skiday

Hi Uling, I would definitely study for the NCLEX throughout the first year as you go through the program; however, I would highly advise not doing any work ahead of time (i.e. the summer before). As tempting as it may be to try to 'get ahead,' really try to value the last little bit of time off that you have before the program starts. It's really demanding, and you'll be busy all the time. As for materials for NCLEX study, you will get a giant stack of ATI review books through UVM, included as part of your first year fees, that have been surprisingly helpful in terms of both complementing classwork and studying for the NCLEX. I also have a couple books from the Davis Success series (Pharmacology, Med Surg) that I haven't used extensively but do provide some good practice questions. First semester textbooks: Large and expensive. I can give you a full list if you'd like, but given that the profs often tweak their syllabus and text from semester to semester, I'd hold off on buying anything just yet. Last year I was able to get many textbooks for much cheaper from the previous year DEPNs, who held a 'yard sale' for us where we could get books, scrubs, iClickers, etc. One of your classes will be a seminar-style discussion period with some miscellaneous readings. As part of that we read 'Being Mortal' by Atul Gawande, which I absolutely loved. Especially given that you will spend hours upon hours of your life in a long term care facility the first semester, I found it a beautiful and thought provoking complement to clinical that really changed how I thought about end-of-life care and decision-making. I would also recommend staying abreast of current health-related events and policy updates. If you haven't yet, I found this ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/us/hospital-guns-mental-health.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-0&action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article) article in the New York Times about psychiatric care to be really compelling - a good intersection of health, human rights, and social justice. It's also available as a This American Life podcast. Whew! That's a lot. Hopefully helpful!

Hi all, I'm a current UVM DEPN student in my first year. Let me know if I can answer any questions for you! One thing I'll say is that I don't think it would hurt to reach out to admissions again if you don't hear from them soon. Last year, I believe the first round of acceptances were sent out via email in the last week of February. We had until March 18th or so to decide, after which point they sent out another round of acceptances. I'm not sure how many applied in your cohort, but for ours, around 100 people applied for 15 spots. The family speciality much more competitive, but they try to split the group as evenly as possible between family and adult-gero. Good luck, and let me know if you have other questions!

Thanks @KBVT! Burlington seems like an awesome place, I'm really excited to be coming! Hope to see you there in the fall :)

Hopefully you will hear soon @KBVT! Those accepted in the initial batch of letters didn't have to give a yes/no until March 18th, but I imagine they will be sending out a new round in the next week or two! Where did you hear they had 1000 apps??

Heard back from CBR, the grad program coordinator, regarding accreditation: "UVM's NP program has always been fully accredited, and our current 10 year cycle ends in 2020, at which time we will need to be re-accredited. We are following the process that is required by AACN when a new program is begun, which involves submitting paperwork to alert AACN of our changes. This paperwork has been submitted, and is in process.The actual site visit from AACN will not occur until close to the completion of the first cohort of DNP students, per AACN procedures. We do not anticipation any difficulties with full accreditation as we transition to the DNP."

this is what they told me when i emailed them a similar question (this was dated march 6th for those who haven't heard back yet): "Decision letters for the MEN program were supposed to start going out this week but due to the snow storm that has been delayed.They should start going out next week and continue the following week. Regarding your question about if you will need to apply for the NP degree, the answer is yes. All JHU students have to apply to any additional degrees. Your Master's Entry into Nursing is for a generalist nursing degree not an advanced nursing degree. So you would need to go into the 2 year Nurse Practitioner program."

yeah i called her and left a message and emailed as well, and i finally got an email back from her. i replied asking my questions..but maybe you can answer some too :) is the program accredited yet? (seemed vague on the website). what percentage of classes are online? what's their nclex pass rate? what's the clinical preceptor/student ratio? i also wanted to get a sense of where the different clinical rotations were after the first year. it seems like during first semester, they're either in an inpatient rehab center or a nursing home, then second semester, they're in fletcher allen. what about after that? i'm also trying to decide whether it's necessary right now to get a DNP, versus just an MSN. how much more can you expect to be paid as a DNP post-program? does it justify the extra year of school and debt? i'm guessing you're out of state, like me, which makes the program pricey...BUT i love the curriculum and it seems that grads have generally positive things to say about the program (the MEPN program, at least)! thanks! sorry if this totally overloads you haha..feel free to skip around, i'm sure KC will answer some if not all of these.

i was accepted to the FNP DEPN program and am trying to decide between UVM and a couple other schools...it's been tough getting in touch with admissions to get more information beyond what's on the website! are you planning on UVM lumen?