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.

The case studies are making me nervous

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KittyKat2009,

I was fortunate and did not have trouble finding a job after graduation. I applied for over 20 jobs and ended up interviewing at 4 places and was offered all 4 jobs. I felt like I accepted the right position for me.

I too was extremely frustrated with the practicum coordinators. I felt like they did not do enough to help you find and secure a practicum site. I literally did my own research and found all my practicum sites without their help by calling around and walking into different places. I recommend this to everyone: do not wait for chamberlain to find you sites to go to for clinical-do your ground work and find them yourself.

I thought that Chamberlain was a well known nursing college so I would not get stigma when I applied for jobs. But at one place I interviewed the vice president of this large hospital system belittled me for going to chamberlain: a) because this person did not know what it was, and b) after I explained the school and how it was online the person acted like that would be a difficult learning platform. I felt disrespected because after graduation, I felt like chamberlain really prepared me to be a great FNP along with the convenience of online learning.

The stigma regarding practicum sites is they do not want to have to compete with an online school. They probably feel since they are local to an area they should have first priority for their students. I did not feel that stigma in my area when looking for practicum sites, but I found that several sites I was interested in were full because of other students at the local colleges.

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Momernurse,

I did not attend my graduation ceremony because it would have been in March or something. I know you can go to the graduation ceremony early (before you actually graduate). I just received my pin in the mail this week even though I did not attend.

For my clinicals: I shadowed a FNP at Walgreens for 16 weeks (acute care-saw children/adults/geriatrics), shadowed a OB/GYN for 8 weeks, pediatrician for 8 weeks, and lastly an internal medicine physician for 8 weeks.

I know chamberlain says you do not have to shadow in multiple areas (for example they let you graduate even if you did not have an OB/GYN clinical or require it). However, I strongly encourage anyone going to chamberlain to have a well balanced clinical experience. The reason: all the best jobs out there ask you where you attended clinical and what your experiences were there. I think it may limit job opportunities if you only had internal medicine and/or only saw geriatrics/adults especially since FNP means family nurse practitioner.

Every preceptor is different on what they allow you or do not allow you to do. In my Walgreens clinical my preceptor let me see patients on my own, chart under her name (she reviewed it of course), diagnose, and prescribe again with her review. The OB/GYN only let me do one pap smear and sometimes use the fetal doppler and measure fundal height-but this was her comfort zone and I was her first student. The pediatrician let me see patients on my own, gather information, complete assessments and then return to him and explain my findings…we would then go in together to see the patient. The internal medicine doctor wanted me to take vital signs BP, heart rate, RR, and then I would gather information on why the patient was there for their visit and we would do assessments together. As you can see every preceptor's comfort zone was different on what they allowed me to do. I liked taking on more of an APN role during clinical but I also did not want to get in the way of the flow of work.

As for your list of questions for the doctor: what are your expectations of me for while I'm here-shadow only, independent work, collaboration etc, would you allow me to collect basic information before you saw the patient, would you allow me to do assessments independently or with you, do you want me to collect vital signs, what can I do to help work flow, at my previous clinical my preceptor allowed me to collect information and complete an assessment independently…would you be comfortable with this.

I found that I would shadow for a few days and then the preceptor would get more comfortable with letting me do things independently. I tried to take on new challenges and act confident about seeing patients by myself even though I was nervous to do so.

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Simvee,

I accepted a position in an outpatient clinic for primary care where I will be working in collaboration with a family medicine physician. This means that we both will see the same group of patients and work independently, but the physician will oversee my work. When I chose this job I wanted to work stable hours m-f -8am to 5pm, no holidays, not be on call, almost no weekends (I have to work one Saturday a month from 9-noon) as well as be able to work in a setting that would allow me to learn primary care.

When I was applying for jobs there were more opportunities for outpatient work in clinics versus inpatient work. I think it depends on the facility you are working for, as well as your states NP laws regarding how NPs work. I found that the inpatient positions saw both inpatient and outpatients and had more unstable hours meaning the hours state from 8-5pm but you may need to come in later like 10 and work until 8pm, or you may work from 8-8pm depending on the patients. Also there was call and weekend work to check on inpatients. You would have to factor in what type of career, life, etc that you want to have based on what hours you would be working.

The job offers were- two similar jobs at hospital based clinics working in primary care, a job in internal medicine but with a focus on primary care working for 2 physicians in a small group practice, and a job at a Medicaid only patient based pediatric clinic.

