mom2michael

Our terms are 12 weeks in length with 1 week break in between Class are offered 4 times per year. Every class is offered every term. Summer term is 11 weeks (it is the only shorter term) so that we can have a longer break during Christmas. We are just now finishing up Summer term (in ends in Sept.). Hope that helps.

The school does not help you find clinical sites, you are responsible for finding your own. The school does maintain a database however that currently is VERY outdated (but with plans to update it eventually) that they can give you that might assist you in your search. But you will do the leg work to find your own clinical sites. Keep in mind former Frontier students will help you find sites. We tend to stick together and help You need to secure at least one site about 6-9 months before you start clinicals. Keeping in mind you need hours but you also need specific visits. The best place to achieve all the hours and visits would be a well rounded practice that sees FP and OB patients together. You need an APN that is board certified. Doctors are OK for 135 hours but that is it. No PAs. So there are rules that have to be followed as well when looking for sites. M2M A FSMFN student who struggled to find clinicals but eventually found 3 sites

Yes, you find your clinical placement on your own. That does not mean the school won't help you, but the school is not responsible for setting your clinical site. You must go out, find a preceptor and get the site. Once you find the site, you let the school know and they take care of all the legal mumbo jumbo stuff for you. One of the most difficult thing for students is finding a clinical site. I really think it's important to make sure you have some really good ideas and/or leads before you apply. Make sure you know where you can go for clinicals and where you can get ALL your clinical hours and #s in at before you apply. I think many students apply and think things will work out and 16-24 months later when they are finished with their coursework and ready to start clinicals they are startled to realize they don't have preceptors lined up to take them. Then the student is faced with either A not finishing their program or B moving to another area of the country to finish their program. It is a very stressful time for the student. I myself did not have a hard time but my very close friend is a FNP who agreed to do my clinicals long before I ever applied to this program and she even quit her job and moved to another practice for me so I could see a better variety of patients and would only need one clinical site (plus she wanted a new job).

Full time has required me to spend anywhere from 10-60 hours per week depending on the week and the class and what is going on that week. There is no way to tell you if it will be too much or too little because I honestly have no idea how tired you are after coming home from work. To me the idea of coming home after 8 hours of work and doing 8-10 hours of homework just makes me way to but that's me You are allowed to change your status one time (from full to part time or vice versa). All FNP students start with just 2 classes the first term so you have a chance to "test the waters". My only concern for you - when you reach your clinical portion what are you going to do? FNP students generally complete their clinicals in a clinic which is open M-F from 8-5. Just something mull over when you think about ideas......

Regarding FSMFN: #1 The website will tell you the most up to date information on cost per credit hour. #2 The school does not set up clinical preceptors for you. You take care of that on your own. You are required to see a certain # of patients as well as have a certain number of clinical hours to graduate. All this information is found on their webpage. This is one of the most difficult things for students to obtain and honestly I think before you apply to this program you should first have a VERY GOOD solid lead on a potential preceptor otherwise you run the risk of completing your coursework and 16 months later not having a clinical site and not finishing the program unless you move. #3 GRE is required depending on your GPA #4 You are required to attend bound sessions 2 times during the MSN portion of your program. The first time is 4 days at the start of your program. The second time is approx 16 months later (if you are full time) for 8 days. These are orientation sessions to various portions of your programs. You are required to attend. As far as your job goes, most people do clinicals for the FNP program in clinics rather than in the hospitals. This program prepares you as an FNP to see mainly chronic conditions, peds, well women, etc... Hospitals generally are filled with acute care cases, so generally speaking, they are not ideal learning environments for a FNP student. FSMFN does not allow you to work in the specific department or clinic during your clinical rotation. Since you work stepdown, I do not see where this would be an issue. You are allowed to still work for the hospital so that would not be an issue for you. Hope I helped answer some of your questions!!!!

I still work 3-12 hour night shifts per week and attend a full time, online FNP program. It isn't enjoyable and my family life suffers sometimes - as well as my sleep most of the time, but it is manageable. I would say that probably 90% of the students in my class work at least part time if not full time. Very few of us have the luxury of working PRN. For me I'm thankful I work full time, it really keeps me motivated in school and keeps me plucking through my assignments in a timely fashion. I'm tired and cranky some weeks but it's all good. Each assignment gets me that much closer to my final goal of being a FNP.

