iLOVEbees

I agree with the OP. My BSN was all fluff. I am not a better nurse because of it. It was needed, however, to get into the master's program I wanted.

Never been kicked in the groin, but I did have my scrub top ripped off once. It was a V-neck and the lady grabbed it right at the V and riiiiiiiiiiiiip. Dementia patients can be pretty strong.

I had to do the normal enrollment on applytexas, even though I graduated from UTA with my BSN. Obviously, I didn't have to send any transcripts but that's the only thing I can think of that was quicker. I think UTA BSN graduates are given preference for admission into the FNP program, but who knows if that's true.

Hi, I got my BSN for UTA and am in UTA's AP FNP program now. 1. Yes, you can. Be warned that to get financial aid, you have to have 6 credit hours a semester. If you take a 10 week course and a 5 week course sequentially, you can get 6 credit hours. You cannot fit two 10 week courses in one semester going 1 class at a time. This means you will need to pay out of pocket or make other arrangements for classes, and the classes aren't cheap. I started in 2014 and I'll graduate in 2018, taking one class at a time. 2. UTA strongly recommends going part time, but this is not feasible for a lot of people. I must work full time. It is not a requirement, but it is time consuming. I have a full time job, a family, and school and I have to make sacrifices to at least one of those every week. Free time? What's that? (I'm writing this from work during a slow time, BTW) You do not get to pick and choose your courses like you did with your BSN at UTA. They give youy a course map and that's what you're going to do. Now, you CAN email your advisor and ask for this or that, or even take a semester off if you need to, but it's not a "do your own thing" program like the BSN was. I really dislike that aspect of it, but it is what it is. I'm on my 6th class right now, and I have 3 more academic classes and then it's all clinicals. You have to give a lot more for the FNP program. It's not all writing papers. I never thought I'd say that I missed writing papers, but I miss just writing papers. The tests are proctored via webcam, and not the webcam in your laptop. You have to buy an external webcam and a tripod, show your ID to the camera, etc. Pretty involved. In Assessment, you have to find an adult and pedi patient to videotape assessments on. I think we have to make a total of 14 videos, and two of them are interactive i.e. the lab faculty is skyping you instead of you just doing it on your own time and submitting it. It's not easy, and they throw these requirements at you at the last minute like it's no big deal. If I sound like I'm complaining, well I am. It can be a mess. But, I am learning a lot and I do feel I am becoming more and more prepared to be an FNP. Hopefully, the program will mature and they'll get rid of some of the more ridiculous things. I know there's a significant dropout rate, with students bailing for other programs. I plan to stay to the end. Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

American Literature was a lot of reading and some papers. Pretty much what you probably expect. The hardest part is staying awake while reading some of the stuff.

There are a few other, small requirements as well. For one class, I had to interview a home health nurse. For another, I had to very thoroughly assess a person. For another, I had to find an elderly person who was willing to do a "life review" with me. Not trying to scare you. These requirements were not hard to meet for me. There are no clinicals. Even the shadowing thing was just hanging out with my boss for 4 hours and then writing about it. We went to meetings, ate lunch, etc.

I took 5311. I got an A, but I took it alone and I wouldn't classify it as easy. I went for 5311 because it was 5 weeks and fit into an otherwise-empty spot in my schedule. Grading is as follows: [TABLE] [TR] [TD]Journal Critique[/TD] [TD]20%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Theory Analysis & Presentation[/TD] [TD]25%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Analysis Paper[/TD] [TD]35%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Class Attendance & Participation (Discussion Boards)[/TD] [TD]20%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]TOTAL[/TD] [TD]100%[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Since I haven't taken pharm yet, I don't know how practical it is to take both. Hope this helps some. I will say that, although the class counts for the FNP elective, it has nothing to do with FNPs and is just fluff and busywork. Don't expect to learn anything valuable.

They only included my UTA credits when I graduated summa cum laude. I know this because my pre-UTA GPA was filled with low due to not taking school seriously when I was young.

It's not pass/fail; you get a grade. Compared to some of the classes, I thought it was a walk in the park. Grading was quite loose and it seemed like just going through the motions.

Next is the second research class, 5328. To be honest, I'm dreading it.

Buy an APA book or an APA add-on for Word (such as PERRLA, which I recommend). Your APA is very important and will be scrutinized. You want to get where writing in APA is second nature.

