kimposbl

Hi Juan, (or any ACNP who has an opinion) I currently work at your academic medical center in San Francisco, CA on a med/surg General/Specialty Surgical Unit and I'm planning to apply to the university's Adult Acute Care NP program. Have you seen ACNP grads get jobs in the ICU or ED although they have little to no critical care experience? I know one NP who works and follows pulmonary pt's in med/surg and ICU, even though she never had bedside experience in the ICU. I only have 1 yr of experience in the ICU when I was in NY, and now work on a med-surg floor since I relocated to SF and couldn't find a ICU position at SF's academic medical center. I am sad I may have lost my critical care experience since working on the med-surg floor for a year. But I'm still hoping to start the ACNP program before life gets too busy (e.g. having kids). Do you recommend waiting to apply to the acute care NP program, or just start the ACNP position right away hoping for an ICU opportunity to come up again?

Just heads up...the nurse recruiter at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas is beginning to call applicants who applied to their new grad program to come in for interviews.

I am starting in the med-surg/telemetry unit at St Francis Hospital in Roslyn, Long Island, NY. They start new grads at $35 + $3 night differentials.

update: UCSD received 700+ applications and they are only offering 8 New Grad RN positions Who would have known that getting a RN job as a New Grad is harder than getting into Ivy League schools?

To all new grad RNs who want to work at UCSD medical center: I talked to the RN recruiter back in late March and this is what she said, "ICU and ER most competitive; oncology least competitive; Pay rate $31.50/hr for new grads; no preference for ASN or BSN programs. ahhhh! Typically 600 applications for 15 positions." To all those who already applied, GOOD LUCK! but those who haven't, they already closed their application period for the July start date.

I too haven't seen anything posted by John Muir. I created a Job Search Agent for the New Grad program, but I still haven't received anything. I tried calling their Job Hotline too, but gave up because I couldn't figure how to get out of their automated voice part and get a real human being on the phone.

