junipers

Calinca: It actually sounds like you have a pretty good grasp of what clinicals, write-ups, and the pharmacology class will be like! Pharm involves some memorization of pathways, very minimal calculations and a lot of memorizing specifics about drugs uses/adverse effects/interactions, etc. Every clinical is different, but for the most part you mainly work with one patient per shift and typically one nurse as well. Your experiences with student nurses at Valley and Overlake sound a lot like what you will likely be doing as a student nurse during maternity clinicals. As far as shoes, nurses generally swear by dansko/sanita clogs. I bought a pair, but they take about a year of wearing before they stop feeling strange and unsteady! For most clinicals, I wear white tennis shoes. Our cohort was told to buy white leather shoes for clinicals, but we found out pretty soon that absolutely no one wears them and I am happy that I never bought them! So far, there has been no separation between the specialties and yes, we separate in the summer. Congrats on picking the CNM specialty - I am so incredibly excited to start the midwifery portion of my education!

NursePracHereIcome - Nope, I had mine over the phone. I flew out to Oregon to interview at OHSU and didn't have the funds or time to interview in Seattle as well!

NursePracHereIcome - I moved from the east coast with my boyfriend and our cat to attend this program, and we are loving Seattle so far!

Calinca - I believe we have the same screen name! I think Calinca (Калинка) in Russian means Juniper. Clinicals so far: 1. Be prepared for a ton of paperwork related to your assigned patient! The pre-clinical and post-clinical work often takes 12-15 hours. 2. Come to clinical prepared with a plan for which specific competencies you are going to attempt to meet that day. At the end of every clinical experience, you have to prove that you've met all of the required competencies. 3. For our cohort, the clinical experiences were in this order: Geriatrics in the summer, Maternity in the Fall, Pediatrics and Psychiatrics in the Winter, community and Med/Surg in the spring. For the cohort above us, the order was a little different, so it might be different for you as well. 4. Clinicals for the first year happen at many different hospitals and facilities, mostly in Seattle but some a short drive away. So far, I have gotten by without a car by carpooling and walking to clinicals. 5. For most clinicals, plan to show up the day or night before your clinical day to gather information and meet your patient. 6. Clinicals start about a month into the program, but they start off fairly easy. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about clinicals or the program!

Hi Group, current APNI here. Congrats on getting interviews! If you have any questions for a first year APNI in the midwifery track, let me know. Warmth, Junipers

Hi Group, I am a current APNI in the nurse-midwifery track. I am happy to answer any questions that I can. I know this is a stressful process and applaud you guys for going through the entire applying for grad school circus!

Hello Group, I am currently an ABM student at a different university, but I wanted to let you know that I was accepted into the OHSU program for nurse-midwifery two weeks before the program started! So, if you are put on the waitlist, don't despair and try to keep your life really flexible until the last minute!

I'm declining my acceptance to pre-specialty nurse-midwifery, so someone will be getting off of the waitlist soon!

Woohoo! I got in for midwifery!

I was told by my local CNM that burnout in the midwifery field is very high - I believe she said that the average CNM only practices full-scope for 5 years! Does this seem accurate? If so, how are people avoiding it? - Junipers

It is a lot, no question. I could do the second half of the program part-time while working as an RN, and I may well do that. For nurse-midwifery, there are many fewer masters entry programs than other specialities and most of them leave you with over $100,000 of debt. It is important to me to become a midwife and be established in a practice before starting my own family, and since I am in my late twenties, I feel that time is a definite factor. I could be a midwife in three years, but with substantial student loans - or I could apply to accelerated BSN programs for next year and work for a couple of years as a nurse before applying to midwifery programs, becoming a midwife in 5-6 years but with half the debt. Either way, I have the possibility of halving the debt in three years (either working as a midwife in an underserved area for that time, or becoming a midwife the traditional route and only taking on half the debt). Since I am more interested in practising as a CNM than an RN, perhaps the (ridiculously) expensive program is not such a bad idea? Edit: My estimate of $115,000 includes living expenses It is a difficult decision and I appreciate everyone's comments!

