TiffyRN

I did a BSN to PhD, and the university had decided to exclude the infamous "3 Ps" from my program the year before. Without those, I wasn't considered an APRN, and would not have been able to teach many graduate nursing courses. My chair strongly suggested I get a post-masters NP certificate to improve my resume. After a couple of years I landed a job at a large health system and am very much happy I didn't get on the tenure track hamster wheel.

I work as a nurse scientist in a large healthcare system. I defended just a few months before COVID hit and job searches were difficult, especially for a novice researcher with only conference presentations. I continued to work bedside as I was rejected over and over for nurse scientist and academic positions. What eventually worked for me was getting closely involved with shared decision making, meeting and getting into discussions with our entity nurse scientist. Vol testing to work on studies no one else wanted to fool with. While I still lacked the requisite "2 years experience", (HR held up my application) my entity nurse scientist brought me to the director as a strong possibility. I was encouraged to add some items to my resume that included any kind of research, mentoring, academic type activities I had engaged in over the last few years including my relentless effort on that abandoned study. I got past HR and found an amazing group of highly talented nurse scientists who have mentored and encouraged me the last 2.5 years. it is literally my dream job ?

I am open to helping. I don't have a MSN as I went through a BSN to PhD program and currently work as a nurse scientist for the last 2.5 years.

Different facilities will offer clinical ladders that can offer hourly difs for achieving various clinical and professional activities. Some (like my employer), will often cap how high one can go on that ladder if one doesn't complete a higher degree. Pretty much all the activities/certs you mentioned would count towards clinical ladders depending on the hospital. I would inquire with your leadership to see if negotiating with HR is effective in any way. Policies certainly change, and this is a time where nurses hold some negotiating power, but what I've heard in the past is that pay rates are kind of restricted by years of experience, local "market surveys", and projected budget. Now, in one's first few years of practice, you may find moving around may help increase one's pay if one is willing to "shop around". The largest % raises I've ever had have been from changing jobs or market surveys. Having said all that, I've been in this business through MULTIPLE cycles of boom and bust for nursing demand. If I had to do it again, I would have let my hospital pay for my BSN years ago. Instead I waited until it was nearly impossible to get a new job in my specialty (NICU at the time) before deciding to get it done finally. Waiting until I was 40 to go back was frickin' hard. And who knows, you may uncover some hidden passion. I found out I loved research; stranger things have happened.

What is particularly attractive to you about Walden? it's usually wise to focus on universities with strong research programs on the topic you are interested in. I didn't do that and was just lucky that I bonded well with a professor who had a similar background and was committed to my success.

Well, I have learned some about this topic. It does seem that at Vanderbilt, they will integrate 500 hours of clinical practice so that no DNP grad has only 500 hours. That is the only mention of additional clinical hours I see for MSNs with prior APRN certification; unless you want to add an additional certification, say CNM. The course of study for DNP does not seem to include clinically-focused courses (advanced counseling, pscycho-education); instead it is more what I think of as typical for DNP: policy development, advanced informatics for data extraction, scholarly writing, evidence translation, and of course, the scholarly project. https://nursing.vanderbilt.edu/DNP/dnp_curriculum.php If your goal is to complete a terminal degree and learn something on the side, that can be done through PhD and DNP. But it will be more self-directed. I LOVED the freedom of being given flexible assignments that I could focus on the topics of interest to me (with few exceptions). You will have electives and practicums that should be very flexible as far as topics.

"MY goal here is complete the terminal degree while learning something applicable onthe patient care side" There really aren't too many options for a terminal degree unless you want to start an entire new course of study (PsyD). If you want to enhance your patient care skills, the world of literature is out there! Then design either an EBP or research project to implement or further explore your new found patient care knowledge. You are correct that PhD/DNP aren't designed to further clinical skills unless it's something like BSN to DNP. If you want a terminal degree, there aren't too many options. Those degrees are research-focused in order to help the graduate further (or translate) the field's knowledge.

