Hello fellow nurses. I know, I know.... I "knew what I was getting into"...but honestly, I didn't know it would be this bad! I am attending a brick and mortar FNP program about half an hour from where I live. It's been around for many many years. I knew, based on the good ol grapevine, that it wouldn't be super easy finding clinical placements, but I also did not know it would borderline give me stress induced ulcers.
My instructors casually told us on the first day that it was probably too early to secure a clinical now, but to do it the semester before it starts. I am not sure how or why this is the advice they give because if they are that ignorant to the reality of it, I fear for us. I started calling a couple of weeks ago for the pediatric rotation that starts Spring 2020. I have now contacted (mostly phone, a few email) over 20 offices and clinics with no success. A few said they were booked with students until Fall 2020 (my expected graduation....)and majority that they do not take students. I guess the class size at my school has been increasing dramatically and we are the biggest FNP class to ever grace their halls, so yeah, we have officially outgrown the area.
I am hesitant to commit further if I am going to get to next spring and not have a placement and be forced to sit out/pay more money for unnecessary classes in order to stay matriculated while waiting. I emailed the clinical coordinator (who literally just sends paperwork to the sites after you find one) twice in the past week addressing the issues and asking for pointers with no response.
Sounds like this is very common and I am saddened, angered, and in disbelief that this is how the NP education is rolled out. What a joke....a totally not funny joke.
Any advice on how to secure something? Words of encouragement? A slap to my naive head? A pat on the back with a sympathetic "good luck"? If anything, thank you for "listening".
Hello, I am currently attending Herzing University in their FNP program. I read about the sawyer initiative as well and reached out to Lori at the CCNE. She was very supportive and gave me a letter to share with my school reinforcing the CCNE standards which require the school to find clinical placement for the students. Once the school clinical placement coordinator found out that I was aware of the guidelines and had been in touch with the CCNE directly, they totally changed their tune. The lady claimed that they do follow the CCNE guidelines and that they never stated that they would not find me clinical placement. I was also notified that I would probably have to travel out of state. I am excited that they are finding me a clinical site but also feel anxious because I have no idea how I am going to pull off traveling to another state, I have no idea where they will be sending me.
I tried to share this information with the other students at herzing but I think they just thought that I was crazy. Lori at the CCNE encouraged me to share the email with my fellow students. May advice to you would be to reach out to the CCNE as there is also a formal complaint process that you can follow if they are not receptive.
Good luck.
Robyn
Tha k you for your reply and information ? That's great that you got such a good response from the CCNE. I had reached out to them a couple of months ago and did receive a response, but not a great one like you. Basically they just repeated what the ccne guidelines state. Maybe I will contact Lori directly. It stinks that you have to go out of state, but I guess good that you will at least be able to complete the program because of it.
Hello, I am currently attending Herzing University in their FNP program. I read about the sawyer initiative as well and reached out to Lori at the CCNE. She was very supportive and gave me a letter to share with my school reinforcing the CCNE standards which require the school to find clinical placement for the students. Once the school clinical placement coordinator found out that I was aware of the guidelines and had been in touch with the CCNE directly, they totally changed their tune. The lady claimed that they do follow the CCNE guidelines and that they never stated that they would not find me clinical placement. I was also notified that I would probably have to travel out of state. I am excited that they are finding me a clinical site but also feel anxious because I have no idea how I am going to pull off traveling to another state, I have no idea where they will be sending me.
I tried to share this information with the other students at herzing but I think they just thought that I was crazy. Lori at the CCNE encouraged me to share the email with my fellow students. May advice to you would be to reach out to the CCNE as there is also a formal complaint process that you can follow if they are not receptive.
Good luck.
Robyn
When I informed my school of the change the clinical director was irritated with me and there would be a formal announcement coming, that never happened, when I asked again she said she would place me across the country one day a week... What I don't understand is that if medical schools and PA programs can do it why is FNP so special.
When I informed my school of the change the clinical director was irritated with me and there would be a formal announcement coming, that never happened, when I asked again she said she would place me across the country one day a week... What I don't understand is that if medical schools and PA programs can do it why is FNP so special.
Yikes. Her response was a bit passive aggressive there. I think it's absolutely ridiculous and criminal that universities play no part in the clinical placement and yet charge thousands for the credits when doing borderline nothing. It's an embarrassment to the profession that this is how it is.
I am a recent graduate from Herzing University MSN-FNP Program, last year 2018. I must admit I was annoyed when I found out that I had to find my own preceptors, again. Because I had to do this when I attended SUNY Delhi for my BSN online program.
