FNP Graduate from Chamberlain College of Nursing Dec 2015

Nursing Students Chamberlain College

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I'm a family nurse practitioner and graduated from Chamberlain College of Nursing's FNP program as of December 2015.

Lately I have been getting a lot of questions from nurses either looking to start Chamberlains FNP program or who are in the program.

I decided that I would create a blog to address these questions. Feel free to ask me anything about Chamberlain's FNP program.

At first only some of the books were ebooks and I had to buy I think 2 or 3 books during the entire program but as I was nearing the end of the program it seemed like chamberlain was making everything ebooks which was great! It's easy to fing the information in ebooks because there is a search bar and you can highlight important information easily. And no more stress on buying and selling books online for classes.

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I wanted to ask you how the immersion weekend is? Is it really hard? I am nervous about it. Is it made so that we all pass? How is the exam on Sunday? Do they give you enough time to practice? Also the stations/simulations they give you do they just give you a blank paper and you write what you want or do they let us know what they expect?

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Momernurse,

I was nervous going into the immersion weekend too because I did not know what to expect. But immersion weekend is a lot of fun and it was great meeting my peers from around the United States.

When you show up to the immersion weekend everyone is given Chamberlain lab coats and name badges with an assigned partner on the name badge and a number. The assigned partner is the person that you will be completing your assessment exam on and they will be doing the assessment exam on you. The number is which classroom you are assigned to go to throughout the day.

Day 1: At each classroom/station they go over everything that you will need to know for each assessment: derm, neuro, EENT, gastro etc. You will have to know how to do each assessment so you will have lots of practice time during each class and you can practice at home on your family if you live nearby or practice on your peers at the hotel. For each station/classroom, you are given a pad of paper to take notes and chamberlain also sends you all the information on how to do each assessment and how each assessment is graded. So all the expectations are written out for you to memorize and practice on peers and/or family. At each station all the supplies except your own stethoscope (bring that both days) are there too that you would be using during the exam like otoscope, ophthalmoscope, rubber hammer to test reflexes, etc. You will have to use these during the assessment exam so become familiar with them during the practice sessions.

Each station also is assigned several teachers from the advanced assessment classes and also additional family nurse practitioners so they provide hands on experience and guide you throughout and answer any questions you have.

There is also an additional class that is NOT an assessment class to go over the clinical expectations and answer questions or concerns about clinical sites, what constitutes clinical hours, and how to submit patients you see at clinical. All patients you see have to be submitted though Online Clinic Submission.

Day 2: you pick out of a fishbowl a random assessment that is your exam. There is no written exam just a hands on physical assessment of your assigned peer that is watched and graded the same day by one of the assigned teachers. They give you 2 chances to get it right especially if you are nervous. But this grade counts as a large part of your grade for the class and you have to pass immersion weekend to go on to the next class.

Overall, after completing immersion weekend I felt more set to go to clinical because I had more nurse practitioner assessment skills than I had before.

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I have an additional question. Just wondering if you know the answer. The clinical component (125 hrs) is 8 weeks x's 5, for a total of 10 months basically. Can you speed up the hours for the clinical portion or do they have to be done "per session?" 10 months worth of this plays a huge role on work/life balance. With Frontier the clinical hours can be bulked up in as little as 4 mo's to 10 mo's. Just wondering! Ty

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843all4God,

10 months is a long time for clinical but it really prepares you for becoming a nurse practitioner. I can understand that it does play a huge role on work/life balance and it wasn't easy at times. Unfortunately you cannot speed up the hours. They have to be done per class meaning you have to complete at least 125 hours for every 8 week class for the FNP track. Each 8 week class you have to submit to Chamberlain where you are going for clinical (clinical agreement with chamberlain and the clinical site needs to be in place) and what preceptor you are following with their credentials. Also chamberlain has you track your hours based on the patients you see and you have to submit them to grad.elogs.org.

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After I submitted this to you, I thought about that. Thanks again! I know I'm thinking in advance but I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make all of this work....

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Thank you soooo much for the infomation:) You are the best.... I feel much more better about this weekend.

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Its 125 hrs q 8 weeks in 10 months. No you can not bulk it together. Also, make sure you get a family practice NP or doctor to help precept you otherwise you will have problems.

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Momernurse,

You're welcome! Glad I could help.

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You can't imagine how much:)

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Hello, I'm currently enrolled at Chamberlain through their RN-BSN program. I am strongly contemplating enrolling in their MSN-FNP program when I finish with my current program. Last year I broth graduated nursing school and obtained my license in November. I'm currently practicing in a Behavioral/Mental heath hospital per diem. No experience what so ever in general floor nursing. Scared this will affect the current knowledge that I have in medical surgical and other specialty knowledge. What do you think? Going into this FNP program will I be relearning everything from scratch as well as from such an advanced level? Is there any reason to be concerned?

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I'm sure you are wanting the recent graduate to respond but I thought I'd also respond. You have your foundation and training. If you enjoy psych, why not focus in on the FNP program and stay in that direction once you complete?

It never hurts to continue to learn but I think once you get back into it, your basic knowledge will kick back in.

Good luck

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