FinallyMine

I have only one semester left in my direct entry psych NP program and will graduate in May. I chose the DE program here in Maine (USM)and am happy with the strong academic and clinical base I have received. I did earn my RN about 18 months into the program, I needed that license in order to sit through my graduate clinicals. I did not earn a BSN as the program culminates in an MSN. Each states BON negotiates the exact process with the university. For all of the graduate part of the program we have been mixed in with traditional track graduate students (BSN-RN's). As far as the skills needed and scope of an NP, the practicing RN's have no advantage over the DE students. We are all on par with each other in class and share a peer support/supervision group so we know how we are all doing in the clinical setting. Additionally, each year nearly all graduates of my program have job offers before they graduate (most years it's at 100% hired). Much like a previous poster mentioned that there wouldn't be a demand for the program if there weren't jobs for the graduates, there also wouldn't be a demand for the programs if the graduates were somehow less prepared or not as competent as traditional students. I'm not sure why, other than a misunderstanding of the role and scope of NP's, the issue would still be up for debate.

The PMHNP program at USM is a solid program with an emphasis on therapeutic interaction/psychodynamic therapy. They have a part time option where many students work part time or per diem. The starting salary in Maine for new grads is quite good and there is no dropping off in site. Pediatrics is a particularly short area. I haven't heard any feedback from any online degree program for NP's but I know that I value the classroom experience with others in my cohort that will be my future colleagues. You will still likely qualify for both stafford loans and potentially Grad Plus loans. It's worth calling the financial aid dept to find out. Then there's also the NHSC scholarships.

You would have more luck getting hired as a AND RN the more north you are. The Portland area hospitals generally will only hire BSN RN's. I think EMMC hires ADN RN's but not MMC. There are also choices regarding type of facility. Do you want to be a psych nurse in a psych hospital or a psych nurse on a psych/medical floor in the general hospital? Good Luck!

Before I started in nursing school I worked in social services/mental health. I always had my full name on my badge or business card. I feel it is appropriate and professional to let my clients/patients know who I am. My school name tag has my full name on it and the hospital badges depend on which local facility I have my clinical in. Some list surnames, some do not.

I had almost the exact same thing happen at my last med/surg exam. The class average was a 74. The teacher is new to our school and isn't completely sure of what our knowledge base is at this point in our degrees, and she had to follow another teachers curriculum. After the exam she had a class discussion because she wants us to learn this stuff and it became apparent that we hadn't. She is making some adjustments to our lecture format so we are covering more in class. We have the same issue of too much material to cover so we need to do a ton of outside studying, our class just found that we all studied the wrong stuff. It was definitely a learning experience but it knocked down my class average almost 10 points! I will likely pass with a B but it was terrifying to get such a low grade. I need to have a test average of 80 to stay in my program or I will not be enrolled in the next semesters classes. It does happen, and yes they can. I completely understand the feeling of hitting a brick wall when it happens though. Take a deep breath, brush yourself off and start again.

Its in April or may. The website will tell you when they start taking applications.

Have you two found our facebook page yet? There's about 18 of us on it. Let me know if you are interested or if you need help. There is a whole conversation about the orientation. I wasn't able to go myself but there are other people who did.

I am a single mom to a 2.5 yr old. I am in a direct entry MSN program but right now I'm working on the accelerated rn part of it. I took 20 credits over the summer and I have 17 credits right now (18 next semester). I try to not study when I'm home with my daughter. I'm pretty successful with that for the most part. I have gotten very good at studying efficiently! My daughter is in daycare 5 days a week and I use all the time I can as though I had a 40hr work week. I have a decent GPA (3.75) and km pretty happy with that. The trick is to be kind to yourself and get sleep. Only do one thing at a time even when the to do list is a mile long. If I can do it...anyone can.

