KVA

Zolojan, The school will not set up your preceptor for you, but they are VERY helpful. I was really stressed about this as I was nearing graduation, but the clinical coordinator worked it out with me. The school provides a list of facilities they are affiliated with as well, which is extremely helpful. It sounds daunting, but really it is doable, and the school is so supportive.

Thank you for responding! Most likely this will be my plan as well!

Hello! I am hoping to receive some helpful responses on this topic. Although it is probably a ridiculous question, I am having difficulty discovering how other PhD students fund their education. I am currently in an MSN program with plans to continue for my PhD. Although I know I could stop at the MSN level, there are important research topics/projects which I am involved with and want to continue to research. Continuing on for my doctorate will help me to learn how to conduct thorough and appropriate research, and give me higher level skills in quantitative/qualitative research and research methodologies. Learning how to do this is really exciting to me! The problem which I have though is in how I will pay for the 5+ years in a doctoral program. Yes I know there are schools with strong funding who provide assistance to some PhD students, but from my research, there isn't necessarily oodles of grant money going to nursing programs. I could apply for scholarships, but they only go so far. Private loan? I'm not really interested in going this route. So for the Allnurses community, how did those of you who have completed or are completing a PhD program, fund your education? Additionally, as we live far from universities, graduate assistantships would not be an option for me. Am I out of luck, and will have to wrack up a lot of debt to do what I love? Thank you!

I know this thread is old, but I wanted to chime in anyway. I am a student in the online RN-BSN program at Delhi. I have just started my first clinical class which I am taking with another course and I hope to graduate next spring. I started doubling up classes in March, and it can be somewhat intense. I work nights, have small children, and all of the regular mom/wife chores. It is able to be done, but do plan to spend every waking hour studying to get good grades! This program is excellent though, very affordable, and I feel like I am getting a serious education from top notch instructors. I have been very pleased. If anyone plans to go on to graduate school, I feel that you will be more than prepared. As metsfan stated, classes run for 7 weeks. There are required readings from our text books and lots of published studies/articles. Initial discussion posts are due on Wednesdays at the latest, with 3 required response posts to other students and you must response to everyone that posts on your initial posting and these are due by Sunday. There are research papers, projects, power points, etc. due as well. For example, in my last nursing class I had to develop a public teaching plan for a health care fair and submit an outline in an APA paper format. I then had to put together a project in another week based on my previous paper as a social media site (like a FB page, or a Youtube video, Vine video, etc) or as a powerpoint for our instructor. There are always projects like this with every class. Honestly, I do get stressed out, but I also know that no one can just skate by and that the professors care about our learning environment. You could choose any of the other schools that everyone talks about that do not have clinicals, do not give out grades and score you based on competencies, but they also either cost a fortune or seem a little fishy. I know someone who went through a big name online program that does competency based learning, and she finished her BSN in a matter of months, and her MSN in the same amount of time. That seems more than a little strange to me and I don't think I would trust a program like that. I'm not sure how these nursing programs are able to maintain accreditation. Sorry about writing a book, but I do hope this helps someone out there. I know that I did a lot of research before enrolling at Delhi, but I sure am glad that I did!