sarahRN828

I have to say, from the perspective of a current FNP student, this thread has been both enlightening and intimidating. My school is a large public R1 university in the midwest, and our FNP program has a traditional option and an online option. Both "tracks" are highly ranked. I am doing the online option, and while I did have concerns about learning in that format, so far I have learned quite a bit and I feel ready to begin hands on learning in my clinical courses, which actually start next week. I completely see the point of the importance of traditional classroom settings, and I agree that the for profit programs are largely a joke. For example, one of my friends received her nursing degree from the now-defunct Bohecker, and her clinical sites included watching babies at a day care. However, I am thankful, beyond thankful, for the online format of my program. I would love to not work or only work part time, but that's not an option for me (in my 30's mortgage, baby, etc). I am not sure I would have ever been able to achieve my goal of being an NP without it. I work from home full time doing "insurance nursing," and although it has been a few years since I have been at the bedside, I still learn a LOT every day at work. My schedule is flexible enough that I can play with my hours and I work weekends to make time for school during the week. I will say that the program I am doing is amazing, the instructors take it very seriously and monitor us very closely. They track how much time we spend in the course outside of class time, and expect us to come to class (we meet virtually once a week) prepared to go through patient scenarios and use clinical judgment to come up with differentials and treatment options. We will begin more in depth diagnosis and treatment skills this coming semester. We have a 100% boards pass rate. Not sure how that translates to the quality of nurses we put out, but I hope it does mean something. ANYWAY, the point of my post is this: Knowing how many preceptors feel about online students, what advice can you give to help me prove myself to my preceptors from the start? What qualities in a student make you confident in their ability to take great care of their future patients, and make you want to invest your time in teaching them? I want to make the most out of this clinical year, it is going to be a very tough challenge making it all work with my schedule, but I want to learn as much as I can, and get my hands on as many patients as possible. My first clinical site is an urgent care with an NP, and my second site is in women's health with a WHNP. Would love to hear more specifics about what makes you confident your students are on the right track. edit: I should also add that my program only accepts about 10% of applicants per year, and they do frequent OSCEs to assess our assessment techniques. They are not afraid to fail people. I am not sure my program is anything like some of the for-profit programs, but I have no experience with how rigorous they are.

Just saw this RussianBear. The FNP program seems to be getting more competetive each year, especially the online program. Both are equally rigorous programs, and the online option allows for a bit more flexibility with schedule. One of my good friends was finally accepted on her third application year. She has a 4.0 GPA and a few years of RN experience, so my advice is to also make sure your personal statement and recommendations are strong, and prepare for the interview. Good luck! I'm sure at this point you have actually already applied, I hope it went well for you.

Just saw this RussianBear. The FNP program seems to be getting more competetive each year, especially the online program. Both are equally rigorous programs, and the online option allows for a bit more flexibility with schedule. One of my good friends was finally accepted on her third application year. She has a 4.0 GPA and a few years of RN experience, so my advice is to also make sure your personal statement and recommendations are strong, and prepare for the interview. Good luck! I'm sure at this point you have actually already applied, I hope it went well for you.

Sorry I'm just now seeing this! I work for an insurance company doing case management type work. It has been a blessing, I really needed a break from the ICU, but I do miss patient care once in a while. I will be getting more of that when I'm an NP though. I did turn down the LD job, I just couldn't bring myself to do nights/weekends/holidays again so soon after having a baby.

Thank you, that's kind of where my gut is leading me. The only way I could make the switch work financially is to stay on nights to get the shift diff, but I agree, night shift is brutal even in the most rewarding job. Some people love nights and adjust really well, but I am sadly not one of those people. The desk job is boring, but gives me a great salary, normal hours, holidays and weekends off, etc. I am also in line to be transferred to work at home, which is a great opportunity and will make my job even less stressful than it already is. Thank you so much for your input. I hope you get a schedule that works well for you soon!

Hi everyone! So I have been interested in OB nursing since I was a student, and I had a baby not too long ago and since that experience I have been obsessing about working in OB. I just got an offer in a large LD/HROB combo unit. I currently have a 9-5 desk job making great money. I'm also in an FNP program, about half way finished. The pros of taking the OB job are 1. helping deliver babies, 2. free school, 3. flexible schedule for school. The cons are 1. night shifts, 2. floor nursing again after a cushy desk job, 3. the tragedies in OB are heartbreaking, 4. seeing my baby less than I already do due to the off schedule. I seriously can't decide what to do. It would be a slight pay cut but not too much with the shift diff. Also, I used to work in an ICU on nights and the experience nearly destroyed me. I never really got used to nights and the ICU setting was so incredibly sad that it really wore on my soul. I'm not sure how I would do back in the hospital setting. I would love some insight from those of you who are currently in the field. I told the OB manager I would let her know if I was going to accept by Monday. Any thoughts?

DanniRN28 I'm part time too, set to graduate in May of 2017 also if all goes well. I'm working full time and just had a baby in June so I'm going to need superpowers to get it done, but it's such a great program and I want to just get it over with. What classes are you taking this semester?

just so you know, now is a really good time to look at insurance companies for RN positions, everyone is prepping for the first quarter. the company i work for does their big hire in october in preparation for january.

HM3-2-BSN, it won't let me reply to you in a message because i haven't had enough posts yet on allnurses, so i'll give you the info here :) from what i can tell, most of the companies here in columbus are all pretty equivalent in terms of pay and benefits. in columbus we have aetna, united healthcare, molina, humana, and quantum health, and possibly more that i'm not thinking of. i would check their individual websites too, not all of them post jobs on the job sites like indeed and monster. good luck to you! i wish sometimes that i had spent more time working directly with patients, but i was completely miserable and questioning every choice i had ever made that led me to nursing LOL. this is so much better, i am so happy and i feel like myself again. zero regrets. good luck!

i didn't have experience! i had 5 years of claims review experience before i became an RN, and not very much RN experience before i got the job i have now. bedside nursing wasn't for me at all, unfortunately, and i am VERY thankful to have gotten the job i am in now. i found the listing on indeed.com and applied, and two weeks later i got an offer. keep applying until you find the right spot for you, the industry is growing :)

Hi y'all, anyone else out there starting the MSN/NP program at OSU this fall? We just had orientation but I only met a few people, and my first semester is all online classes so I'm trying to make some connections/study buddies so we can help each other out :) Are there any facebook groups to join or anything? I'm doing the women's health track. Thanks!

hi, i'm not sure if he would be interested in this type of work, but i found work for a major insurance company here in columbus doing case management/utilization review nursing, and they start at around 33 bucks an hour. most require 3 years experience. there are several insurance companies here in columbus, i would recommend looking into it. it's normal hours and much less stress than bedside, plus nearly all of them transition to work at home after a certain amount of time.

Just wanted to say thank you for your post! I am just now finishing up a 20 week critical care internship for new grads and have received my placement on my "home" unit, a medical ICU. I have seven more weeks of orientation before I'm on my own and it is very scary. I also have an anxiety disorder and there have been a few times when my anxiety got the best of me at work and I completely shut down. Thankfully my preceptor is beyond amazing and is able to recognize when I'm getting to that point. Each day it gets easier and I feel more and more competent, but the learning never ends. I am so glad to hear that someone else has these same anxieties and is now doing well and thriving. Congratulations, and keep working hard!