xtclass08

No I am no longer in CT. Sorry npstudentct. I know how hard it is to find clinicals. That's why for my DNP I'm going to a local school that provides clinics sites. Thank God!

Hello all, so I finally found a new job with a community health center that serves the indigent population. The pay isn't that great but it's definitely a learning opportunity since they have a very sick patient population. I was told that what you see in that clinic is stuff most people only see in textbooks..... and they repay 50k in student loans so I'll take the pay cut. Anyways, thanks you guys for all the words of encouragement and advice!!

Hi Sonia, Thanks for your response. I definitely hear you. I too have considered that fact and have gone over and over what I.can do differently but nothing really sticks out. Since May I would actually have to go back through all my emails and my schedule to determine how many phone calls and interviews I've schedule but i know it's at least 15.....and that from mid-May until now and does not include places like pain management clinics that contacted me. Also, I NEVER mention the MinuteClinic. I didn't even put it on my resume because I didn't consider it to be an adequate clinical rotation

Hi Sonia, Thanks for your response. I definitely hear you. I too have considered that fact and have gone over and over what I.can do differently but nothing really sticks out. Since May I would actually have to go back through all my emails and my schedule to determine how many phone calls and interviews I've schedule but i know it's at least 15.....and that from mid-May until now and does not include places like pain management clinics that contacted me. Also, I NEVER mention the MinuteClinic. I didn't even put it on my resume because I didn't consider it to be an adequate clinical rotation

Also I did my clinical rotation at two internal medicine offices. One on/gyn office affiliated with a large teaching hospital. A pediatric office that served a high concentration of indigent children and a SNF. These were all in Florida...oh except the minute clinic that I did in the beginning....that one was in ct

BostonFNP, believe me, I asked myself the same question. The problem is sometimes before I even get to the question portion, I'm getting blocked and receiving the cold shoulder. For example, I was communicating back and forth with a certain physician owned company's hiring manager and HR representative. We talked on the phone a couple times and she did her portion of the interview via phone with questions like where do I see myself in a couple years, what type of practice am I looking for, how do you deal with noncompliant patients etc. She seemed to really like me and wanted to get me in to meet the physicians. We scheduled a date and time. I showed up 15min early as usual when I go to an interview . She, the HR representative, came out and said she would call me back in a few. I waited 25 min past my interview time until she finally came out and told me the physicians wouldn't be joining us today because they were running behind schedule at their office. Ok this was kind of a waste of my time but no problem, I sat down with the two individuals I had talked to a couple times over the phone and we went through some of their company's policies, beliefs, benefits etc. Took maybe a total of 5 min. I asked a few questions like how many patients would I be expected to see...what is the patient population like....what type of training would I receive.....etc. She then stated that she had two different locations that could be of interest to me but I needed to pick just one so they could send my resume to that group....she stated that I could still be considered for other positions but they just needed to narrow it down for the time being. My initial thought was....then exactly what physician(s) were suppose to come to THIS interview? So basically she had either lied to me earlier over the phone about a IM group being interested or she was lying at the time of the interview when she said they (the physicians) were delayed at their office. The total interview lasted a total of 10min with very little interaction on their part. At the end she stated she would give me a call on Tuesday after she sent the resume off. Tuesday rolled around didn't hear anything. So I sent a follow-up email on Thursday thanking them for their time and telling them I look forward to hearing from them. Later that day I received an email back from the hiring manager that stated that that particular office had decided to go with a NP that they had already met but they would keep my resume on file for other opportunities. Of course I continued to apply for other jobs and I noticed online that this particular company had plenty of new opportunities available for new grads. Even though they stated they were keeping my resume on file I applied anyways and shot the hiring manager an email. Never heard back from her again. Despite the fact that she originally stated over the phone she liked my "bubbly personality", my resume and critical care skills were excellent blah blah blah. Now it could be they just had more qualified candidates but I can't shake the feeling of the way they treated me when they first met me in person.

Zmansc, it is interesting that you asked that. No I did not do most of my clinicals in NE. I spent one semester at MinuteClinic and it was awful. I learned absolutely nothing other than how to do an assessment (which I already knew how to do). My preceptor was also a nightmare. I attempted to find clinicals at an actual practice, but I could not find anyone willing to take on a student unfortunately. My father is a physician in FL so I had to move back there for a year and do clinicals with a lot of his colleagues (they were of all different races. Some were AA, some were caucasian, and some were middle eastern). I had no trouble in Florida, but I think that was mostly because I had connections. I received very positive feedback from every single one of them and even received two job offers (which I would have taken had I not had to move back to CT).

