newtinmpls

DNP is meant to prepare a person to be a primary care provider from a nursing orientation. MD is meant to prepare a person to be a primary care provider from a medical orientation. If you aren't conversant with the difference between those two orientations, then the difference won't make a lot of sense. I summarize it this way: the MD is there to cure the patient, usually by fighting/defeating the disease/injury. The nurse is there to heal the patient; usually by finding ways for the patient's understanding/reaction to their health/wellness situation to be maximally functional. Sometimes these overlap and are almost identical, sometimes they are vastly different. Dian

The DNP is "doctor of nursing practice" it's meant as a practice degree. The Ph.D. is a research degree, seems like it would be more logically connected to teaching. On the other hand, 1/2 way through my own course in getting my DNP, I've gotten hit up to teach a clinical class (this will be "fun", I'm working part time, going to school and now I'll be teaching a class - look for my brain to explode some time this spring). Dian

I do know that I"m eternally grateful that I didn't work full time at first (frankly, or ever). I would have gone mad.

I hope the search is going better now.

Leave nursing? I wouldn't go that far, but leave this facility? Absolutely. Dian

I agree, "assessment" isn't in the LPN scope of practice in MN (where I live) either. I think you could use 'evaluation' (I can't recall for sure what the preferred term is). As for the GPA, since most schools use a 4.0 range, you only need your actual GPA; some places will have a certain GPA or higher as "graduated with honors" and if that's the case, it can be listed. Dian

I am a new RN with no experience who got into a RN-BSN program. so if I continue streightforward, I will be NP in three years, but will only have 3 years of RN experience since i will work as an RN during my BSN and MSN studies. I think I will feel very uncomfortable being called an NP with only 3 yeras of RN experince. Based on the above rationale, sould it be a better idea to study 4 years in MD school + 3 years of residency and after 7 years I get an MD license. If I do this, I will be an MD in 7 years with 3 years of residency experince, and by that time I will be 46 y.o. (I am currently also accepted in a medical school oversees, that is accreditted in US). If I understand this correctly, you went right into a RN-BSN program but did not start working as an RN till the very end of it? Now you contemplate an accelerated NP degree (which is how you would finish it in 3 years), and at that point you would be a DNP with 3 years of nursing experience (not counting clinicals, which are fairly huge). Instead you could get into medical school, which you seem to be telling me would take 4 years (what about pre-med?) and then you would get three years of residency afterwards (instead of clinicals during - difference of approach). So 7 years from now you would be a medical doctor with 3 years of residency, but no independent experience. If you went for a DNP, in 7 years you would be a doctoral level provider with 7 years of experience in Nursing. If you decided to practice in a state with favorable nurse practicioner laws, you would have similar independence of practice to a medical doctor and more experience. But really none of this matters. If you "want" to be a "real doctor" and in your head that means it has to be a medical doctor, then that's what you need to do. Dian

My answer is "it all depends". I've seen patients come in psychotic, struggling, violent & dangerous and then a month later are chuckling over the "weird things I used to think." I've also seen patients who don't respond successfully to anything. Antipsychotics are one (of many) tools. They aren't "the answer" they aren't even a whole answer; they are just one tool to utilize to help people that are in a very unique kind of pain. Dian

I'm a year into my BSN-DNP and I just turned 50. Too old is an excuse, not a reason. Dian

Hi, Just got an e-mail this week from my college (I'm in a BSN-DNP program, paying for it with student loans) and now grad school doesn't qualify for subsidized loans - I'll still get the same total amount, but they will all be unsubsidized (interest from the day I get them). Homework-wise... well I had a scholarship that put me through RN - BSN and once I got the RN I started working. Now I'm just over a year into the BSN-DNP. I would say the difficulty level is increased by about 1.5 on average (some classes about the same, some double). So for every credit hour of class (I have to phrase it that way since my whole program is online) you have not 3-4 hours of homework, but 4.5-6. I hope you didn't sell any of your books from the first four years (I cited many of mine so far) and I hope you are very skilled in APA (even for "discussion posts"). Yes, you will be absent. You have to decide if it is worth it. Because if you don't do it now, it's unlikely you ever will. Dian

I've been thinking about this and while I do work in psych (inpatient & acute/emergent), and I have seen patients in a combination of restraint/seclusion/PADS (the latter is a kind of restraint a pt can walk around in, but they don't have enough freedom of movement [theoretically] to assault someone - although I've seen it happen so nothing's perfect) but our documentation is really detailed. You have to have an observer, and q 15 min documentation, and a face to face with the ordering provider at least every 8 hours and check for ROM/need 2 pee/restraint fit very often; jeez, I mean it's really really detailed. I have seen really psychotic/violent/aggressive patients be in restraints and/or seclusion (and if you downgrade it to seclusion, then you have to get a new order to go back to restraints) for more than a day, and it was totally needed. But you are right, something about what you are seeing in the lack of detail in your facility says ominous things about patient safety. Diane

I work in psych, and since you can expect patients to go balistic if you use a word they don't like such as "psychotic" or a diagnosis they disagree with, or god knows how many other things. So in psych we managed to make it mostly written with a 'look at the faces, meet the people' component so managment is still happy. dian

I can see the advantage to having the whole CV (and I'm not even going to try to spell it) available, including CEUs and articles written and so on. However if you can't summarize to one page - that says something about your writing skills - I know for me it's a major pain to limit anything. I have a big mouth on many levels. So I look at it as a challenge. I can always say MORE.. Dian

When I hear from HR, they say "one page". Although I've heard many other sources (such as advisors, etc.) say that more than one page is okay - since they are not HR, they are not going to be hiring me (or tossing my two pages into the trash). One page. Dian

If you really want a job, apply for everything nursing. I wasted a year applying "only at the places I really wanted to work" but it was the year of working at the "last choice" places that got me the experience, that got me the better job. Dian