Minton06

It may be a longshot, but I see nothing for you to lose if you were to reapply to your original FNP program. You state that your dismissal happened a long time ago. Given the passage of time, emotions probably have cooled. It is obvious to all you have suffered substantial economic, reputational, and emotional. On this forum, you sound mature, with good insight; I imagine you can communicate that effectively to your former educational institution. At the same time you apply, reach out to a prior professor that liked/respected you, and solicit their internal support of your reapplication. In your reapplication, include an abject letter of apology and explanation of how much you have grown in the interim. The worst that happens is they say no. substantial economic, reputational, and emotional punishment.

Thanks, dualboardNP. Your experience is certainly valuable information. I would like to provide some additional context for students who may be considering Duke or another program. First, although I do not pretend to have broad knowledge about different universities' clinical programs, I assume that any school's contacts (and relative ability to land preceptorships for their students) are going to be distributed non-uniformly throughout the country, with a disparate percentage of those contacts located relatively close to the school For example, I expect that Duke students desiring a preceptorship in North Carolina (or elsewhere in the Mid-Atlantic or Southern states, or Washington DC area) are indeed more likely to benefit from the placement office's contacts than those students seeking preceptorships on the west coast (or Minnesota or Maine or Idaho). Students seeking preceptorships in these other areas very likely will have to hustle much more. But I would be very surprised if that story was different at other schools; I do not see how any school could guarantee a placement in every student's desired locale. Second, although I have not spoken to the Duke PMHNP students you talked to, I think I am familiar with the Montana and Alaska opportunities you referenced, as they have been mentioned by our faculty (not the placement office) as potential sites for interested students. The Montana site is on a Native American reservation where Duke NP students and Duke faculty work one week during the Summer. Participating NP students can earn only up to 50 clinical hours, as the experience augments, not substitutes, a clinical placement elsewhere. The Alaska experience is an unusual opportunity for NP students to get in-patient experience with very ill patients. Although I have no contacts with Alaska, I am considering pursuing the opportunity for the uniqueness of the experience. In the discussions I have had about it with others, I have never gotten the sense that it is a placement site of last resort. Third, like dualboardNP, I also completed a MSN in FNP and personally identified and landed all of my preceptorships on my own (with the exception that for one site, I learned-- after my initial overture-- that the school already had a contract in place, as well as a prior relationship with a provider, which proved beneficial). But I wanted to find my own sites because I was very picky about my criteria. I started far in advance and had a preceptor lined up well before the start of the semester (except once, when my preceptor bailed on me and I had to find a replacement on short notice). I acknowledge, however, that my ability to be flexible geographically made my job much easier; it would have been much more difficult and stressful if I was tied to a particular area by family or job. ) Again, thanks for your very useful information, dualboardNP. I hope your PMHNP placements go smoothly, at your first-choice sites. Out of curiosity, where did you end up going for your PMHNP?

I am currently in the Duke PMHNP program. I have found it to be excellent. It is relatively small (MSN and post-master's certificate candidates total 42 students). The head of the program is very dynamic and enthusiastic; my classmates are nice and very competent. With respect to clinical placements, students are told that the nursing school commits to finding every student a placement, if the student makes reasonable efforts to investigate/seek out a placement site. In other words, the student need not be successful in finding a site, but they must make the effort. I find this policy to be reasonable; I do not find it stressful or difficult to reach out to personal contacts or to do internet searches to identify potential preceptors I can email. The nursing school has a Clinical Placement Office that is tasked with finding preceptorships. Each student is assigned to a specific CPO coordinator, which facilitates communications. One more thing: there is only one on-campus intensive each semester, of three days duration.