a catch 22. Although most schools accreditation process goes ok, there are instances where there is a glitch and the school doesn't get it's accreditation and all those students who graduated are screwed for a year or so until the school can fix the problem and get accredited. Personally, I wouldn't want to take that chance, so I would never go to a school that is just starting it's nursing program....even if it's a well-known reputable school.

Is it just starting an NP program or the entire nursing dept? If it's just NP and their RN program has a good rep and pass rate I would go. If it's the entire nursing dept I wouldn't.

Another thing to think about is first classes go through hell. I did it in my schools pilot lvn to bsn program and things changed all. The. Time. It definitely added to the stress of school.

Specializes in Emergency.

I wouldn't want to be a guinea pig while they flush out their curriculum, but more importantly how they deal with preceptors and clinicals. I wouldn't go to a program that wasn't at least 4-5 years old or from a school that had been doing this kind of program for a long time. I mean if it's a new PNP program but the school has a FNP program, well that would be ok, but new to APRN education completely, no thanks, not unless it was offering something substantially better in return for the large risk you are taking both in time and $$.

I wouldn't want to be a guinea pig while they flush out their curriculum.

You phrased it much better than I could, that is exactly what we were in my pilot program. Holy stress batman.

Specializes in ICU.

I'm currently going through as the first class in a new AG-ACNP program. However- the school is very well known for it's other APRN programs. I worried at first about it- but was comforted knowing the school's overall reputation was excellent. (And the program director came from another amazing university and knows what he's doing!) My first couple terms are combined with other programs, however, so I guess I won't be able to say how it is being a "guinea pig" for some time.

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