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I just passed my ANCC FNP exam about 3 hours ago. It was a long exam. I went in around 9am and out by a few minutes after 11am. I took one break after I had finished all the questions before I reviewed my marked questions. I only marked about 10 questions and I ended up not changing any of my answers. There were a lot of questions on different theories, which my school did not prepare me on them at all, and I personally felt those were just useless info for a FNP to practice in real life. I just use my common sense to answer them. I don't see any review books that I had prepared me to answer them neither. I actually have almost all published review books on FNP certification exam. At the end of the exam I was sitting there forever to wait for "that line" to tell me whether I passed or not. It did not show up on the screen. It was printed out by the computer the staff had outside of the room. So, I guess it depends on the exam location whether you would see your result on the screen or on the paper that printed out by the exam center. It took me about 4 months to prepare for the exam. I graduated last December. It took me about 2 months to get the authorization letter to schedule the exam. And then I gave birth to my second child and also taking care of my 2 year old, and working part time as well. So, if you are single without family and not working, it should not take that long to prepare for it. However, during these 4 months, I did study almost every day for the first two months, nothing for the 3rd month when I was taking care of a new born, then a lot of studying the last two weeks. I studied about 5-6 hours a day for the last two weeks and I focused a lot on Fitzgerald's review book and CDs. For those planning to take the exam in the future, my suggestion is that don't buy too many books. Fitzgerald's review book and her CDs are the best. She has the most correct answers and good rationals. There are too many wrong answers and not updated information in other books. Although Amelie's CDs are quite entertaining, I won't use them as the only source. Even though I did tons of questions and looked through a lot of review books, I still found many questions on the exam were things I had never seen covered by any books. So, don't over prepare youself. Go through Fitzgerald's stuff carefully and take the exam! :)

I don't think you need to wait. I am preparing for my FNP certification exam right now and a lot of time I have to take out my notes from BSN for reference. Depends on what kind of NP you are interested in. If you want to do FNP, then I think you should just go ahead, because FNP is from a primary care perspective and most of RN jobs are too acute to relate to FNP. Good luck!!!

I have an iTouch too. I downloaded some free apps. There is a "GrowthChart" one that you can input an infant (or child)'s ht, wt, and hc, it will give you the percentile immediately. It is very convenient. I also downloaded a free "EyeChart". That one is awesome too. You can even randomize the letters so that each time you get a different eye chart for your patient. Another one that I use a lot during my clinical hours is "STAT ICD-9". I can find ICD codes pretty quickly. And most importantly, these are all free!!! Do you know any other free apps?

I am currently in a NP program and wondering what programs or software you have in your PDA? Do you use them a lot?

I don't think they offer CNA or LPN classes. They provide home visiting services for individuals mainly. You can take a look at their website for more information. Also, you can go to their open house with specific questions.

You can try this one: Mari Moriarty RN, MA College Relations Manager 1250 Broadway, 7th Floor NY, NY 10001 212-609-7957 Good luck!

Thank you for your reply. I like your straight forward way of presenting these four often used approaches by listing their underlying question. I do have my research question before I considering a method. It is topic that not being studied enough and it is about a health care process. It would be nice to have a mentor to guide me through the process. However, at this stage, I think I have the tools to explore something I am not too familiar with by myself. Just done some studies on grounded theory. Now I understand that it is not a "theory" by traditional definition; instead, it is more a process of generating a new theory based on the data collected. Just like most other qualitative approaches, it is more inductive in nature. Now, I think the challenge of using grounded theory would be how to present the relatively complex and "messy" process of coding (how to put three steps--open, axial, and selective together). Will start doing reading on actual studies now.

Thank you for your reply. No, it is not a test question. I am interesting in doing a qualitative study. I would like to use intensive interview as a way collecting my data. Having a research background in sociology, I don't remember we talked too much about grounded theory and phenomenology. Just wondering where it fits and how much reading I should do to have enough knowledge to conduct my study. A related question, after reading some qualitative studies in nursing, it seems to me that they only mentioned grounded theory in the section of the data analysis--is grounded theory a theory used for conducting data analysis most of time? Thanks!