@saheckler I haven't been on this site for a while for reasons. I'm glad you are sticking it out and about to finish. My advisor was a perfect fit for me, but not for a couple of my classmates. So it is hard to help people know how to pick an advisor because I think the MOST important thing is to find an advisor that believes in you. Having said that, one of my advisor's personal axioms was that the main thing one needs to complete a PhD is persistence. I also have an incredible stubborn streak so my biggest motivation was my husband, on hearing that I was beyond frustrated with school, would say: "Then go ahead and quit!" He did this because he knew that was my strongest motivation. But, if any school is harming you, take a break, find another program. It's not worth the trouble/damage. Also, know what you want to do with that degree. I didn't when I started my program, but the stars/planets/vibrations were aligned and I found a job well suited to my strengths and preferences.

I defended my PhD in nursing in Fall 2019. I had a couple of classes shared with the DNP students. The dean of the DNP program was on my committee. I know much more about the PhD program obviously. They are quite different, probably mainly due to the fact that national nursing organizations (maybe AACN?) accredit ADN/BSN/MSN/DNP programs whereas PhD nursing programs are regulated by usual regional accrediting agencies.

First of all I'd recommend anything you write be a "guideline" and now a strict policy. This will allow for some flexibility for individualized patient care. Our thermoregulation guidelines were recently re-written and if I recall them correctly, we can consider transitioning to open crib if the following conditions are in place: 1. At least 1600g 2. At least 34 weeks AGA 3. Has been stable in an isolette on air temp of 28 or below for at least 5 days. 4. Has gained 10g/kg per day for the last 5 days. And these are guidelines not absolutes so for example I have a 1800 g 34 week kid who has been on the lowest setting the giraffe will allow (around 25C) for days but is constantly over 99F axillary, angry, and screaming, and has had one day of weight loss but has been generally trending up. I will likely pop the top on that giraffe and trial them on open crib status because they may gain weight more consistently if they aren't hot and screaming all the time.

I've been in my current unit for 18 years. The dwell time for tubes was originally 3 days but those were stiffer plastic tubes. When we changed to silastic tubes the dwell time was changed to 3 weeks, then mysteriously changed to 2 weeks. We recently had a comprehensive review and rewrite of tube policy, and now dwell time is 30 days. We do reuse tubes if they are dislodged but not grossly contaminated (dropped on the floor). My experience is that the numbers tend to rub off after about 2-3 weeks so I doubt any tube is doing to last the newly dictated 30 days.

Not familiar with the niv-nava but kind of have an idea from internet searches. Maybe lay down a square or rectangle of duoderm on the chin for stability, then use H-cut tape with one half on the duoderm and the the other half wrapping around your tubes (we've used it before to secure 2 OGs when the baby requires continuous venting and feeding. Then cover the chin section with about 1/2 a tegaderm. Optional to lay the tubes flat against the chin (not sure the implications for your edi cath). Sometimes works fine to allow the tubes to stick straight out from the mouth but I prefer they are secured under the tegaderm on the chin as they are the tiniest bit less susceptible to being grabbed. With a really slobbery kid, this might only last 3-6 hours but usually longer than straight tape on chin.

Apparently it is very much dependent on how your department feels. The dean of my PhD program didn't like students to list PhDc so it wouldn't have been in my best interest to go against her. As for ABD, I've never seen that as an official designation and if anything, I always thought it wasn't complimentary. Such as a lot of people out there are ABD but it took special persistence to actually finish the dissertation.

One of my PhD professors was/is a JD as well. I don't know which one came first. I know she's tenured and has now moved into the position of director of the PhD program recently. She's taught special topics on biomedical mediation, legal and ethical leadership. I'm sure there is plenty of room for people with JD and nursing PhD.

While I'm not sure my program is classified as "competitive", it is a based out of traditional brick and mortar State university. The PhD program is largely online. I was required to go to a campus week approximately once a year for in-person interactions with our professors and others students. While I had already defended a few months prior to the stay-at-home orders, they don't seem to have affected the PhD students that much. There was a halt to research requiring in-person contact but otherwise things just kind of continued as usual. The earlier courses were administered by Blackboard with a lot of email support. As one progressed and started working more with a dissertation advisor, there was a lot of more personal email and phone calls. One other in-person requirement was that one's final defense had to be in-person on campus but that changed at the height of the stay-home orders. For that period of time, students defended remotely using Skype for Business with all their committee members remotely attending. Also, in my small PhD cohort, 3 of us were in the same general geographic location, but that was about 6 hours drive from campus. A couple of other students lived 3-4 hours from campus, and a couple more lived in the general metropolitan area as the university.

