I am an undergraduate student studying a non-nursing major and would like to ultimately pursue a MSN via direct entry program. For a good chunk of my life, I always thought I wanted to go to medical school until my mother grew chronically ill. After spending a lot of time with her at so many different hospitals and in various settings, I discovered what NPs do and have never looked back since--I knew this is what I wanted to pursue after graduating.
With that being said, I've gotten a lot of mixed opinions about direct entry MSN graduates ranging from "yes, they're great, there is a great lack of APPs in the US" to "don't even think about getting your master's without having X amount of years of experience as a bedside nurse first." Honestly, after doing the math, I figured that it would be more reasonable for me to just get my MSN rather than a second bachelor's and then having to eventually having to reapply to get my master's when I'm much older.
I know for a fact there are a lot of successful APPs who never had experience being a bedside nurse, but are still thriving as providers. However, it just seems like I get a LOT of backlash from some students/older nurses who are incredibly critical about my ambitions and it borderline feels like they're bullying me into becoming "one of them first" by telling me that my current plans are "not respectable in their field".
I guess what I'm wondering is--is this what the majority of the healthcare industry thinks of NPs who did direct entry programs? I already know I'm gonna get bombarded with the "you need bedside experience first" on this post, but my question is, why do established universities like UCSF, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Columbia, Vanderbilt, Emory, (the list goes on) offer these programs if they didn't produce well-rounded, competent individuals?
Are there any NPs who went through one of these direct entry programs? Am I gonna have to spend my entire career justifying my academic/career decisions to people who can't handle that nursing is changing? I'm not even in the program yet and I already feel like I have to keep my plans on the "down low" from fear of backlash.
What's more important than having nursing experience is attending a good, solid NP program. If you are doing a direct entry program it CANNOT be online - you absolutely have to do an on campus program.
Dodongo, APRN, NP
793 Posts
What's more important than having nursing experience is attending a good, solid NP program. If you are doing a direct entry program it CANNOT be online - you absolutely have to do an on campus program.