FreudianSlip

I believe there are a few on here, including myself, that went to Touro. It's a cost effective, time sensitive program, that was challenging but doable with a full time job. It's likely what you would expect from a remote DNP program-heavy emphasis on developing a project that translates research in to practice and very much a self driven type of program. You will get out of it what you put in to it, is really the key to this program, in my opinion. I invested heavily in my project and learned tremendously about the subject, as a result. Having a terminal degrees has opened new opportunities for me in my field (I am not an NP) and definitely believe it was worth the investment. *Caveat* I went through two years ago and the program has changed since then. Best of luck and don't bash the DNP! We are all different pieces of a puzzle, that come together to serve healthcare.

Hi, 5 years as a nurse is not a lot of experience to bring to the table and that may be hurting your opportunities. Hopefully, most of those 5 years are in the same care area? Nurses who can parlay a large clinical knowledge base in to a case management role are especially desired for these positions. This is doubly true for telephonic positions that require more autonomy. Two suggestions: 1) Know someone in the business who can recommend you (LinkedIn is helpful). 2) Utilize a local expansion opportunity; the Big Boys and smaller players frequently break in to new markets, where they will hire large amounts of staff to support the new business. There are many, many opportunities in this field, but it definitely can be hard to get in to. I hope that's helpful and best of luck!

Hey Sean, Sounds like you're at a bit of a crossroad. Luckily, you're still quite young(ish), so still time to recoup any life or career changes. Your feelings are not uncommon from what I've heard from many nurses and seems to be a combination of culture shock (school to work) and the difficulties of modern nursing. All that being said, many nurses (including myself) have successfully navigated and overcame that pain point in our careers. When I was starting out around 15 years ago, I was working in critical care and absolutely hated it. After a couple of jobs, I was thinking heavily about leaving nursing altogether when I finally found the area that clicked for me-behavioral health. It resonated with me in a way that no other area of nursing had and I truly enjoyed the patients, staff, and providers. It became a springboard for my personal growth and development that has served me well. Fast forward to now; I am a well compensated nursing leader in a very successful company in a very strong industry-in short; nursing has been good to me. Morale of the story? Nursing may indeed not be for you; or perhaps you haven't found your niche yet. I would see if you can explore what you truly enjoyed about nursing and see if you can make those fit in to your career. Nursing certainly has its issues, but one amazing thing about the field is the vast amount of career paths you can take under the nursing umbrella. Hope some of this was helpful to you and best wishes.

I think a good general answer to this question is that it is just another tool in the belt; another key for the door. There will be anecdotal stories of associate degree nurses pulling down six figures and PhD prepared nurses living off grants...and lots of stuff in between. For me, getting my doctorate was a personal goal but also has been useful in leveraging my professional (and financial) advancement. I suspect I would have done well without my doctorate, but I wanted every advantage possible to succeed (I still do!). Just by pure supply and demand, having a doctorate puts you in the 1% category, which is a great place to be professionally, in my opinion. Congratulations on your upcoming graduation!

If you are wanting to teach, I would stick with your MSN-Ed program. DNP programs are essentially being offered in two flavors these days: Leadership and advanced practice. A MSN with an education focus should allow you to attend a Leadership track. Some programs offer Educational Leadership, which would tie nicely with your MSN-Ed. Of course, a PhD in nursing program is also an option.

Congratulations on your decision and thank you for you service! I started my career as a combat medic too :) To answer your question-if you want to be a psychiatric nurse, other behavioral health degrees will be unnecessary. Getting your ADN or BSN will be your priority and then gaining experience. If you are wanting to gain some knowledge now while you are still in, I would recommend starting your nursing prerequisites (will be determined by which program you apply to, but are general to most programs), if you can take some online (you should be able to). You might also think about becoming active in local or national mental heath efforts; these will expose you to a lot of new knowledge and any volunteer work through these groups will look great on your resume. Please feel free to PM for any further info and good luck with your endeavors!