I should also add that I can understand people wanting to go with practitioners they feel most comfortable with. I mean some women will only go to other women for ob/gyn purposes, and many people feel more comfortable and have more trust in people they feel they can relate to.

No, you will never feel "completely ready". In fact, I didn't even think I passed the AANP exam after I took it so I was really surprised when it said I passed . If you have been studying for 8 hours a day for 6 weeks then you are as ready as you ever will be. Take a deep breath, relax, hope for the best and good luck!! I am sure you will do great!!!!

So this thread is really just a vent. I graduated May 3rd and immediately took the boards nearly a week later. I passed, and then I immediately started applying to NP jobs. I was pessimistic in the beginning because I thought that since I attended an online university (despite the fact that it was a pretty good school), I would have trouble landing a job in this particular area since there was so many great nursing schools in the area (i.e UConn, UMass, Farfield, Quinnipiac, Yale etc). However, it was quite the opposite.. I received so many call backs, phone interviews, and scheduled a ridiculous amount of in-person interviews. Unfortunately none of those in-person interviews resulted in me being hired. It was really puzzling to me because these individuals sounded so eager to get me in and hire me, but the moment they met me their demeanors changed immediately. At first I thought that I must be doing something inappropriate in the in-person interview process, but what? I was dressed appropriately with dress pants a button down dress shirt and a business jacket or sweater. My shoes were appropriate. I had no inappropriate tattoos or piercings showing. I arrived 15 minutes before the the interview. I brought extra resumes and typed questions. I made sure to smile and make everyone feel comfortable. I just did not get why the in-person interviews always resulted in the cold shoulder. I shrugged off the idea that it had to do with my race, but I kept getting this uneasy feeling that people were "surprised" when they met me. Then I talked to another minority NP who informed me that it didn't necessarily have to do with race, but who the practice's patient population felt "most comfortable with". NE has a very large population of whites (higher than the national average, and not a lot of A.A (Especially in my area which is Avon). So naturally practitioners will tend to see a substantial amount of older caucasian adults. She said that this population feels most comfortable around white male practitioners unfortunately and if the patients do not feel comfortable around you they will not want to see you which means you are not an asset to their practice. So armed with that information, I decided to look for AA physicians and NP to practice with. I found a total of 3. One of which I already new of before hand. She is a pediatrician and hired me on the spot without applying (go figure!), and that would be great if my background was mostly adults and geri and peds is not my strong point. Another physician was an internist who works under a contract, along with 5 or 6 other physician, with Yale and they don't really need NPs at his practice since they use residents. The last one was definitely a no go since he was no longer practicing medicine and was a convicted felon for sexual assault charges. Now I know plenty of NPs who have had to wait a year or more to find someone to hire them (but they are usually ANPs or AGNPs) so I should give it some time. Plus I can always work peds if necessary, but I am so very frustrated and angry with what has occurred so far with my finding-a-job process. It would be different if I received little to no call-backs, or if when I did receive a call-back I never got asked to actually come in an interview, but that's not the case, and sometimes when I do come in for an interview they tell me the most apparent lies. Its almost insulting. Ugh!!! Okay I am done with this vent. Am I the only one experiencing this? And is that one NP right?

I took the AANP. We were given 150 questions and 15 of those questions did not count. Everyone has told me the same thing ....your actual score doesn't matter yet they still send you your actual score. Maybe the scoring is given for those who are unfortunate and don't pass the exam?? I guess we will never really know the reasons behind receiving an actual score.

So I took my boards May 12 and I passed. Yesterday I received my actual scores in the mail. Once I looked at my actual score I kept wondering how did this fare compared to other NPs who took the test and does anybody really care what I scored on this test? Every book that I have read and every NP that I have talked to has said that the actual score does not matter....but if the actual score doesn't really matter then why not just give everyone a pass or fail? Why give everyone an actual number score? This number has to be important to someone right?

I feel you Jessica. I actually had to move back to Florida for clinicals from Connecticut to find decent clinicals. CT has so many schools ( Yale, Fairfeild, Quinnipiac, UConn etc) that finding clinicals was impossible. It also didn't help that New York and Mass aren't too far.

I think minute clinic was only good for health assessment. Beyond that, you will not get a good clinical experience with minute clinic. This is just my opinion though.

Georgetown does have an online MSN-FNP program. After the completion of the program you can sit for the boards and will be licensed as a nurse practitioner.