There isn't any problem with loans you have taken out thus far. The only loans you have to worry about are the ones for next semester and beyond. You don't have to return your loan for the summer courses or this fall course. They will be reimbursed to your lender sometime in the spring. HRSA will still do that because they understand that we needed to pay for school prior to having confirmation about the scholarship. This will be the last semester you are able to do it this way. After this point, you will need to decline any loans offered to you prior to dispersement.

I know another woman at my school receiving a HRSA scholarship...and the school has messed up the paperwork. However, HRSA worked with the student and school to obtain the correct documentation without any interruption in benefit to the student. Mistakes will likely happen, but it's ok.

If you're having a hard time finding the Facebook page, try searching "NSP HRSA" instead of "HRSA NSP".

Check the site! I have to sign in as a Participant now! Looks official. I have to go to clinical now so I can't explore but I'm excited that it's changed over! Good Luck!

I knew going back to school was going to be a huge challenge. I am a single mom with no savings or family support. So, I spent the year before school grooming my friends to become my family network. Told people I was going to take them up on their random offers of help.,,and I do! I had my daughter get used to playing with my friends kids and spending time with them. Now they are invaluable if I have an early morning clinical before Day Care opens. I also ditched as much debt as I could. I settled out of 3 credit cards and paid off my used car loan. I already lived very frugally as I wasn't earning enough money to do otherwise. I will keep my small apartment and old car. I have paid off semester long chunks of car insurance, utilities and other things as soon as my loan dispersements came in so I didn't spend that money on other things here and there. I advertise to my friends and family whenever my daughter has grown another size and solicit hand me downs. I also told my friends that they need to call me if they want to see me any time in the next 3 years!

I was specifically speaking about the ability to take out loans to supplement the $1298 monthly stipend. I was only sharing this to update a previous conversation I was having in this thread. HRSA will reimburse loans for the first semester awarded since you had to start without having a final confirmation from them. So the loan you have taken out will be ok. After that initial semester, they will not reimburse any loans you take out. If you do take out loans and pay for classes before HRSA is invoiced, HRSA will only send the balance due to the school. (For example: if your tuition is $7000 and you take out a loan for $6000 and it is applied toward your student account before invoicing, HRSA will only send $1000 to the school.) I know my school will invoice for my tuition and will let me begin classes without payment in the spring because they will get confirmation by the end of the fall semester. They are ok not having tuition at the first day of classes after that as they have worked with HRSA in the past and understand that there is some lag time. I hope this was a little more clear.

I don't know how many of you were following previous posts regarding the availability of additional federal loans if the HRSA scholarship was accepted. Originally I was told that I would be unable to take out any loans after the first semester. I talked to several people and kept coming up with that dead end. Of course I am much more stubborn than that! I spoke to even more people and this is what I've found. Yes we can take out loans! The challenge is that the loans can not be deposited into our school accounts before HRSA is invoiced and makes payment to the school. The way around this (since HRSA funds will not be delivered before student loans are dispersed) is to file your FAFSA each year to become eligible for loans and to find out the maximum you are eligible for. (For example: $40,000 a year total loan eligibility). Then at the beginning of each semester, DO NOT ACCEPT THE LOANS. This way they will not be dispersed into your account. Then if you find yourself stuck and need to take additional loans after the HRSA dispersement is made, then you can go to financial aid to obtain a loan. You are only able to take out the difference between your total eligibility amount and your HRSA benefit. (For example: $40.000 - $30.000 for tuition paid by HRSA). The whole thing is a bit crazy but it is manageable once we get enough information! ...and my log in page has not changed either.

I'm sorry no one has answered your post. I am in Maine but in the south. I am not familiar with Bangor other than how to get there! I can say that Maine in general tends to be dog friendly. Bangor is about 2.5 hours north of Portland which is the largest city in Maine (large is a relative term). There are many places to go hiking, on day trips, or just be in the great outdoors. I hope you enjoy your move to Maine, will you get here in time to see the fall foliage?

I am in a direct entry MSN program at the University of Southern Maine. I'm in the psych NP track. I have a BA in psychology with no nursing experience. Yes, it's possible.

