Online Nurse Practitioner school

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Hello,

I have been and ICU nurse for 4 years and am now looking to go back to school to become a family NP. My husband is joining the coast guard so I'm not sure where we will be based so an online NP school would be best for me! Does anyone know any schools that offer a fully online program and that is fully accredited? If you've completed it, how was it! Thank you!

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Hellorachelr

We moved your thread to the Student NP forum for the best response.

Good luck with your NP career plans.

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On 4/17/2019 at 9:01 AM, rachelr720 said:

Hello,

I have been and ICU nurse for 4 years and am now looking to go back to school to become a family NP. My husband is joining the coast guard so I'm not sure where we will be based so an online NP school would be best for me! Does anyone know any schools that offer a fully online program and that is fully accredited? If you've completed it, how was it! Thank you!

Hello,

Duke University has a mostly online program for the FNP. They will arrange your clinical sites near you and there is no campus requirements during the first year. I believed there is a requirement of 3-4 times during the second year. I hope this helps

Good Luck,

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There are a lot of questions regarding all online NP schools across allnurses. Try looking some of them up. There is no shortage of strong opinions.

If you do go this route, be VERY VERY careful about how they say your clinical rotations are structured. If they tell you you have to find you own placements -RUN as fast as you can away from them. If they say "we help you find clinical placements" be very skeptical and demand in writing to know exactly what that means.

If you have your heart set on an online program, make sure they set up your clinical rotations for you. I have personally known people who have been burned by this and had to switch to a MSN in nursing ed.

Finding your own clinicals is a nightmare you do not want.

That aside, do not go to a program that will take anyone. Many of these programs are diploma mills and care more about their bottom line than educating and training high quality NP's.

Some online programs are hybrid, meaning they require you to come to campus a few days a year. (for the weekend I think) I think Vanderbilt has a program like this and, to my knowledge it is well regarded.

Please, for your own sake, do a lot of research into the different options that you have as a student. If your goal is to be an an excellent FNP, then make sure you give yourself the best opportunity to do so.

As an aside, (and I don't know you so I am not judging you) keep in mind that not everyone should be an NP. For anyone considering becoming an NP if your motivation is to get away from the bedside because it is frustrating/ thankless/ exhausting .... and all the rest, maybe a different RN role (like case management or transplant coordinator) would be better. If your motivation is to get paid more, well, that is also not such a great reason.

I've seen people posting similar questions and stating that their GPA wasn't good, looking for advise on what schools don't care about grades. This is a bit scary to me. I am currently finishing up NP school and I applied to exactly one program. It was the only brick and mortar program for the specialty I wanted anywhere near me (I am not in a position to move). I figured that if I didn't get in, then it meant that I wasn't good enough. As I do love being a nurse, that was ok with me.

Hope that made sense.

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I would not suggest any NP school that does not place you in clinical sites/with a preceptor. Most online programs do not. I am in a brick and mortar that does not. It is a nightmare.

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Specializes in Psychiatric and Mental Health NP (PMHNP).

Suggest you wait until you know where you will be living before applying to school. There might be a B&M school near there.

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Until students get together and as a unit reporting these schools to the accreditation board, finding preceptors will continue to be a problem. More and more brick and mortar schools are putting the responsibility for preceptor placement on the students.

This is not just an online University issue. Students must let their programs know about the Sawyer Initiative and contact the accreditation board when they don't honor it.

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