Mentor Needed

epnursingstudent · Jan 11, 2010

I'm a UTEP nursing student sorry I can't help since I'm berly in 6th semester. But I have a question, I'm wondering after you got your BSN degree, did you apply for the FNP program. How does it work?

NPCarebear112b · Jan 11, 2010

Yes, I applied directly to the FNP program. If I had to give you any advice it would be to start taking your core courses now. There are 3 classes needed regardless of what you what to concentrate in. It will make your chances of getting accepted into any of the NP programs better.

If you have any other questions please feel free to e-mail me.

BChapp3182 · Jan 12, 2010

When you start school and have questions post them here, the NPs on here are very friendly. I don't think anyone can "guide" you, NP school is a trip you have to take on your own. Being an NP means you'll have to figure things out for yourself and make the decisions, your no longer the RN taking orders, you'll be giving them.

Advice I can give you is forget everything you learned as an RN and whatever it says in the textbook, regardless of how you have done it at your facility for the past 10 yrs is not correct, textbook and class notes are your new "bibles" not your experiences. School world and real world don't always mix. I watched 20 or more very good RNs fail the program due to missing test questions by answering based on real life experience.

Another thing that RNs did to get the professors annoyed was to say "but that's not right we always did it this way, or Dr. X told me this was the right way"--never be that person! Never let those words come out of your mouth. You don't want to be on a professors bad side. You can't transfer graduate credits once your past 8 credits. I've seen students get graded harshly on papers because they rubbed teach the wrong way.

Get review books now and use them as study guides. They are awesome and really clarify things, they help to connect the dots. Be sure to use outside sources to study from. fpnotebook and aafp are excellent websites to check out. There are many wonderful online resources.

Get your preceptors the semester before, or as early as possible. Not many NPs will precept and those that do are usually flooded with students months ahead of time.

Don't take NP school lightly. I watched many fail because they thought they could work, had kids, spouse and many things going at once. It's better to take out a loan and repay it when your done vs. failing, getting kicked out, not being able to transfer credits to another school, having to wait a year to start again, thousands wasted in tuition. This happened to a very smart classmate of mine, kicked out with only 3 semesters left, now has to restart, lost so much time and money... She still has not gone back yet.

Out of 32+ initial students in my starting class, 8 of us graduated without failing. Don't bite off more than you can chew, it's not worth it.

Good luck. You will be happy you did it.