Feeders (what I do most): BP once a shift unless on anti-HTN meds. Temps Q3 if eating, can be stretched out further if they kid is ad lib and eats less frequently. For those more stable older kids we aren't likely to wake them up just for a temp unless we're worried about the temp. I've gone up to 6 hours and no one blinked an eye (hourly vitals recorded from the monitor). Sats every hour unless (in rare cases) the pulse ox has been DC'D Only required to record RR/HR every 3 but since our monitors feed into our EMR, most people record this hourly since it's an easy mouse click. Sicker kids usually get q4 temps unless min/stim, then less frequently. BPs twice a shift if the kid is on IVF above KVO. Kids on continuous feeds usually only get hands on cares Q4h. Like I mentioned earlier, we tend to record hourly HR/RR even on feeders since it feeds directly into the EMR. If they have an art line of any kind, at least hourly BPs. Probably a lot more details about the sicker/smaller kids but I don't generally work with them.

The biggest issue with BSN schools after getting your ADN at EC is because many EC students only have 6 instead of 8 credits for A&P I & II (since no lab). My husband was an ADN EC grad so we faced this back in 2012. He would have needed to take those labs (I'm sure a local community college would have been fine) which would have been a pain just because of the time needed. He wound up deciding to go to EC for BSN. I had a traditional ADN but wanted to have moral support so we both enrolled at the same time. First of all, when we were shopping for programs EC's costs were very reasonable, actually cheaper than some like Chamberlain or Walden, but this was a while ago. Plus the cost savings from taking exams for some pre-reqs (I took a 6 credit Humanities test for under $100). I believe we both got our degrees for about $12,000 each which was (thankfully) largely reimbursed by our employers. As far as taking your EC BSN to another university. . . I applied to and was accepted to a state university's BSN to PhD program. My GPA was competitive since I took few pass/fail exams for credit and my other courses had good grades. I successfully defended a few months ago. My professors were unfamiliar with EC but I was able to keep up with my classmates who were mostly MSN already (we took the same PhD level courses and I had to take extra MSN level coursework). My husband, who was an EC ADN and BSN grad decided to go to NP school last year. He was accepted to both state universities he applied to. I also know another EC ADN grad who then went for her BSN, then MSN/NP. She recently defended her DNP. All her education after EC was a state universities. I know EC is struggling, and I know some people can graduate without absorbing too much knowledge. But you can acquire a high quality education from them if you choose.

Congrats on that defense!! Sorry I don't have any advice, I just took my regular CNE exam today and passed. My only advice which doesn't really apply to you is just schedule that test so that it will force you to study. But you had a defense to deal with and that was more important! Good luck on your upcoming exam!

It kind of needs to be something you are attracted to. As you've done lit reviews around diabetic patients, what questions have you asked that haven't popped out of the literature. Or comb through the "suggestions for future research" on articles that were of interest, then find out if others have done the further research. Do you have a faculty advisor or mentor? My faculty advisor spent a lot of time on the phone with me. She wasn't familiar with the literature from the NICU but she would question me about topics that interested me, then suggest possible avenues. Some I would reject as I knew the literature was saturated. Eventually I found a topic I really loved and seemed to have a significant gap. And, she even enjoyed guiding me through as my chair. My program accepted me without an idea. They did expect us to bring a list of possible topics for our 2nd year orientation (I didn't wind up exploring any of those I presented that day). I believe of the 8 of us that started with me (4 of whom dropped out), only one person stuck to her original topic.

I know this thread is a few weeks old but I was having some similar questions. My DH is about 1/4 through PMHNP school, he also came from a non-psych background. Whereas he knew most PMHNPs mostly do med management, he had visions of possibly doing some psychotherapy. First semester they only had general family practice practicums and he just started his first psych practicum. He follows a very busy PMHNP who rounds in various LTCs seeing at least 20 patients a day. His concern is, is it reasonable to expect to find employment that is not so fast-paced? He is older and kind of just wanted something to gear it down a bit from hospital work and would be perfectly happy to work part-time but has concerns he would be able to work part-time, or at least go part-time after a year or so. He's open to multiple environments, is not turned off by the LTC-type patients, just wouldn't want to see so many. Would be open to office work, would love to do therapy appointments even if that meant decreased income. Would be open to tele-medicine (is that reasonable for a new grad?). We are in one of the most restrictive practice states so he would have to have an association with an MD, don't know if that makes a difference.

