BSN to FNP advice?

[NPs4health]

Hello everyone,

I am graduating this December with my BSN and planning to apply for FNP program following one year of working as a telemetry RN. I really would like to continue with school as soon as possible because I'm afraid I might not go back to being a student if I don't do it soon. But my concern is, how to Iconvince the admissions committee when I don't have the 10+ yrs of work experience everyone else does? And what things can I do while out of school to improve my chances? I would appreciate any advice you have to offer!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Hi and welcome and congrats on your upcoming graduation. I think with a year of solid assessment experience, you should be fine to go back for your NP. You might even try to doing some of the core classes (non-clinical ones) starting in Jan - that way you'll be ready for clinicals in a year. Good luck.

My only concern would be - how do you know what kind of NP you want to do?

[Beth NP]

Hi there-

Congrats on your graduation! That is a great accomplishment. As for the NP program, I will say that I believe having an excellent clinical background REALLY helps to make the transition to NP easier. At the same time, I will also tell you that if you were a very strong BSN student, you may do just fine moving right into the program. If you were indeed a very strong student, you may not have any issue getting the admissions committee to accept you.