Frontier CNM Program hours of study per week

[kannasc]

Hello. I am going to apply soon to the Frontier CNM program and am trying to decide between the full and part time option. I would love to hear how many hours per week students are spending studying on either track. Thank you in advance!

[queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM]

I enrolled part-time for a couple of reasons.

- My workplace had tuition reimbursement if I maintained my work schedule at a certain FTE. It was fairly generous - $3500-4000/year toward a graduate degree program if I remember correctly.

-Working part-time along with the tuition reimbursement allowed me to pay outright for my tuition while I went through the program. I graduated with $0 in student loan debt.

Studying wasn't excessive - and it was manageable to have a part-time work schedule and a part-time school schedule. 20 hours a week? I supposed it depended on the week. There were some classes that were more self-paced than others - I think I finished some weeks before the term was done. There was some flexibility.

When I started clinicals, I had to travel outside of my community, and went to a per diem schedule at work. Clinicals were essentially full-time - or more - due to taking lots of call. But overall, I graduated in less than 3 years doing the part-time track at Frontier.

Hope this information helps!

[MidwifeyToBe MSN RN, BSN, MSN, RN, CNS]

@queenanneslace Thank you for this information. Two questions:

1. What was your weekly hours when you worked as an RN while taking the classes? I currently work 32-36 hour weeks.

2. How did you find your experience was finding CNM preceptors in your area?

TIA

[queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM]

I worked 24-32 hours per week on average.

I had to do a lot of networking - and way ahead of time - to secure a site. Ideally, I wanted more sites, but it worked out that the practice was large enough and diverse enough that I got good experience. Also - my work experiences in L&D helped round out my experiences.

I would not recommend precepting with only one CNM. That's just my opinion -you learn so much from working with multiple different providers.

[MidwifeyToBe MSN RN, BSN, MSN, RN, CNS]

@queenanneslace

Thank you for your information. SO it is sounding like I would need to switch to a more per-diem basis for work

Interesting about your networking. Does the program not help you find placements very well? May I ask where you are located roughly? I am in Northern California and I have heard it is very difficult finding opportunities up here due to the competing CNM students from UCSF. I have heard of people moving for their preceptorships.. sigh.

[queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM]

On 1/28/2020 at 7:56 PM, MidwifeyToBe MSN RN said:

@queenanneslace

Does the program not help you find placements very well?

I went to Frontier. I had to find my own clinical sites.

So no, they did not help me find my clinical placement at all.

This may have changed in recent years? I'm not sure. We were on our own.

[Desire]

My friend went to Frontier and she hated it said they are really partial to L & D nurses because they are already in a hospital. She said the clinical sites are few and far between either have expired contracts, filled with students for the following year or they aren't taking students anymore. Frontier doesn't keep up with that given the amount of students they roll in throughout the year.