I am contemplating joining a masters-entry program that will leave me over $115,000 in debt by the end. Starting salary for certified nurse-midwives (my chosen field) seems to be about $70,000-$75,000 a year. Loan repayment programs seem to pay back about $25,000 per year of service in medically undeserved areas. Does anybody have any thoughts on the wisdom of enrolling in this masters-entry program? Thank you for your input, Junipers

The skills of nursing and the skills of a midwife do overlap somewhat, and I can see where having some nursing experience may make me a better CNM. I think being very open to learning from fellow nurses and other midwives and NPs will also help me gain skills and be a better practitioner. I want to clarify that in order to get in to one of these programs, you have to have: 1. Life, work, and volunteer experience that shows that you are able to work with people in a clinical setting and are devoted to direct service. 2. Great grades in Anatomy and Physiology I and II, Microbiology, Chemistry, Nutrition, Human growth and development, Statistics, and sometimes a few others. 3. A bachelors degree (many applicants have degrees in social work, psychology, public health, woman's studies, or other subjects that make for well-rounded NPs) 4. Commitment So, I do believe that I can have the basis for being a great CNM after 2.5 years of intensive (no breaks, through the summers) training. What does worry me is the feasibility of finding my first CNM position. Does anybody have any feedback on finding employment without working as an RN first? Thanks for all of the comments! Junipers

Thanks SkiBum - yours is a very refreshing outlook! Does anyone else have similar or opposing thoughts on this?

I still have hope for us, Banana!

I am considering attending a masters-entry program for people who have a bachelors in a non-nursing field, and am wondering how employable I will be after graduating. The program I have been accepted to does not award a second bachelors, but I will be able to become an RN after one year (I have already completed a bunch of science prerequisites). I will then complete a year and a half of speciality training to become a certified nurse-midwife. At this point, I will have no experience as a nurse (besides clinicals and integration) and I am wondering if the lack of nursing experience will make it difficult to find my first CNM job. Does anyone have experience with finding employment as an NP (or CNM specifically) without nursing experience?

Thank you NPinWCH for your thoughtful reply. I read somewhere on allnurses that there are areas (such as Philadelphia) where there is an abundance of NPs with BSNs looking for work, so major hospitals make it a policy to only hire NPs with BSNs. I would like to get a sense of how prevalent this is before I join a program that does not offer the BSN. Has anyone seen or heard of this practice? Is it widespread?

Hello, I am looking into various "Masters Entry" programs for people who have a non-nursing bachelors degree and want to become advanced practice nurses. I have noticed that some programs, such as Yale, Vanderbilt, UCSF, and Seattle University do not award a BSN on the way to RN certification and the MSN. Others, such as OHSU, do award the BSN. I have heard that there are some states that require a BSN in order to practice as an NP, but I have not been able to find any information about this. Does anyone know if the BSN is a formal or informal requirement in certain states to practice at the advanced level? Is it possible that graduates from the institutions that don't offer the BSN are less employable than their BSN holding counterparts? I have also heard that Oregon requires a certain amount of hours working as an RN before a NP can practice. Does anybody know if there are other states with similar requirements? Thank you for your input! Junipers Future Certified Nurse-Midwife

That's great PamCNM2Be! Thank you for bolstering my hopes. I would be ecstatic to get in off of the waitlist for CNM.

Hi Everyone, I have been accepted into the NMW track and am in the midst of making my decision. My largest concerns include the travel required, the cost (I am assuming the travel significantly increases cost!), and the ease of getting a CNM job without nursing experience or a BSN. I was hoping some of you might share your thoughts on why you choose the pre-speciality program and any reflections on the above concerns! Thanks in advance. Junipers

That's excellent jbsu!

Thanks NolaSea. It's great to know my approximate "hope timeline"!

Banana - I think we won't begin to hear about waitlist movement until mid-April, but let us know what you find out!

Thanks Lola! I am on three waitlists at this point, but I've decided against one of the schools even if I get in. So, I probably won't be in nursing school this year, but it is still a possibility. Good luck to you too!

Has anybody ever heard of someone being admitted from the waitlist for CNM? I am on it, and trying to be hopeful.