Is grounded theory the most often used one in qulitative nursing research?

Dear Sharrie, First of all, you need to decide what kind of research you are going to conduct, either quantitative or qualitative. Based on what I have read, it looks more like a qualitative study. If that is the case, you would like to conduct some kind of intenstive interview. If so, the questionnaire for intensive interview will have more open-ended questions and you might have to come out with new questions while you are conducting your interview. If you decide to do a quantitative study, most questions included in your questionnaire will be close-ended questions. And you will need a large sample size (at least 50), utilizing a random selection process to ensure you to apply statistical techniques to analyze your data. Having said that, I think you might want to do some literature review and see what other researcher approach this issue and hopefully, you might see the details of your questionnaire and get some more specific ideas. Good luck, let me know what you think.

Dose anyone know how long one has to work in order to get tuition reimbursement from VNSNY? Some hospitals will not give tuition reimbursement until you work for them for 6 months or 1 year. How about Visiting Nurse Service of NY? Thanks!

Dear ART, Thank you for giving us update. My husband's case is quite complicated. We did get an interview notice and we went (last week). The one interviewed us did not read my husband's file at all. He was not really sure what was going on with my husband's case and he said he needed more time and maybe more info to make a decision. So we are still waiting. Will let you know if there is any news.

I have the same issue as yours. I got mine on 7/17/07, but my spouse still has not received his. Please keep up updated. I will do so too.

Oh...I see. Now I understand. It seems every hospital has openings for RNs, but they don't really respond to on-line applications. Even for experienced RNs. Maybe I should just be more patient.

Good point! Do hospitals hire summer help for RNs? Anyway, I don't really see any job fair going on and most hospitals do not accept drop in interview at the mean time they don't give response to on-line application. Is any hospital in NYC hiring right now?

I am wondering which month is the best month to look for a job in New York City. Which month is the one that most hospitals are looking for people? Or is most likly to find a position. I am thinking maybe August or September might not be a good time because most of the new graduates are out and the market might be too crowded. Then would December of January be better? What do you think?

Can you tell me what kind of critial care?

thank you! you guys provide great advice! people at my job are fine and i don't really feel it is terribly unsafe to work there. it is just that the unit is very much disorganized (we don't have a head nurse and senior nurses don't back up for new nurses when other people (such as mds and anybody else) pointing fingers at us) and i feel that i learn enough there already. it won't be too hard for me to tough it out for a year. it is just i many times feel that i am like a machine, work, work, and work. going to work is not exciting any more, and my work is not appreciated by anyone. (for example, there was a huge storm the other day, i was the only one who got to work on time and other people were one hour or two later than me to get to the unit. however, nobody said a thing about it (nobody from the nursing office or even people working at my unit. it seemed to me that i was actually a fool to leave an hour earlier to just try to get there on time.) anyway. the unit i work at is a sub-acute unit. i would like to work at an icu or emergency department. don't think working at my current unit will prepare me too much for working at icu or ed, however, having one year of experience seemed is the minimum to be considered as an "experienced nurse" when looking for a new job, that is why i am wondering if i should stay for three more months or just leave now.

I have been working at my current job for about 9 months. I wanna quit. I am wondering if I should wait for 3 months more so that I will have one full year of experience there. And when I change to another job elsewhere, I would be able to get the extra pay for one year of experience. I would like to know what other people do in situation like this. Thanks.

:balloons::balloons::balloons:Congratulations! You will get your card soon! :balloons::balloons::balloons:

My friend and her husband both got their I-485 approved yesterday. Their cases were at Nebraska SC. Good luck!

Got green It was much faster than I expected. It was mailed on Jul. 20th. Received today!

up till yesterday the message was still about senting the approval notice. i did not expect anything today, but got the email saying that the card was mailed on 07/20. i was quite surprised. do they really work on sunday?

Cannot believe I will get any update from CIS on Sunday, but I got this email today: Current Status: Card Mailed... Hope I will receive it soon.

I got the approval notice too! Today, they sent an email to inform me that the approval notice was on its way. Still in a shock! Cannot believe it! I am from PRC and priority date is Oct. 23, 2006. The service center is Texas service center.