Anybody know if UTA takes transfer students from other Texas schools. Backstory: Hubby got into Texas State's program knowing it was one of the fastest in the nation and is now regretting the pace. One issue (though maybe an advantage now) is that they complete all the three Ps the first semester, which he passed with a 3.67 GPA. He is now re-considering UTA, which he didn't want because they are so slow compared toTexas State's program which full-time is only 4 semesters. But the pace is insane even with no other jobs. Anyone know? Or know the page link where they have application dates? I found one that says Summer acceptance requires application by 4/1 but I don't know if that would apply to PMHNP or if they would take a transfer student. I've seen here on this thread that they aren't often very responsive so thought I'd ask here first.

I thought for sure this was incorrect but apparently my information was out of date. GCU was nonprofit (or maybe not-for-profit, because apparently these are different things) for many years until around 2004 when it became for-profit. A few years ago they attempted (and maybe temporarily succeeded) in becoming not-for-profit. Apparently just in the last few weeks they were denied this status by the federal government because they were outsourcing too many of their services (curriculum development and student counseling) for example) to for-profit companies.

I really went down a rabbit hole for this. The closest I found was an Allnurses link suggesting that there might be a 6 month RN school in Florida. No one could confirm but they threw out Sienna College and Med-life Institute as possibly being the place. If it is Med-life institute, there's an enlightening longish thread about them here on Allnurses going from 2017 to just a few weeks ago. I looked them on up FL BON pass rates though the most recent I found was 2017. From their 5 campuses, they had 55 students take the NCLEX and 9 pass (that's 16.33% pass rate). Needless to say, that may have been contributing to their problems which have become acute. It seems I was wrong (not afraid to admit when I find it's true), some programs are very fast because they have testing-out options, some people mentioned 6-7 months though I couldn't find out if this was initial licensure ADN or LPN to ADN. Either way, that's fast. They do seem to be in that status of State-approved, but not accredited, so you might have trouble if you want to go to another State or if you wanted to pursue a higher degree though some on the thread said they had been able to do both. Their website isn't working and the end of the thread had people posting what they had been told when they called (that the school was not enrolling new students), and finally a letter from the administrator saying the initial licensure ADN program was no more. Some of the posts seemed to confirm your friend's experience, that students attend a weekend clinical once a month, so I bet these are the same people. Overall, best of luck to your friend. I hope she/he finishes before the school closes down for good. You can't stay in business with NCLEX pass rates that low but even then it doesn't mean people can't learn enough to pass the boards (16+% have after all).

Not to be difficult, but seriously, to help your friend, I would ask for the name of the website and look into it. I don't believe this happens in the US. That's why Excelsior has been in trouble and their graduates can't practice in several states (or require supplemental preceptor hours). All states have pretty consistent standards on what they require for taking NCLEX. Part of that is graduation from a state-approved program. Because Excelsior didn't have precepted hours for students, they started getting in trouble with different States (they contend that the student's prior and ongoing clinical experiences are sufficient along with a high-pressure clinical exam at the end: CPNE). Another possible explanation is that the friend that actually completed this program isn't an RN but choses to call themselves that; I've certainly encountered that before. If further questioned they might finally admit they are an MA ("but I do everything an RN does"). But hey, if your friend really has the "in" on a 6 month fully online program, they need to let some people here know about it because there are plenty of desperate people who truly need to get their RN to take care of their families. Am I truly advocating for a possibly slip-shod program, of course not, just saying that if it's true, let it stand up to scrutiny. Once more Dani_Mila, I am not trying to come after you, just injecting some healthy skepticism into this claim that seems counter to everything I've ever heard about US based RN education.

What I think you are saying is that there is a course offered from a website that allows 6 months of study then you can take the RN boards? I seriously doubt this. The closest I've ever seen come to that is the old days of Excelsior where one could (if you were already an LPN, RT, paramedic, and a few other healthcare provider jobs) take their 7 nursing theory exams, as quickly as one a month, then schedule a 2 day clinical exam (CPNE). But things have changed dramatically for Excelsior and I don't know of anyone recently who's gotten through their program in less than a couple of years; especially considering they now have a year's wait list from completion of exams to CPEN exam dates. I can accept that your CNA friend believes they are going to qualify for the NCLEX in 6 months, but I have serious doubts this is actual reality.