TheDude77

That's what I just ran into. I was setting up the rest of my clinicals and found out that the office (not the NP) are thinking about charging bc they are "providing a service". Ridiculous.

I'm in the MSN program for my NP and I feel like I'm teaching myself as well. And so do many of my fellow students.....

I'm in an online program and I say if you have the option of a campus program you should do it. You teach yourself online. Trying to perform a physical assessment check off online..... Difficult. Asking questions gets frustrating online because you have to wait for a response, and if they don't understand what you are asking it gets even more frustrating because you have to wait for another response.

IT issues are going to occur. I had trouble connecting to one of my proctored finals and when I menrioned it to my two friends in class with me the said the same. It wasn't anything major but all of us were scared that we werent going to be able to take the final for a second. The program is intense. You are going to teach yourself.

The instructor for my current course actually brought up how there were technical difficulties for several people in pharm when it came to examity and the final. She basically said make sure that you do a "speed test" to check your upload/download speed prior to testing, make sure you are "wired in" and not wireless, and make sure that no one else is on the internet. They basically tried to cover everything that could cause a slower connection or lag time. She also mentioned there were problems with pharm because the tests were not on blackboard but on another platform which was an issue.

bumping

I am looking for someone that has graduated with an NP degree from EKU for moral support!

I originally left a fairly long post about EKU but deleted it. PM me if you have any questions.

Blue, empty your inbox so I can PM you

It's funny you should say that. I was just telling a co-worker that I go through all the stress so I can get off the floor I work on.

This is how the clinical "requirements" are at my school. They didn't say it was a requirement but they "want" clinical to occur during day shift hours M-F. They do not send out a list of possible preceptors unless you ask for one. My friend and fellow student asked for the list and it was not up to date and did not help her find a preceptor. The places they will allow us to do clinical, especially the FNP students, is very limited. No hospitals, no immediate or urgent cares. Must be a traditional doctor's office. This info was not disclosed to me prior to enrollment.

I am almost one year into my PMHNP program. I have a year of class left and then a semester of 360 hours to complete. At this point I am already tired and a little burnt out. I attend an online school that doesn't have traditional breaks in-between classes. Just the other day I was daydreaming about how I was complaining about this crazy research paper I had to write 6 months ago, and how I would love to get back to that level of stress. This are getting so much more intense...quickly. Anyone have any encouraging words? BLAH

I decided to go to NP school for several reasons, and yes, money was one of them. Other included lifestyle change, family time...making my own hours if working out of an outpatient office (I am PMHNP), and wanting to learn more and be on the provider side. I think a lot of people talk about the money because of the cost of education. If I am spending tens of thousands to educate myself, I want it to pay off.

I could be wrong, but I believe that in order to take any grad level courses you need to be accepted into the grad school first. The requirements most likely require your completed BSN as a pre-req for the beginning level grad school courses. There are schools that do RN-MSN that shave some time off.

My school uses Blackboard so I use a Macbook and my iPhone (there is a blackboard app). The blackboard app only works for looking at things though, not writing and uploading any assignments or watching any posted video.

I find it odd that Examity/IT stated that blackboard was not compatible with Examity. If that were true, wouldn't everyone be having problems? I really do think that it was the Examity employee that was having issues. Nothing related to you.

I go to the same school you are talking about I just wanted to comment on a couple things. 1. I had trouble with the pharm final. The Examity proctor was having trouble accessing my computer. It took her a good 10 minutes to gain control of it. I truly want to say that your "technical" issues were Examity employee problems, not your internet or computer. 2. I don't think they are weeding you out because you are an outsider. You are money in their pockets. 3. Even though I haven't had any big issues like you have had, I still wish I went to my local university for their NP program. And I am in the same state at the school we attend. It is nice to be able to see a person in front of you if you have an issue. 4. My husband upgraded our internet to Uverse. We were lied to as well and quickly switched back to cable. Just my two cents. Feel free to PM me!

...for my assessment class. I am a PMHNP student and do not need a top-of-the-line piece of equipment, as I will only be using it for this one class. Anyone have any suggestions on which one to purchase? I have looked on Amazon and there are several of them ranging from $100 to $600. I guess I just need one to learn how to perform the assessment, rather than purchase one to hold on to for years to come.

I'm in the MSN program and feel the same. Ask lots of questions. As many as you need. Ask in the office forum and if you want email your instructor. I ask several questions both ways and the instructors enjoy the fact that you are thinking about what they want. I wonder if they leave the instructions vague to make you think. The only down side is if you don't do exactly what they expect of you they deduct points, even though their expectations aren't clearly stated. I feel like the more you ask questions and look for advice, the more effort you are showing to your instructors.

Yeah and if you already started the program like me, you take patho and do your research project at the same time. I think i figured out how to study for this class. She also just sent an email out that stayed she thinks this first quiz is the hardest. That gives me a little hope in that our next quizzes are not over as much material and I can focus somewhat in my research course. Patho in 8 weeks, it's just insane .

Did you get your MSN through EKU? I'm in them program now and just started patho. I'm super nervous.

Anyone else?

Empty

Yeah I went public school route. A coworker is going to Vandy and doing it in the 1 year track. She has to pretty much pay a boatload, struggle to work PRN, and take two weed out classes at once. Plus each semester she has to go to campus for an extended weekend. My area is apparently a Mecca for homeless communities which leads to mental health and substance abuse issues. There aren't enough providers and we are the only hospital in the state that will take uninsured dual diagnosis patients. They get sent in from all over the state and the providers are overwhelmed .

I wouldn't discourage just because of financial reasons. Many psych NPs make more than you think. It depends on area. Where I live PMHNPs work just as Psychiatrists do, and don't make much less. But you have to hustle, it's not like working salary in a hospital.