I am trying to decide whether I should do ACNP or FNP. I am totally confused. It would be great to have some insight from anyone who is or going for ACNP or FNP.
Is anyone in the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (ACNP) or Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program now? if yes, which school are you going to? how is the program so far? How much is it going to cost you? is the program all online? How did you decide if you wanted to do ACNP or FNP? What factors did you take into consideration when deciding to do ACNP or FNP? Is anyone done with their program for FNP or ACNP? if yes, How is the job hunt or if you already have a job, how is that going? How is the workload and how is it on the floor? what are the hours of work?
I am thinking of going to GCU for NP school. Anyone have any insight on how the FNP and ACNP programs are at GCU?
I am halfway through the AGACNP program at UCONN. I'm in-state so the program is a lot cheaper than most online schools. It's an excellent program and I have all my clinical preceptors arranged for me at the top hospitals in the state. I've done most of the fluff classes online and am now doing a class on site with a lab. I decided to do acute care because I've always worked acute inpatient and have a long background in ICU. I have no desire to work with children or work in the community. Ideally I'd like to end up in a specialty, or ICU or an urgent care facility. Not ready to look for a job just yet though. Personally I wouldn't advise doing an online acute program. I wouldn't feel safe or feel that I'd have enough input. The first year wasn't too taxing but this year is much tougher and I am studying every night and all weekend even though I'm averaging A's. I have 23 years experience with 15 in critical care.
Personally I wouldn't advise doing an online acute program. I wouldn't feel safe or feel that I'd have enough input.
I couldn't agree more! Unless your program has many in-person days, I would Not choose online for acute care! We do simulation labs all the time. We spent an entire quarter learning procedures and practicing managing code situations. There's no way to get that same experience online.
Thank you so much for your input. I appreciate it so much. There are few schools in Arizona for ACNP and FNP. Most are online and the only one that is on campus is the DNP program. The cost for NP school here is about 30K - 45K depending upon school for online. The DNP program is much more expensive and longer route to start for if I start with my BSN. That's why I thought it would be better to get MSN and then work and get DNP while working.
I've been a nurse since 2012. I have experience in home health - private duty, chemical dependence detox, telemetry unit as well. I am planning on transferring to either ER or ICU, whatever comes first for more acute experience.
As far as the clinical goes, I have to arrange that. I know couple of people that did their clinical at my hospital and they were already working there. Hopefully that shouldn't be a problem, if not, the school will help me get set up for clinical.
Do you work while you're in school? I would love to get more tips and guidance for the program, study routine, and workload. Thank you again.
I spent 10 1/2 yrs in various ICU's and ER's before going to Texas Tech for their AGACNP program. A large amount of the program is online but you had to go back to campus each semester(once) for a couple days to go through clinical testing and for your procedures class I think we were there for 4 days during the summer. As a Texas Vet I didn't have to pay for school, so not sure as to the cost. Now, for me it was very hard to find a decent paying hospital job because most wanted someone with experience. So I have done home visits, low-T clinics and am currently running a men's clinic in my hometown for a dermatologist who's practice is in another part of the building. And I am making about 40K more than what I would have working in the hospitals. Having said that, I am planning on going back for 3 semesters to get my FNP and be dual board certified so I can pretty much work anywhere and see anybody across the lifespan. There are a ton more jobs available for primary care, at least here in Texas. But a lot of the emails I receive on a daily basis from recruiters are looking for FNP's around the country. Just because I am an ACNP doesn't mean I can't manage DM, HTN, or cast a fracture. The only limit I have is I don't/can't legally treat kids. Hope this helps
Yes you can work while in school, depends on what kind of student you are, how easily you retain information and can apply it and how much time you need to study. The two hardest course I spent the most time studying for was Advanced Pharm and Advanced Patho but I worked and graduated with a 4.0 gpa Also if you're serious about ACNP then get at least a year if not more time in a busy ICU. It really helps. I graduated in 2013 with another girl who's experience included hospice nursing for less than a year and she's still not passed her boards. Experience counts.