The million dollar question is, of course, is it worth it to you? I suspect you are asking if it will be financially or professionally rewarding-increasing your earning potential, job opportunities, or clinical knowledge depth. These answers are highly dependent upon the type of DNP program you pursue and the type of clinical (or non-clinical) practice area you will work in. You may make more money, but you will have paid plenty of money for tuition; so there's that to consider (especially, if you had to take out loans). If where you want to work requires a doctorate, then that should help you decide if it will increase your career opportunities. While anyone who earns a doctorate has the right to be called "doctor"; if you are a NP in a clinical setting, you will likely not be, and this will probably be frowned on by the facility. Now, for the other side of the coin: I think pursuing education is of itself a noble goal and highly rewarding. I sincerely believe that more nurses should complete a terminal degree-I think it is good for self-enrichment, a stronger knowledge base, and broader career reach. It is also good for the profession as a whole! I did and do think it is worth it. I hope that is helpful and good luck in your academics!

Congratulations!

The PEARLS course was free for me (part of our company's CE package), so the value was great. For $69, I'd say it is just so/so. I thought the psychopharm was good, but some of the other modules (there are 8 total) were pretty weak in content and test questions. I bought everything the ANCC had online for practice questions, including the text review course (you get CEs for it also). I really enjoyed the flash cards from Mometrix (bought mine on Amazon)-they are pretty text heavy, not traditional flash cards, but I could review them whenever. Like I said, over prepared likely, but I couldn't stand the thought of not passing!

I recently took this exam and passed. I pretty much used everything-the review book, all the practice questions offered through ANCC, flashcards, and review content through PEARLS. I read the book once and then did more research in to sections that I needed more knowledge (based on the practice questions). The practice questions were extremely helpful in getting the "feel" for the exam. It is likely that I over prepared, as I didn't feel the test was too difficult but I'd rather over prepare and succeed than the alternative! I did this over a 3 month timeline, mostly on weekends, but sometimes during the week. Of course, practice experience plays a big part in your knowledge base, so I'd take that in to account. Best of luck!

It is similar to most DNP programs project/capstones-you will work closely with an academic and practice mentor to develop a project that "translates research/evidence in to practice"-in an area of your interest that meets the program goals. The project will follow the "DNP Essentials" guidelines (http://www.aacn.nche.edu/dnp/Essentials.pdf) and your clinical hours will be derived from your project development and implementation (as approved by your academic mentor). I know a young lady who is in the program now, who was told that her practice mentor needed to be licensed in the state the student lived in and where the student would be doing her project. That wasn't the case when I was there, but the program seems to be changing some. You will support your final project through a written work and verbal "defense" to peers/faculty. As everyone else said, the pace could be difficult at times.

I believe they modified their curriculum this year to be more leadership, but not educator focused.

If your end goal is to help people, there are so many options that you could take before making a career change; especially one that will (at first) dramatically reduce your income. You should be forewarned that nursing is HARD WORK and the nursing model and the medical model of education are quite different. You may have some buyer's remorse if you don't do your research first. You will likely not do this, but I would recommend that you work part-time as a nurse's aid/tech before committing to a nursing program. It will give you a feel for the working environment. That being said, nursing has been very rewarding for me and I wholeheartedly recommend it. But, I've never done anything else, so I can't really compare (never been a physicist) :) To answer your questions-yes, the quality of the school does matter, as do NCLEX pass rates. No, you don't need to attend a school that offers both the BSN and MSN. You can attend those programs separately at separate schools. If you plan on getting your NP, be advised that you will not likely be able to do that while working part time still-the clinical hours would make that difficult, unless your work is very flexible. Good luck whatever your decisions!

You're only 24! You have enough time to do anything! That being said, you really should attempt some job shadowing or PRN aide work before making a huge leap like that. That expression "the grass is always greener" exists for a reason. Most people don't feel fulfilled by their jobs-even if it is something you are very passionate about; the act of making it "work" often detracts from that. To be your age making that kind of money is a unique opportunity that most don't have and should be seriously considered (as I'm sure you have). You could easily retire comfortably while still young enough to enjoy it. However, I can say that psychiatric nursing has been rewarding on most levels for me but it's pretty much all I've done my entire career, so not a lot to compare it to.

Hi Scrubs, If you are wanting to be a NP-DNP, then yes it'll be the four year program geared towards the BSN to DNP. If you aren't interested in becoming an NP, then there are DNP programs that focus on leadership that are post MSN and do no not require you to be an NP. On my last look, there seemed to be plenty of those available. Good luck!