Ours are royal blue or white, whatever style you want. I have all blue Dickies. We need white lab coats to go in the night before to get our patient assignment. School patch on the sleeve and name tag and hospital id. They fit OK but I do feel a bit like I'm channelling Violet Beauregard :)

I will need to find a qualifying job in 3 years when I finish my program. I am also struggling in finding listings. One thing I have found is that there are several "HPSA health clinics" nearby but they aren't listed as 'tier 1' on the HRSA site. In reading postings for available positions in those clinics they are posting that they are eligible for the loan repayment program. I am receiving the scholarship and not the loan repayment program but I believe they have the same requirements for places to work. I'm not sure if this helps but it did put my mind at ease a bit. I would still love to hear from people if they have HPSA's in their area. I live in Maine and there are few clinics in Portland and Biddeford (Southern Maine) and a ton of areas in mid- to northern Maine. Nice place to live, lots of trees :)

Jrmalin, I actually had one person at HRSA tell me that it was fine to take out loans as well. I was skeptical so I continued to research. My student account office discussed this with me as there have been other students receive this scholarship at my school in the past. The person who handles this showed me a bill of a former student (minus their name) and it showed that since that student had some loans come in, HRSA only sent the school the difference. (for example, if the tuition was $3000 and the student had a $500 loan come in, HRSA only sent the school $2500) HRSA doesn't care if you take out any loans, where the challenge lies is the timing of it all. Student loans are obligated to be put toward tuition first before anything else. HRSA tuition payments don't come into the school until after the loans so you will never be able to have the money for the loans dispersed to you as they will cover tuition first. After I confirmed this info with my student accounts office, I called HRSA back and discussed this with another support person. He read to me the exact regulations that apply to this situation and my student accounts office was right. The only way around this is to have a private loan or scholarship that is specifically allowed to be used for living expenses and not tuition. I haven't found any of these but I have heard that they may exist. Another option for undergraduate students would be Federal work study through the school. This is not considered a loan and would not interfere with the scholarship. Unfortunately, I am a graduate student and cannot benefit from this. I strongly encourage you to speak with your schools representative that handles 3rd party scholarships as they are likely to have some insight into this as well. I wish the first support person was right, but she wasn't. It is not uncommon to get misinformation through government call centers, I have had this situation happen many times before with other federal offices. Good Luck!

Health Resources and Services Administration. It is a federal program that awards scholarships to nursing students in exchange for at least a two year commitment to work in a nursing shortage area upon graduation. The scholarship pays all tuition plus a monthly living stipend and money toward books and uniforms. It is an amazing opportunity but it is very competitive to get into. You can find out more at their website if you Google it. (I can't post a link as I am on my phone right now) The next application cycle is in the spring.

I almost forgot. I started a Facebook page for my cohort too. We share links to tutorials or other resources we come across. We can also support each other in a more lighthearted way. We also use it to coordinate some social events.

We have been using drop box to share class recordings. We also have shared study guides posted on Google docs that can all contribute to. We just completed one for our pharmacology final tomorrow and its 45 pages long.

I also suggest talking to your schools financial aid office. Some schools have scholarships or other funds for students who may have to drop like you. The nursing dept may also be a good resource. I hope you are able to get the help. Something just has to work out. Continue to reach out as you never know who may be able to help.

I am hoping to start a thread for current students who are receiving the HRSA scholarship (or others who have received it in the past). I just accepted my offer and will receive the scholarship for three years. This way we can connect with others who may have hit some snags, have had successes, or maybe have some suggestions for really interesting service sites upon graduation. When I graduate, my daughter will be entering kindergarten so I want to be thoughtful as to where we end up going for my service (if we end up moving away). I am starting to look at places and would love to share research with others. I have a background in international work through the Peace Corps and I'm excited to continue that work through nursing. Maybe we can offer information about the states we live in. I am in Maine and there are several tier 1 areas here. I would love to share any info I have about my state if anyone is interested. I've also had some ups and downs with logistics of the scholarship and would love to hear how others have managed finances.