I couldn't agree more! Unless your program has many in-person days, I would Not choose online for acute care! We do simulation labs all the time. We spent an entire quarter learning procedures and practicing managing code situations. There's no way to get that same experience online.
I understand everybody learns differently but the way I viewed it was school was for the core knowledge but the practical knowledge came from my clinicals and what I was learning in the Trauma ICU with my preceptors. You don't need to go to a sim lab when you can actually do those same procedures on real live people if you have a good preceptor and a busy hospital. I did clinicals at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio and worked in their ER, Trauma ICU, and medical/surgical ICU and got to do everything from starting Art lines/CVC's to intubations to bronch'ing patients. Only thing I did not do to a live patient was a chest tube placement(cooks cath(pigtail) doesn't count). But as I said everybody learns differently and some need more hand holding than others. That's alright too, I'd rather people be safe and have confidence in their skills. But I also want somebody who has the actual hands on experience because intubating a dummy is a lot different than intubating a live person or putting in a TLC into the subclavian and dropping their lung and having the actual experience in how to take care of that patient....Just my two cents
You mean- you didn't learn those skills on a dummy first? That's a bit scary to me. I feel more confident getting those experiences in my clinical rotations because I at least practiced the steps first. I've already intubated and put in a chest tube on real people. And having done it in the sim lab first made it much easier.
I don't feel it is my preceptors' responsibility to teach me those skills. It should be the responsibility of my professors to ensure I've learned them before being sent into a clinical situation. And then my preceptor helps find opportunities for me to get better at them and is there to ensure I do the skills correctly. And they don't have to "hold my hand" because they know I already know how to do it.
I'm realizing more and more how grateful I am for choosing the program I did! I have instructors who actively teach. My program has 9 students- so they know us all very well. They find preceptors for us and we rotate through different specialties every 6 weeks. We have many sim labs- giving us experiences of managing acute and critical scenarios in a "safe" environment so we are more prepared in the real world. Our clinicals are mostly done in a level 1 trauma center (an academic teaching hospital) with preceptors who come from some of the other best programs in the country and have many years of experience.
Forgive me - but I won't ever feel that experiences like these can be obtained from an online program. Though I'm not saying you can't be an amazing and skilled provider. I just feel that if you're going to be paying an arm and a leg for grad school- they ought to be giving you what you pay for!
You mean- you didn't learn those skills on a dummy first? That's a bit scary to me. I feel more confident getting those experiences in my clinical rotations because I at least practiced the steps first. I've already intubated and put in a chest tube on real people. And having done it in the sim lab first made it much easier.
I don't feel it is my preceptors' responsibility to teach me those skills. It should be the responsibility of my professors to ensure I've learned them before being sent into a clinical situation. And then my preceptor helps find opportunities for me to get better at them and is there to ensure I do the skills correctly. And they don't have to "hold my hand" because they know I already know how to do it.
Forgive me - but I won't ever feel that experiences like these can be obtained from an online program. Though I'm not saying you can't be an amazing and skilled provider. I just feel that if you're going to be paying an arm and a leg for grad school- they ought to be giving you what you pay for!
To address that first issue; you are correct it's not the preceptors job to teach me, although, a lot of the MD/DO's preceptors I had did just that. But this is where active adult learning comes into play. I went and bought and read 3 different books on procedures. My instructors didn't tell me I had too, I wanted too. You can watch procedures on Youtube if you don't work in a hospital that does a lot. I have worked in various ICU's for so long I knew there wasn't many procedures the docs did that I couldn't do, including floating a swan ganz cath(which I have). Now I've never done a Craniectomy or put in an ICP line(don't want too either) I actively went looking for docs at work to help when they were doing procedures so I could learn how to do it, and how to manage the pt if something went wrong. I don't need an instructor for that.