Okay, here are questions that were PM'd to me, so I decided to share the questions & answers to benefit all prospective NYU students! -You mentioned "time management" and were one of the few optimisitc posters that discussed the doable pace of the program. Although time, effort and energy devoted to school is purely subjective, do you find yourself constantly bogged down with work, or does it come in spurts? (like an undergrad experience) Well, I heard the first semester is the easiest, so I didn't feel too overwhelmed. Work does come in spurts. I tend to be the procrastinator, so I didn't even bother reading the material until the weekend before the exam. But that's just me, because I have a very good short-term memory, but lackadaisical long-term memory. I studied molecular biology at a really rigorous university with a bunch of pre-meds, so I'm used to having lots of information thrown at me in a short period of time. Other students found this program quite overwhelming. We even had a few fail and drop-out of the program. But the majority of the students do very well in the program. My class earns averages of high 80's to the high 90's on exams. In fact, our Nursing Research professor cancelled our last exam and gave us all A's because she was very impressed with our classroom participation! -Do you find the faculty interactive, accessible and willing to help? For the most part yes. Some no. but all schools have some professors that genuinely care for your success and professors that don't give a rat's a** about you. My all-time favorite professor for the semester was Prof Knapp and she taught Fundamentals of Nursing. She was a great lecturer and very engaging. She was also very responsive to the students concerns, even though she is uber busy. But unfortunately she's not going to teach Fundamentals this coming Fall. Professor Mei Fu is going to teach it instead. During my semester, Fu co- taught Nursing Research. She's also a good professor, but she is stricter, and she will definitely give you more work. She's the type of teacher who tells you to know EVERYTHING instead of telling you what exactly you need to know for the exam. Oh, and her accent might be difficult to understand at first. But at least her passion for nursing shines through. -Have you made good relationships with other program participants? II heard the incoming class in large, so I wanted to inquire about the interaction between classmates, etc. Yes, your incoming class will be larger than mine. My spring start class has 95 students, but I think the fall start has 180 students. Even though your class is so large, you won't have any problems interacting with classmates because you will be divided into groups of 6 for off-site clinical and groups of 12 for on-site clinical. So the clinicals give you the small-classroom feel, which makes up for the large lecture halls. -How is nativating NYC with classes and a clinical load? Taking classes and clinicals is totally manageable. Unfortunately, my off-site clinicals was all the way in the Bronx! A 2-hour commute for me. But my clinical instructor was AWESOME, so it was worth the long commute on MTA. The hospital in the Bronx, aka Montefiore med center, is a very good teaching hospital, so don't be upset if no more Manhattan sites remain when you register. I admit, I wish I had more time to explore NYC with my class/work load, but I will definitely make time for it this summer with the nice weather and all. -Did you take advantage of NYU's Housing? (living "on campus")? NO, I would not pay a dime to live in their housing. I'm paying so much to NYU already, I don't want to contribute anymore money to them than I have too. Their on campus housing is too expensive, and in my opinion, not worth it because you will have to pay a butt-load, AND you don't even get your own room! Having my own room is very important to me b/c it's where I like to study. I know 2 other girls who are even breaking their dorm contract to get out of the dorms cause (1) it's dirty (2) it's extremely cramped (3) you room with other undergrads. I came from California, and found my housing on craigslist. As my roommate says, "a match made in 'craigslist.'" I pay $400/month and commute to NYU from Jersey City, which is only a 20 minute commute to campus on the PATH train. I save soo much money this way. Instead of spending $1000/month on rent, I save $600/month, which means I can potentially spend more $$ when I go play in the city! But if you must live in the dorms, I heard Waterstreet was nice, but it is a 30 min bus ride to campus, which is actually longer than my 20 min commute from Jersey City! -Did you purchase most of your books at the NYU store or online at Amazon and other sites for less? Like I said, I avoid having to give NYU more money than I need to unless I know I can get it from NYU for cheaper. This said, all their books are going to be more expensive than buying it used through other students or online. NYU College of Nursing holds a book swap in the beginning of the semester so you can sell/buy nursing books. Also, students post books they want to sell online on NYU's Blackboard interface. If I didn't find the book I needed at the bookswap or Blackboard, I would just order it through Barnes and Noble for a cheaper price. How did you go about getting your loans? Did you use a cosigner? parents? I have good credit history and I was able to get an awesome rate (prime minus 1%) thru CitiAssist without having my parents to cosign. I think my score is 730. But I have been building up my credit history since freshman year of college back in '03. Did you get much financial aid? NYU is tightwad when it comes to giving out loans and scholarships. I got nice scholarships from UPenn and Columbia University, but NYU only gave me $3000 a semester in scholarships. But unfortunately, NYU started before I even found out I got the other schools, so even though I got into their master's program already, I had to turn them down. =( it just wouldn't make any financial sense for me to transfer to the other schools. And also, I wouldn't want to start over again, even if some credits successfully transferred. Also, expect to get NO financial aid for the summer session. If you max out your federal loans for the regular academic year, you can't ask for any more for the summer session. I saw on previous posts that you came from CA. I am also coming from CA, was it hard adjusting? Yes, it was hard for me to adjust to NYC b/c I left CA abruptly. I found out I got into NYU only ONE WEEK before spring semester begin, so I only had ONE WEEK to quit work, say goodbye to friends, sell my season pass to Northstar-at-Tahoe, pack my belongings, find housing, get my health clearance, get BLS certification, and book my plane ticket to NYC! So if I was able to do that in one week, I'm sure you can do all that in three months! Also it was hard for me to move to NYC because I LOVE the great outdoors and rockclimbing. But I need to get out of the California bubble, and this is the best time for me to go since I want to come back to CA to work. NYC is a bit too urban for me, but it's slowly growing on me. I do love the fact that everything is so close together, and public transportation is sooo convenient. On top of classes/clinicals, what kind of part time job are you working as? I currently work part-time at a pediatrics clinic in SoHo as a medical assistant. I just do quick assessments of children and babies before the doctor sees them. Like I previously mentioned, I am a procrastinator, so I figured that if I got a job, I would manage my time better. Which for the most part is true - it forces me to be more effective with my studying time, when I do actually have time to study. -Do any program participants who've gone through or are currently going through the program say they wish they've known anything important prior to program start-up? Basically everything I'm telling you, is what I wish someone told me! When I was trying to decide whether or not to go to NYU, there wasn't much information posted on All Nurses about NYU so I had to fly to NYC to find out for myself! Hope this helps!

