megank5183

If you take a position at a NHSC site, are you guaranteed to get the loan repayment provided that you work there and apply?

income based repayment caps your loan repayment at 15% of your current income if your loans are consolidated. In December of 2015, you should be eligible for pay as you earn, which would cap repayment at 10%. If you work at a non-profit for 10 years remainder of your loan would be forgiven as long as you make payments for ten years. Again, these rules all apply to federal consolidated loans.

Hi! I am graduating from my PMHNP program in June and am currently in clinicals. I'm not sure about Penn's program, but at Drexel we can precept with Psych NPs and psychiatrists. I have precepted with one NP and three MDs, so I would search for docs too. Also, do you have any professional connections? All of my preceptors (except the NP who was a cold call) have come through contacts I have made as RN. As for the role, there is definitely opportunity and I think I will really love the job when I graduate. It is pretty specialized, so if you can only work in one location upon graduation, that might be difficult but there are certainly jobs in CA. I am pretty open to relocating after graduation, so I am pretty confident that I will find employment when I am done. GL!

it is silly to condemn a school purely for being online. I go to drexel and allll or our exams are proctored. My coworker goes to a brick and mortar school and all his exams are open book.

Nursing is certainly tough! Your reaction is completely normal and in no way are you not meant for the job. You would be superhuman if, after four months on the job, you did not need prompting when participating in your first cardiac arrest. Additionally, the patient being so young would upset hopefully anyone and there is no need to feel embarrassed that you cried. Nurses are human and you just witnessed someone losing their life. Just because we work in the medical field does not mean that we leave our emotions at the door. I have been a nurse now for four years and I started out in the ICU and I felt sick EVERY DAY that I went to work. I still question myself constantly. I now work in psychiatry doing consults on the general medical floors and really love it. I would never want to go back to floor nursing because it is a TOUGH job. It is both emotionally and physically exhausting. Besides this incident, how else do you feel about the job? I can guarantee you that it is going to take AT LEAST a year to become even close to comfortable in your position. Being a RN is an awesome, respectable position where you can do a lot of good. Do not beat yourself up about how you are feeling. If, after a while, you still feel like you don't like floor nursing there are a bunch of other ways that you can use your degree. I would like to point out that some people are just more sensitive (including myself) and you are always going to meet patients that break your heart. It is important that you try to separate work from your personal life (I'll let you know how to do it when i figure it out Hang in there and I promise you it will get easier but having a heart is nothing you should ever feel ashamed about!

Hi guys, I admit that I am a perfectionist (especially when it comes to academics). I know that employers do not look at transcripts and yada-yada but it has been a point of pride for me to make it this far in my program with a 4.0. I am a PMHNP student and have worked psych for the past two years (I did initially work critical care). Still, my skills assessing for medical ailments rather that psychosocial and psychiatric ailments has lessened. I'm currently taking advanced physical assessment and I HATE it. I just do not feel like it is at all applicable to the work that I am eventually going to do. I work with psychiatrists every day and I have NEVER seen one do a HEENT exam. I am struggling with this course and do not feel like I am going to get an A. I got an 88 on my midterm and a pretty horrible grade on one of my SOAP notes. Just feeling really discouraged. Any advice or thoughts?

I'm not attending an online for profit, but I don't look down on those who do. I do not thing they are good for the profession for a slew of reasons, but that is an entirely different can of worms. I know a lot of FNP students that went to well respected B & M schools that can't find a job...as well as recently graduated lawyers that are working as glorified legal secretaries. Do not ever be so sure that your lifestyle is guaranteed...never know when life is going to throw you a curveball and you'll be the one on the outside looking in....life is funny that way. Just might want to think how your words may hurt or discourage people that are just trying to advance their careers and better their lives...