Your next statement about getting what you paid for was a common complaint at my program but I felt if they(my co-students) were more proactive they would've done more and learned more. Not one of my peers in class ever went and spent the day outside of the surgical suite asking the CRNA's or Anesthesiologists if they could intubate patients. I did and had about 45 intubations in a single day. Not once in my program did they ever mention Mallampati scores but you better know them if your going to intubate a patient. You get out what you put in. I'm just the type of person who looks for a challenge in everything I do and I actively pursue it. Everybody makes mistakes but having a preceptor there to back you up if your mechanics on the procedure are shaky or knowing how to manage that mistake when you make it is invaluable. One of the older docs I loved working with who taught me a lot had a saying he would bandy about "See one, do one, and teach one" that was his philosophy with the residents and I took it to heart.
The medical model relies heavily on "preceptor" instruction, and it seems to work well enough for technical procedures. I learned most of my procedures that way. Watch one, do one, teach one.
The medical model relies heavily on "preceptor" instruction, and it seems to work well enough for technical procedures. I learned most of my procedures that way. Watch one, do one, teach one.
Hmm. Interesting. I was under the impression that medical students also learned by practicing in labs first. Must just be my school! The med students here learn skills in cadaver labs, suture labs, endoscopy and surgical labs, etc. They learn line placement and intubation on mannequins first. Maybe my school is still "old school" in thinking it's best to actively teach the students before throwing them into clinical settings. I still get to do the "see one, do one, teach one." I just get a little sim lab practice first! 😃
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
Hmm. Interesting. I was under the impression that medical students also learned by practicing in labs first. Must just be my school! The med students here learn skills in cadaver labs, suture labs, endoscopy and surgical labs, etc. They learn line placement and intubation on mannequins first. Maybe my school is still "old school" in thinking it's best to actively teach the students before throwing them into clinical settings. I still get to do the "see one, do one, teach one." I just get a little sim lab practice first! ������
Not to veer off topic but actually, "see one, do one, teach one" is the more "old school" approach. Simulation-based medical education is the newer approach that's gaining popularity. It does rely on emerging technology and can be expensive to build so not many institutions are going to have it.
The "best" medical schools (and nursing schools) flaunt their sim-labs as a point of pride usually (and best is in quotation marks because it's hard to quantify what best really means for an individual student). There are few studies comparing the traditional approach (see one, do one...) vs simulation-based instruction but more data is needed to solidify the value of the latter.
Yes, you're right. Thank you for correcting that. I do realize that 50 years ago when the first NP and PA programs were rolling out- they surely didn't use fancy sim labs.
However- my "old school" comment was more directed towards schools taking on more of the teaching responsibility (instead of leaving it solely to preceptors). Though it was purely opinion based, and I have nothing to back it up.
I look forward to reading the article you posted later (headed to work now). My program director had suggested to a couple DNP students that it might be a good project to look into sim-based education. I can't imagine there would be anything but positive results from adding in more practice....but I guess that remains to be determined.
OP, I am going to an online program through a well-respected University. My lectures are online...which works for me as far as flexibility goes, but I will also have sim lab days once I start clinical next semester. Although not far in, I would choose the same option given a repeat.
Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP
1,367 Posts
I am halfway through the AGACNP program at UCONN. I'm in-state so the program is a lot cheaper than most online schools. It's an excellent program and I have all my clinical preceptors arranged for me at the top hospitals in the state. I've done most of the fluff classes online and am now doing a class on site with a lab. I decided to do acute care because I've always worked acute inpatient and have a long background in ICU. I have no desire to work with children or work in the community. Ideally I'd like to end up in a specialty, or ICU or an urgent care facility. Not ready to look for a job just yet though. Personally I wouldn't advise doing an online acute program. I wouldn't feel safe or feel that I'd have enough input. The first year wasn't too taxing but this year is much tougher and I am studying every night and all weekend even though I'm averaging A's. I have 23 years experience with 15 in critical care.