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Oh no! I'm a travel nurse. I start the program in September. When do you start doing clinicals? In what class? Or is it EVERY class? I wonder if I'll have a problem finding sites because I never know what state I will be working in. You might have answered this question already but there are a lot of pages here. Thank you for your time.

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Gogetter73,

You start clinicals in NR 511- Differential diagnosis and primary care which is part of the FNP track classes. These classes do not start for at least a year or so, but it depends on how fast you complete the core classes.

These clinicals are every 8 weeks, just like every class, and the requirement is to obtain 125 hours of clinical time with either a MD or a nurse practitioner. You are not allowed to shadow a physician assistant. There are a total of 5 clinical classes which comes out to about 10 months of clinical putting in at least an average of 16 hours a week of clinical time.

I'm not sure how long your travel assignments are for your travel nurse schedule, but somehow you would need to find time to complete clinical and the amount of hours for each 8 week class. According to the clinical classes rubric you will fail the class if the clinical hours are not submitted on time or not done.

It also may be difficult for you to find clinical sites because a) you don't know where to go in the area for clinical, b) no one in that state knows you and can vouch for you aka you don't have connections in each state, c) your work assignments are not long enough to complete the amount of clinical hours in time, d) it's too far to commute from your job to the clinical rotation site.

Not only do you need to consider the struggles listed above, but also you need to make sure that you pick out clinical sites that are aimed for you obtaining a future family nurse practitioner job. Meaning you should have well rounded clinical rotations where you shadow in these 3 areas: OB/GYN, internal medicine, and pediatrics as some part of your clinical experience. I found when I was applying for jobs, especially hospital jobs, they asked me where I went to clinical, what I did there, and who I shadowed.

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Hi, chamberlainFNP2015,

I'm so lucky to come across to your post! I'm finishing up with my online RN-BSN in 2 weeks. That's why I'd like to continue pursuing my FNP program online as well. After searching and searching, I narrowed my options down to Chamberlain and South University, because both of them allow me to take one course at a time as I preferred. After reading several negative reviews on both programs, I've decide to choose chamberlain coz the issues that been exposed were minor to me, whereas financial aid issues that been complained about south university are totally different stories. Besides, I do like having syllabus offered when it comes to I have to pass a course with B at least. My questions are: is chamberlain FNP approved for Texas?(I'm moving to DFW in 2 wks.) have you doubled up any courses in your journey? If not, what courses do u feel are manageable if doubling up? How long did it take u to finish the entire program? Personal question: if I get pregnant in the program, will I be able to take breaks accordingly in btw? Have u heard anyone doing so in ur program? Thx. Since I won't have any local connections in DFW area, do u recommend me to wait several months first or to start hunting preceptor sites out of blind right away? Coz I heard one have to find preceptor site for admission before starting the program, right?! May I ask which state ur resident in, and how many years of experience as a RN under ur belt by the time of your job hunting? Did it make big differences on your staring pay rate?

Really appreciate your help in advance. Congratulations on your new job!

Lexie

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According to Chamberlain's website regarding if the FNP track is approved for Texas it states: MSN Family Nurse Practitioner Specialty Track- The Texas Board of Nursing does not regulate post-licensure education programs and therefore does not approve or disapprove this program.” I know the MSN program at Chamberlain is accredited by the CCNE which is extremely important when not only going to school but obtaining a job thereafter. If you have concerns about completing the Chamberlain program in Texas I would recommend talking to facilities in the area about if they would consider hiring someone who went through the Chamberlain FNP program to get their feedback.

I doubled up on classes twice during the program and I highly recommend this to finish quicker. You are only allowed to double up on the beginning classes or the core classes and not the FNP track classes. I took NR-501 Theoretical basis advanced nursing and NR-512-Nursing informatics together and then I took NR-506 Health care policy and NR-505 Advanced research methods: evidence based practice together. I worked between 24-32 hours over 3 days a week as a registered nurse during the entire Chamberlain program. What is nice about Chamberlain is for most classes they give you all 8 weeks of the class up front during preview week which is 1 week before the official start date of the actual class. During those preview weeks for every class I took, I would buckle down and complete as much of the class work (discussion boards and papers) as I could. Some classes I could complete the homework in about 3-5 days and others it took about 10 days. I would do homework during preview week on my days off and the weekend for over 10 hours a day to get it all done. Then I would have 7 weeks or so off and just submit the homework as directed by the class. I would also have time to review and re-read my papers and not stress about getting everything done for each week especially if I had something fun planned on the weekend. This worked great for the basic core classes, but during the FNP track the discussion boards are 2 part in which the second part is not revealed until Tuesday or Wednesday during each week.