Don't think that it is helpful to look down on anyone who is in an NP program. For profit, B & M, non-profit, etc. We all have opinions on what is best (of course, it is usually what WE did that fits the standard). You may think you have it all figured out and will be the smartest provider upon graduation because you physically sat in a classroom to listen to people read PP (which is usually what happens), but your attitude makes me wonder what type of provider you will be (rather have a compassionate, non-judgmental provider who is competent than a egotistical one who is a genius). And NONE of us are 'online only'. To be certified, you have to have the required amount of in person clinical hours. Making fun of people is pretty immature...but if it makes you feel better to look down on future colleagues, maybe there is something within you that is lacking confidence or pride in the program that you are aspiring to attend to. You are not currently in any NP program, correct? So you are hardly an expert on analyzing the merit of the pedagogical delivery systems of NP programs. Hopefully you will learn in grad school (and in life) that ad hominem attacks are not scientifically based and really do not contribute anything to a conversation. Maybe you should chill, nurse;)

Any advice appreciated! I am currently attending Drexel's PMHNP program. I need to get 160 hours of clinical time completed over a 10 week period. I have had a preceptor lined up since February, but due to miscommunication, I just found out that she will only be able to offer 90 hours. Obviously, this is a HUGE problem. The deadline for preceptor paperwork was April 1. I work with psychiatrists, but feel uncomfortable asking them to precept me because I do not want to put them in an awkward position if they do not want to do it. Any similar problems? I emailed my tract and program coordinator, but I am really, really upset. Help!!

I really think there needs to be a distinction between for-profit online programs (which I think are not good for the profession for a myriad of reasons) and traditional, well-know universities that offer online programs that are quite rigorous. I currently attend an online program, and I really don't think that it would be anymore helpful to sit in a classroom and listen to the professors in person than have them do the same lecture live over the internet (which last for three plus hours, blah!). I obviously went to a B & M school for undergrad, and feel like the online program is actually a better, more efficient way of educating people. Of course, clinical placement is a whole other ball of wax that both online and B & M NP programs need to address. I live in Pittsburgh, which has probably too many NP programs, and a coworker of mine is attending a highly respected NP B & M program. I was shocked to learn that all of his exams are open-book!! Our tests are all proctored and closed book....this made me question the whole damn thing! I think instead of getting hung up on physical location of the student and school, there needs to be more conformity in more important things such as if professors are giving open-book exams to graduate students who are expected to prescribe medications and make diagnoses upon graduation. I must admit I am highly jealous of those who can take open book exams , but I do not think that it is fair or helps the legitimacy of NP programs.

Are you in NP school yet? Have you ever worked bedside as an RN? I think the reason that you have rankled some people's feathers is because you speak with great conviction about what you are assuming reality to be. I worked as an ICU RN and a psychiatric consult RN. If you think that nursing is just pushing pills, cleaning poop, and blindly following orders, then I doubt you would make a very good RN or NP. RNs save lives EVERYDAY...often from orders that pretentious prescribers who think they are smarter than everybody else make. You are assuming that a vast amount of NP students are not 'intelligent'. How do you know that? What are you basing this on? I am currently an NP student, I consider myself pretty damn smart, and I guarantee to you there is nothing easy about it. When you begin to work in healthcare, you will quickly learn humility and I promise you, you will constantly be surrounded by people who are 'smart' but nitwits and people who may not be the Einstein, but know what they are doing. GL!

What factors go into whether or not you will receive the reward? High HPSA score? What are your chances of getting accepted? Thanks;)

Hi Everyone, Would love to hear from anyone that has experience with obtaining a NHSC job for loan reimbursement. I am a PMHNP student who will be graduating in about a year (thank you Lord!!), and I really would like to work in a NHSC approved position full-time to help with Student Loans. I see that there are plenty of jobs in my specialty on the NHSC job website. If you are hire at a place with a high score, do you automatically get the tuition help? To do this, I would probably me moving far and if it's not guaranteed if you take the job, then I would just go to the place with the highest salary or to a preferred location. Hope my ramblings make sense....and advice appreciated:) Megan

Thank, Jolie. Very sweet response;)

This literally made me lol!