Online NP Programs?

futureeastcoastNP · Aug 22, 2014

Why do you keep posting the same questions?

I'm one of the most outspoken critics of NP education on this forum, and I have absolutely no problem with online education as long as it is done correctly. That means strong oversight of clinical rotations, real classes with video lectures (instead of stupid pre-canned modules), tests and case studies over pointless busy work and discussion posts, and papers of medical substance rather than nursing theory fluff. Many of the top NP schools in the country have online cohorts who do just as well as their on campus cohorts. Georgetown, Duke, Simmons, Vanderbilt, Frontier, etc.

The problem with online, though, lies in the accrediting bodies. There is not enough oversight into how a program must be structured, so while some online programs are doing an amazing job with live recorded lectures and webcam discussions, the lesser schools (especially the for profit diploma mills) are putting little to no effort into it. They can throw up their online program, hire a few adjunct class "administrators" who simply follow pre-canned rubrics, and start collecting tuition checks. I saw a report a few months ago showing the average money spent per student at not-for-profit versus for-profit programs, and it's quite astounding how little the for profits actually spend on their students considering how much they charge for tuition. I guess that's the point of a stockholder-run business, though, to make as much profit as possible with as little overhead as possible...so the students suffer, as do their future patients.