jocy_anne

I've been inactive on here for a while and I know this thread is old, but as a NICU nurse currently in the middle of a NNP program, it was great to stumble upon this thread! Sometimes it's discouraging when I mention to other nurses that I'm in NNP school and they grimace and tell me I should be picking FNP or PNP instead. My passion lies in taking care of neonates. It's the reason I changed careers in my late 20's and the reason I want to be a NNP. I'm supposed to graduate in August 2018 and cannot wait to progress in this amazing field! Thanks for creating this thread!

I'm not sure what part of New Jersey you are moving to, but I live in South Jersey (20 minutes outside of Philadelphia) and work in the N/IICU (Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit) at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I was hired into the residency program back in February 2015, and I know they still hire new nurses into ICUs through the residency program. Our unit is not your typical NICU, since we take care of babies up to 1 year old. It's almost like a baby PICU. But I do like it there and feel as though I've had some pretty good experiences there.

This is an excellent article. Thanks for putting this together! Hopefully people can stop freaking out now. :-)

Just as RNsRWe stated, Kaplan focuses a lot on the strategy. It helped me a lot because that's where I needed to focus my attention. However, I also went to a school where Kaplan was required and was part of our curriculum, so I'm not sure I would have paid for it if it were not required. I am grateful my school used Kaplan. I just took the NCLEX this morning and felt that Kaplan really prepared me well. I almost felt as if I was just taking another set of QBank questions. My screen shut off after 75 questions and I counted 31 SATA, 5 drag and drop, and 1 med calc (although I don't think the types of questions you get actually determines how well you're doing). I came home and decided to try the trick and got the good pop-up. So we'll see what happens when I get the official confirmation. The most important advice I could give you is to just focus on you. Don't worry about what other people do, because what works for them might not work for you. Figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, and then just keep doing practice questions. You can do this! :-)

I just graduated from TJU (with Dibbadee, actually) and was in the APW program (I still took most of my classes with the Traditional students). I second everything Dibbadee said and know that you will all have a great experience! Good luck!!! :-)

Not sure if you're still looking into TJU, but I just graduated from the APW program on May 28th. FACT and APW are essentially the same program, with the only difference being the length of time it takes to complete (FACT is one year straight through and APW is two years with a summer break). You have to have (at least) a Bachelor's degree in another field to qualify for both programs. I did not have any background in science or any medical field when I applied. I chose APW over FACT due to this reason. I felt that one year would have been too much for me and that I would not have felt adequately prepared. However, everyone is different. In the end, I am grateful I chose the slower route. I was able to get an externship at Jefferson last year and wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I'm currently studying to take NCLEX at the end of July and it's a little comforting to know that just about all of my classmates who have taken it so far have passed on their first attempt. Good luck in making a decision (if you haven't already done so) and let me know if you have any questions!

Congrats to everyone for passing! I, too, passed my first semester and am so happy!!! It was long and huge adjustment, but I can't wait to start the next semester on Jan 14th. I'm doing OB for the first half of the semester, and then a med-surg telemetry unit the second half. Hopefully it will be easier to adjust to this semester!

I'm about to start my first semester of Nursing school on Tuesday, and even though I'm not technically a pre-nursing student anymore, I will be taking Pharmacology. I actually have to take a Pharm class all 4 semesters. My Pharm class this semester won't start until the beginning of October because September will be spent taking Medication Calculations and doing clinical skills labs to learn all the basic clinical skills before starting our first real hospital clinical in October. My book is also huge and super intimidating. I'm hoping it'll go well, but can't really think about it too much yet. I'll try to check in here throughout the month to see how everyone is doing. Good luck!!!

I'd say the Blackwood campus is probably at least 25-30 minutes away from the Camden campus, but I've never traveled between the two, so maybe it's not quite that long. I'm not sure if you've ever driven down Route 42, but the Blackwood campus is right off Exit 7B. Would it be cheaper for you to attend a community college in Philadelphia? Or is the Camden campus actually a lot closer to where you live since it's right off the bridge?