My preceptor is a WHNP too and she loved it and had a great job for awhile. That being the key - awhile. When her job went away (OB/GYN she worked with retired) there were no more WHNP jobs out there. She went back and got her FNP and said it was the best thing she ever did. She does most of the well women stuff at work now but she said sometimes it's nice to see a HTN patient or someone with a cold every once and awhile too. She was really nervous about being a FNP after being a WHNP for the better part of 20 years but she said it's great and she totally loves it. She said she wished she would've done it from the start. It's opened up a lot of opportunities for her. For me, being a FNP will open up more doors than just one or two and since I have no clue what my life will hold 5 or even 10 years from now, I want to be able to open the doors without having to go back to school yet again. I love the idea of being able to see anyone from birth to death and everything in between.

Night diff is about $3.00/hr at either place. Cox does not pay a weekend diff unless you work a weekend option job and you specifically work every single weekend. I'm not sure if St. John's has a weekend diff or not.

Go for it!!! We have all kinds of nurses in my FNP program at Frontier and we are all doing just fine In my class alone we have 2 or 3 NICU/Nursery RNs. A good FNP program (online or in a classroom) is going to teach you what you need to be taught and get you prepared to practice as a good, safe FNP when you graduate regardless of your RN experience.

Yup, gotta agree with Sheri. A good school will teach you what you need to know. Grad school is tough, don't add to the stress with a job that you don't like and you won't enjoy. If you love doing what you are doing, keep right on doing it. You'll be surprised how much you are learning and how much will apply to your FNP program. This is coming from a person who is a L&D nurse in a FNP program, BTW My FNP program has all kinds of nurses BTW. Home Health, Hospice, ICU, ER, L&D, Peds, NICU, Interventional Radiology, Cardiology, OR, Nursery, etc... We pretty much have someone from every nursing field their is. We even have several that no longer do direct bedside nursing and are caseworkers.

I also did the portfolio with 2 years of ER experience, no L&D experience (applying to the CMN program) and a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice. It's very tailored to the person doing the application and is not a "one size fits all" kind of application. Answer the questions to the best of your ability. If education applies to the question, answer it as such. If your work experience applies, then answer it that way. I was accepted and eventually changed my course to the FNP route for various reasons....but the moral of the story is.... just apply :wink2:

The facility I worked at before did PP and NBN - so mom hand one nurse and baby had another. I hated it. There was no continuity of care - if mom had questions about baby while you were "her nurse" you had to get the "baby nurse" to answer the questions and vice versa. One nurse had to rely on the other to get d/c stuff done before they could be sent home, if one was busy, the mom (or baby) wasn't going to get discharged. In my opinion it was highly disorganized and lacked a sense of compassion to mom and the baby. I do couplet care now and it's so much easier and I like taking care of both mom and the baby at the same time. If we have a sick baby (or a sick mom) - then we drop to that couplet only (that mom/that baby) and we do 1:1 care with them.

I would call your education department and ask. Ours is only open to RN's who currently work in L&D.

Frontier does not have a "combo" program for FNP/Midwifery. You must complete one clinical speciality track before you start another. If you wanted to be a CNM/FNP you would first complete one program and then enter the 2nd program post masters. You can not do 2 tracks at one time. If you notify the school when you begin the admission process they can help you streamline your coursework but as far as it being a dual program, they unfortunately do not do that at this time. http://www.midwives.org/academics.asp?id=163&pid=56 There is a small exception to the rule - if you are completing the Midwifery portion and would like to add WHCNP you can do that at the end of your program. It's additional time and more clinical hours but then you would eligible to sit for both your CNM boards and WHCNP boards. http://www.midwives.org/academics.asp?id=81&pid=78

The school's website holds oodles of info including information on post masters and timelines regarding post master's. If you can't find your answer there - call or email the school. I'm sure they would be more than happy to help you develop a timeline that is unique to your situation. I work with my preceptor so finding her was easy . The school can also provide you with a list of preceptors in your area that have been used before by the school - then you just contact them and see if they would be interested. Once you have contact info - you send it back to the school and they take care of the contracts and all the legal goodies.