stevengoodman

There are two agents providing ACNP Certification: the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). I wonder what is the difference between the two agents. Do we have any specialty certification for a nurse practitioner who is working in the ICU? Thanks

The best ACNP program should be flexible to place students where (specialty) they want to practice, find adequate preceptor (good one and like to teach), help students to establish new contract with other hospitals, skills lab, simulation. However, when you go to any master program and you are a master student, it means you neet to master your studying. You need to be aggressive, focusing and really put your heart and time in reading books, materials and apply the knowledge in practice during preceptorship. Never be shy of asking MDs/NPs about what you don't know or not be sure. But before you ask them, just google/ use uptodate/ or other resources to learn about diagnosis and treatments

I have been working as a critical care np in the ICU for over 2 years. the intensivist also like to work with NPs and they are willing to train us in intubation, central line and arterial line insertion as well as assist in bronchoscopy and chest tube insertion. I had 4 years of experience in the ICU with CCRN & TCRN and 600 hours ICU preceptorship. So I started to work as np in the ICU after graduation. I didn't go to any residency program because I was precepted by awesome intensivists who trained me as residents in the ICU. While I went to the ACNP program, I still worked as an RN in the ICU and I learned how to read CXR, CT, MRI by myself with google assistant. When doing ICU rounds, I gave a report as one of the residents. I also asked the intensivists all of the questions of ICU best practice. I also took ACNP certification from AACN which is really challenging because it has a lot of critical care questions without research questions. However, if you are CCRN, you can pass the exam.

Hope you change your option, online vs campus. I study in CSULA. It is a campus, a lot of lab hours, you are facing 1-1 with instructors, you communicate with your classmate. That is the best network connection. You will practice central line insertion, a line, intubation, suturing, chest tube insertion, and sim lab