Preparing to enter NP school ...

Specialties Doctoral

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Specializes in ICU.

Any good tips or suggestions to prepare me to enter a DNP program in like 2 months???

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Hope some of our DNP members stop by with advice....

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Two different questions. DNP, it seems would be more focused for this forum, and NP focused in Student-NP section.

For NP advice, review organic chemistry and biochemistry components to strengthen your stance in pathophysiology. Other than that, i'm a new student!

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What books would you recommend to review for organic & bio Chemistry?

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Specializes in psych/medical-surgical.

Hey,

I'm 2 semesters away from graduating a 3 year full time DNP program. The number one thing I would say is start looking at clinical sites. This was a huge problem at my school (as for somehow, the medical school and pharmacy schools both have clinics set up for students, while nursing did not). This mean most students had to find their own spots. I would recommend networking NP events where you can face to face with providers and ask about precepting with whoever you like. If your school has affiliations, (big university state systems should) then you don't need to worry about it. My smaller private costly program didn't :eyeroll:

I know the program structures are different, but here are some more things to think about -

What specialty are you choosing? This affects where you will do clinic and your capstone project. You do all your hours whatever you are certifying in. Capstone has to be related to your specialization area as well.

Start thinking about your capstone project. You have to pick a clinic to do it with, and I would highly recommend a smaller private practice, than a big government organization. I bet you can imagine the mistake I made. Getting through the red tape at a FQHC or the VA is an absolute nightmare when you are a student and have other things to do and a tight timeline. Google "Vanderbuilt DNP projects"; this will give you a great idea of what you are looking at doing. Ask about implementation time frame too, as many students thought they could get away with 5 weeks. My school ended up requiring at least 10 weeks, which in the middle of covid19 was a nightmare.

We had a lot of group projects. When you start, find the people you mesh with and keep close contact. Ones with good work ethics... this was another huge problem in my group LOL... Be prepared for lots of writing and APA manual work.

Some of this will vary depending on your program structure, but:

Year 1 is mostly classroom didactic and we did advanced patho, pharm and A&P. Year 2 you start rotating through clinics and conceptualize and start work on your capstone. Year three you do mostly capstone hours and patient clinic along with the diagnosis courses for your specialty and board prep.

I think my program was 600 capstone hours (Imo wayyy too much) and 600 patient care clinical hours. Or 500-700...

The faculty might have told you about some of these things. Having faculty that are accessible and a smaller class cohort was nice. Find the ones that are reasonable and work with you. I got really lucky, as there are some big PhD ladies that are super mother hens and not fun to work with. Feel free to ask me anything here or directly!

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Specializes in psych/medical-surgical.
On 5/22/2020 at 7:20 PM, CinLeo42 said:

What books would you recommend to review for organic & bio Chemistry?

I don't know what this is about, you need those for med school not DNP. Going back to OChem and BioChem for DNP is silly, hell if you have a good grasp of McCance - The biologic basis for disease in adults in children, then you are far ahead of most providers. Learn the DSM5 and study Stahl's prescribers guide, these are the bibles of psych practice at least.

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