Good thing I have been in the field for over 15 years and have met a lot of people along the way, in different hospitals and settings. So I was able to ask present and previous co-workers and colleagues if they were willing to precept or if they knew anyone nice enough, liked to teach, and knew their business, that would not mind.
I must tell you that I was crushed to find out that you can not do clinical's where you work. So that ruined all the preceptors that had agreed to precept me in the ER at my job. So it was a bit stressful. Good thing I informed my Herzing counselor and he guided me on who was the person to ask at Herzing that could help. They asked a previous NP preceptor and he had agreed. Herzing pulled through for me for my first clinical. After that it was colleagues and co-workers that had helped me out.
By the way if you Google "NP Preceptor site" some helpful sites come up. One is called, "Connecting Nurse Practitioners & Students." Another place that could help is on LinkedIN. He actually contacted me and his name is Krish Chopra, a CEO of NPHub. He helps NP students and Medical students Nationwide. He has a calendar site to speak with him 1:1. It is https://calendly.com/krishchopra/introcall. Good luck on your preceptor search!
Hello, I am currently attending Herzing University in their FNP program. I read about the sawyer initiative as well and reached out to Lori at the CCNE. She was very supportive and gave me a letter to share with my school reinforcing the CCNE standards which require the school to find clinical placement for the students. Once the school clinical placement coordinator found out that I was aware of the guidelines and had been in touch with the CCNE directly, they totally changed their tune. The lady claimed that they do follow the CCNE guidelines and that they never stated that they would not find me clinical placement. I was also notified that I would probably have to travel out of state. I am excited that they are finding me a clinical site but also feel anxious because I have no idea how I am going to pull off traveling to another state, I have no idea where they will be sending me.
I tried to share this information with the other students at herzing but I think they just thought that I was crazy. Lori at the CCNE encouraged me to share the email with my fellow students. May advice to you would be to reach out to the CCNE as there is also a formal complaint process that you can follow if they are not receptive.
Good luck.
Robyn
Hi Bosslady951,
Please email me the letter to [email protected]. I'm currently in the Herzing FNP program and begin my clinical rotations in the fall semester. Thanks!
It's been a few months now with nearly 50 pediatric offices and clinics contacted with no luck. I've tried places up to 2 hours away. I contacted the clinical coordinator at my school for help/guidance twice and she never responded. I went to the assistant to the dean and she told me to "make a list and keep trying". I found one family Practice willing to take me. I had them run some data however, and they don't see enough pediatric patients to satisfy my 200 hour requirement.
I emailed the coordinator again asking for guidance. Never responded again and it's been weeks. I contacted the chair of the program. Never responded. I finally contacted the dean and she CC'ed the head of the pediatric portion of the program to our email thread. This professor didn't realize that when she responded to the dean, I too would receive the email. She called it crazy that a student would call that many offices and said that with students calling like this "no wonder the pediatricians are annoyed with us and won't take any students". First she admits there are no placements available and then she goes and blames this whole situation on the students! I responded to her asking if she has a better suggestion since the program offers little no no guidance whatsoever. She apologized for me seeing the email and offered no guidance except that they are aware there is a problen. How can these programs continue admitting so many people and taking their money while knowing there is not enough clinical sites?!I
I studied very hard this semester (to supplement the subpar teaching this program provides). I am a 4.0 student and I will likely not return because I can not find a clinical site and am not willing to spend thousands more on this poor excuse of a program.
I emailed the coordinator again asking for guidance. Never responded again and it's been weeks. I contacted the chair of the program. Never responded. I finally contacted the dean and she CC'ed the head of the pediatric portion of the program to our email thread. This professor didn't realize that when she responded to the dean, I too would receive the email. She called it crazy that a student would call that many offices and said that with students calling like this "no wonder the pediatricians are annoyed with us and won't take any students". First she admits there are no placements available and then she goes and blames this whole situation on the students! I responded to her asking if she has a better suggestion since the program offers little no no guidance whatsoever. She apologized for me seeing the email and offered no guidance except that they are aware there is a problen.
On 4/26/2019 at 9:31 PM, naptimeRN said:
I studied very hard this semester (to supplement the subpar teaching this program provides). I am a 4.0 student and I will likely not return because I can not find a clinical site and am not willing to spend thousands more on this poor excuse of a program
Is there a reason that all of this together with the CCNE guidelines wouldn't be considered information in support of a private legal action? Or is private legal action just not feasible/not worth it?
naptimeRN
188 Posts
Tha k you for your reply and information ? That's great that you got such a good response from the CCNE. I had reached out to them a couple of months ago and did receive a response, but not a great one like you. Basically they just repeated what the ccne guidelines state. Maybe I will contact Lori directly. It stinks that you have to go out of state, but I guess good that you will at least be able to complete the program because of it.