I started classes at Chamberlain in January of 2014 and graduated in December of 2015. I went to class year round-no summer breaks and doubled up on classes twice to finish quicker. Also before starting chamberlain, in the fall of 2013, I completed a 16 week Advanced pathology class as a student at large at the local college.

If you get pregnant during the program, you can take breaks, but if you have financial aid, from my understanding, they make you take over 16 weeks off due to how financial aid is regulated and the fact that Chamberlain classes are every 8 weeks. In addition, taking care of a new born may be a challenge when completing clinical, which are 10 months-at least 16 hours a week as well as completing extremely demanding discussion boards for the FNP track classes. I don't have children and it was an extremely difficult 10 months of clinical, homework, and working 24-32 hours a week. In addition to finishing the program, then you need to prepare for boards in order to obtain your APN license which is like preparing to take the NCLEX.

You do not need to find a preceptor site for admission to Chamberlain, but Chamberlain encourages you to reach out to connections you may have to secure sites well in advance. You can only shadow nurse practitioners or MDs. You do not want to get down to the wire for your FNP track classes without having a site lined up, otherwise you would not be able to continue in the program. I started looking for a site about a year in advance and did not get things figured out until about 3 months or so before my clinical class started and then I did not have another site lined up so I was fortunate to be able to stay at that clinical site for a total of 16 weeks which bought me more time to find another site. I have to say locating clinical sites can be extremely challenging and Chamberlain tries to help, but in my case was unsuccessful. I had to find and locate all my clinical sites on my own. I would recommend that you start the program and look for sites when your FNP track classes are about a year away. That way you'll be able to tell your preceptors the exact dates for when you need them. Also, of course, there is paperwork: contracts between Chamberlain and the clinical site and preceptor profiles that need to be taken care of before going to a clinical site. Chamberlain needs to approve both.

I have about 7 years of experience as a registered nurse working in multiple care areas and I felt like this experience has helped me not only to get through the Chamberlain FNP program but also helped me obtain a job in a primary care setting as a FNP. From my hospital interviews they stated that salary was based on the number of years of experience as a nurse and number of years as a FNP. However, the offers I received for salary varied significantly by the type of practice- private practice versus hospital versus Medicaid only clinics. Also the type of work at each facility varied. You should have a salary that is in line with the work you would be doing but is also something you are comfortable with making. I would say to have a goal salary in mind when going to job interviews based on the area you are looking in and remember there is always room to negotiate when an offer is made. Also as a FNP you went to graduate school so you should never settle for making around what you made as a nurse. The salary I accepted was in line with what I researched I should be making for the area and was around my goal salary. After negotiations, I also was able to receive a sign on bonus. In addition, the benefits the facility offered (PTO, health insurance, 403B etc) were above and beyond in comparison to the other offers I received. I also factored in the type of work I would be doing there as well and what would be expected of me at the facility.

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Chamberlianfnp2015,

thank you for your informative response. I officially got in touch with Chamberlian today and just finished the initial application part over the phone. Just for anyone interested in applying as well, they are taking applications for start date of 10/24/2016 now, all earlier sections are full n closed. I personally enjoyed the whole conversation with them, no stress, simple straight forward, and very open to answer all my questions and concerns. I have a good feeling about making this decision. And thanks to you, they were surprised that I already knew so much in details about Chamberlian. Again, I hope you find yourself happy in this new career, and God bless your kind heart for returning help to us newbies struggling in the unknowns.

Lexie

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Lexie056,

Thank you so much for your sweet comments! I'm glad I could be so helpful! That's great you're having such a great experience with Chamberlain. I'm shocked to hear that all earlier sections are closed/full and that you have to wait until October to start classes. There must be a lot of nurses who have decided to go back to school to become FNP's. This is a very exciting time to become a nurse practitioner. I wish you all the best in your journey at Chamberlain and in your future career.

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Hello would you happen to have your case studies for nr602 I'm having some challenges it would be of great help or can I email you.

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Asanteke,

I saved all my course work for all the classes I took at chamberlain. What case discussion are you having trouble with?

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