Another Integrative Medicine program in NYC, besides Columbia's, is at NYU. I'm in their 15-month accelerated BSN program right now, and they offer a MSN in Holistic/Adult NP. Here's their website for more info: http://www.nyu.edu/nursing/academicprograms/masters/programs/holistic.html Let me know what UCSF emails you back about their ANP - ICH program. I would really like to come back to the SF Bay area to get my MSN. 15 months of NYC will give me my substantial fix of what it is like to live in the largest metropolitan city in the nation. IMO, nothing beats living in the SF bay area.

Hi new NYU admits, First of all, congrats to those who got in! and best of luck to those still waiting for an answer. I'm currently finishing up my 1st semester in NYU's 15 month program. It's a lot of work, but very manageable if you have good time management skills. I'm even working a part-time job on the side for some extra cash! Anyways, about money. I recommend borrowing money either through Sallie Mae or CitiAssist (Citibank) because those 2 companies are preferred lenders which makes it very convenient for YOU and NYU b/c the money shows automatically in your account. I asked for $15,000 thru CitiAssist to pay for summer, and the money automatically showed up in my online student account a week later! I got a pretty nice rate too (prime minus 1%). right now I think the prime is 5%, so basically I'm accumulating 4% interest as soon as my loans are distributed to NYU. p.s. I'm selling my books from my 1st semester, so PM me if you want to buy them off me!

i was just talking to ucsf's director of admissions for their anp program and they might not have their integrated complementary healing anymore. =( this is what she emailed me: "our anp -ich program is undergoing some changes in faculty and i am not sure if we will be offering an ich focus in 2 years."

I also just got off UPenn's waitlist and I got admitted to the BSN/MSN Adult Health NP track. However, right now I am enrolled in NYU's 15-mos accelerated BSN program that finishes in May 2009. (I started NYU in Jan 2008, thinking that I would never get into UPenn). If I transfer to UPenn, then I don't finish my BSN until Dec 2009. But if I go to UPenn, then I don't have to worry about applying to NP programs in the future. I wonder if I should remain at NYU, especially since I already shelled out $17,000 for the first semester already. But then again, if I go to UPenn, I can graduate with a NP sooner than planned but in great debt. I'm going to visit the UPenn campus 4/3 to help make my decision. I love living in the NY area, but I am disappointed with NYU's nursing program. With a name like NYU and high price tag, I expected it to be more organized and with more competent instructors. Although the Philly area isn't going to be quite like NY, I'm hoping the nursing education at UPenn will outweigh the cons of living in Philly.

Hi Rashida, I think I will be able to register for classes and get my butt to NYU from CA in time for the first day of class Jan 22. I've been rushing to get my tuition $, BLS certification, and Health Clearance in before we begin school. I'll be flying into NY this weekend from SF. I'll see all you Spring 2008 admits this coming Tuesday if all goes well! Kimberly

Hi Spring 2008 admits, I just got a letter in the mail dated January 8, 2008 that I got into the Spring 2008 BSN accelerated program. I just received the acceptance letter Friday, so that gives me only FIVE working days to figure things out before classes start Jan 22! I find it quite unsettling and unfair that I was notified extremely late, especially since I would be moving from San Francisco to New York. I wish I could defer my acceptance to Fall 2008, but I dunno if it's possible. eeks is it worth the stress to go to NYU given that I have only 5 working days to take care of everything!? maybe I should just reapply for Fall 2008, but I'm worried that I won't get in the 2nd time. help!