I love Thirty-One bags!!! :-)

I believe the program I am starting in September is considered a DE program, although from reading the posts here, it might not be a "standard" DE program. My school offers 2 DE programs for non-nursing majors. One program allows you to complete your BSN in 1 year while also completing 3 grad courses (9 credits) along the way. Once you obtain your BSN you continue straight into the MSN portion either full-time (complete in 15 months) or part-time. The other program is set up the exact same way, only the BSN takes 2 years to complete. This is the program I'm starting in September. I chose to apply to the 2-year program because I don't feel I'd be adequately prepared to be a practicing RN after only 1 year of study, but that is just my personal opinion. I have done nothing in the medical field thus far, and don't want to rush myself into the career. Like I said, maybe these programs are set up differently than most DE programs across the country, but I'm really not sure. I feel confident that I will be able to learn all I need to know before graduating in 2014. Then again, my program is longer than most out there, so that probably has something to do with it. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

I just spent a ton of money getting my books for the first semester of Nursing school. But I have to agree with Saysfaa about watching the trends on Amazon and other places. My school bookstore was selling my Med Calc book for $103. I found the same book brand new on Amazon for $72 and ordered it last week. A couple days after I ordered it, I looked up the book on there again, and it had gone up to $96. I'm so lucky I bought it when I did! I was still annoyed when the book came yesterday and I realized I spent $72 on a super thin paperback book with a CD, but still...definitely shop around! I'm weird and prefer to get my books new if I can because I like to highlight and make my own notes in them, but not everyone is as weird as I am. Good luck to you! It's great to see someone your age seriously considering your future already!

Wow...the intent of my post was to celebrate one small milestone in my journey with those who could relate or those who will be in the same situation soon. Chill. But since you brought it up, I can't help but respond: I am fully aware of the current job market. I made the decision to give up a steady paycheck to do this for the next couple years, and know that I am not guaranteed a job at the end of the program. However, I have chosen to trust that God will get me through the next couple years (when I hardly have any money to pay my bills), and I am choosing to trust that He will also provide me with a great job when I graduate if that is His will. This is one of the biggest risks I've ever taken with my life. Risks aren't always fun, but sometimes they're necessary. It would be a lot easier for me to stay in my current job as an Executive Assistant...I have great health benefits, a steady salary with a quarterly bonus, and have become a valuable part of this company over the last six years. But I'm also miserable, hate what I do, and long to do something with my life that will really make a difference. I am only 28 years old, am single, and have no children. It's a scary, unpredictable move for me to make, but I decided to take a huge risk and pursue something I've always wanted to do instead of playing it safe and being miserable for the rest of my life. Like I said, this is scary and unpredictable. There are a million things that could go wrong. I have a 4.0 GPA in my prereqs, but I could still fail all of my nursing classes. I could start taking the classes and realize I don't really like nursing. I could get hit by a car/bus/airplane that falls out of the sky tonight and never make it to nursing school...now I'm being a little dramatic, but do you see where I'm going with this? We have no guarantee of ANYTHING in this world. We like to think we have control over our lives, but we don't. So why am I going to worry over things I can't control? All we can do is live our lives the best we can and hope that we figure out what our purpose is in this world. End rant.

I start an ABSN-MSN program in the Fall and have to take 4 semesters of Pathophysiology (and 4 semesters of Pharmacology, as a matter of fact). I'm hoping that means it will give me a lot of time to digest the information, but I may be wrong about that, lol. Good luck when you take the class in the Fall!

I just wanted to share my enthusiasm with the AN crowd...I am finally finished with my last prereq!!! I will officially start Nursing school in September and am both nervous and excited. I started my prereq journey in May 2011 when I decided to take a 5-week A&P I course. I've only been working at the prereqs for about 14 months, but it feels a lot longer than that! I just want to encourage anyone who is just starting out, or anyone who has been chipping away at the prereqs for a while now...just keep at it! I worked full-time while I took all these courses, so I know how burned out you can get and how sometimes it feels like it's never going to end. Keep focused on the ultimate goal of Nursing school and don't lose sight of that until you've made it!!!