Hello!
I originally decided to attend Duke's only FNP program, despite the higher tuition, because they state they will find you clinical placement. In signing up, you agree to travel up to 120 miles away for clinical placement, but that was worth it to me to not have to find my own clinical sites (I'm pretty terrible at networking, to be honest).
I moved states last year, but that was with one more year before clinical classes were to start, no problem, right? Well, yes. I was supposed start my first family clinical hours in May. The entire clinical placement process has been very... cloak and dagger. You're supposed to email the CPO's (clinical placement office) main email with any questions. They give you rough estimates about when you're supposed to hear about clinical placements: for the summer, I should have heard from someone about my placement beginning April 1st with clinical hours to start May 13th. I did not hear from my CPO contact until the summer semester already started. Then that person got replaced. And the new person barely communicates with me.
I postponed graduation by a semester to fit in clinicals this fall semester, and it's beginning to look like I may have to sit out next semester.
I am just at my wits end and considering switching my major from FNP to Nursing Education, because I can not imagine having to go through this every semester. My plan would be to attend one of the area's brick and mortar schools for my NP at a later date (once, you know, I've paid down some of the 100k debt I've managed to acquire), since they have partnerships with the area hospitals, etc for clinical placements. Not super ideal, but at least I wouldn't be dropping out and empty handed. I definitely want to be an NP, but I just... can't anymore.
So, I just wanted to put this out there. the faculty at Duke have been wonderful, amazing professionals. I've valued my didactic classes. Up to this point, I've been relatively happy to fork over $1700/credit hour (or so). But, just want to say... buyer beware. Just because a school says they will find you clinical placement, doesn't mean they will do so in a timely manner. The school finding your placement isn't a panacea against the preceptor problem. It just adds an additional layer of miscommunication in some instances.
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