You get your course map (eAdvisor plan) from your academic adviser after you're accepted. I can't think of anything I could have done before being accepted. Waiting is hard, I know. Well, working extra to pay for school is something I could have done lol

Two nurses I work with and I have taken 1311 at UTA. I passed but thought it was the worst course by far of any of them. One of my coworkers dropped it and took it at a community college because it was so bad. The other coworker dropped it, then tried it again the next semester and dropped it a 2nd time. She's taking it at a community college now. The course is passable, but it is poorly designed and is enough to make a history buff hate history.

I felt the test came out of left field, asking questions in a way unlike the rest of the course. I thought it was weird going in that we had zero practice questions and zero weekly quizzes to at least give a glimpse of what the test would be like. Thought it was going to be a gotcha test and it was. I did not do well either. Trinity, are you taking anything for the next 5 week period? I'm going to get my elective in. Then after that, it's the other research class, the 10 week one.

Capstone is pretty easy, especially compared to some of the other courses. My advice is to relish the idea of finishing in 5 weeks!

If you have access to MyMav, you can check your status online.

You start with 5327 Nursing Theory. I did not enjoy the class. It was tedious, the grading seemed arbitrary, and the actual content....well, to be honest it's not the most applicable knowledge. Still, it's only 5 weeks. I'm about to finish my second class. Mine is 5301 Nursing Research, but yours may be different. I have a friend whose second course was patho. I haven't talked to her in a couple weeks so not sure how it's going. As far as 5301, it's not too bad. You do a critical appraisal of an article the instructor selects. They divide the appraisal into two papers for you to write. I don't understand the grading. The first paper I wrote was excellent in my opinion. "A" work. I got a B and only just barely, it was almost a C. My second paper, well, I was strapped for time and only just finished it in time. Didn't have much of a chance to proof and revise it. After I turned it in, I found grammatical errors and APA errors that I should have caught. Well, I got an "A". I feel like it should have been a B or a C to be honest. The final project is an evidence-based project (another paper). I selected a policy in my facility for review, found some research articles that show evidence-based practices that could be implemented, and revised the policy using those evidence-based practices I found support for. It seemed pretty easy to me and I finished it way early. Maybe I should bite my tongue but I think I'm going ot get a good grade on it. Also there's a statistics exam that you have to take on a specific date (next Saturday for us). The teacher hasn't given any example problems and I'm somewhat worried about it. It's 20% of the grade. It's easy to get behind. I'm doing one class at a time and working full-time. I don't see how anyone can keep up with two classes and work full-time, but obviously people are doing it. They must have better time management skills than me.

Radiation_RN, have you checked the status of transfer credit on MyMav? My experience was UTA accepted everything of mine. Some of my stuff was very old and some was coded a bit differently, but they accepted stuff readily. I was quite pleased. Prof nursing is a lot of writing, which was a bit of a shock to me, someone who hadn't written a paper in some time. The hardest part for many is complying with APA standards for formatting. What I did was I bought a Word add-on that automatically places things in APA format. It was about $30 or $35. PERRLA. There are free resources out there as well but PERRLA did it wonderfully. I used it all throughout the RN-BSN program and I'm still using it now in the FNP program. Money very well spent for me.

Since math is a bit of a struggle for you, perhaps you can take the math classes at a local community college? You would have access to a physical professor and, most likely, also to math tutors.

I started in May and didn't find out until just before the program started. They really cut it close, unlike the RN-BSN program. Good luck!

42% on Safe Assign for CA #2 for me. Yeah, the grading is tougher than for the BSN. It freaks me out that I need an 84 just to get a B. I'm still not really sure how this works. If I get a C in this class, does it still count as a pass or do I have to retake it? As long as my overall GPA is at least 3.0, is it good? I don't know.

Turned mine in and SA says I matched 65% with up to 30 papers. Our papers have to be pretty similar by nature of the assignment, I think.

trinitymaster, how many pages (not including title page) was your critical appraisal? I'm still working on mine...

I used the 3rd edition of the Walker book (Strategies...) and it was fine. Nursing theory is mostly old. For the other book, I had the correct 5th edition but would have felt perfectly fine using an older 4th edition. FYI so you can save a little money if you wish.

There's actually TWO research classes in the program, 5301 which is 5 weeks and then 5328 which is 10 weeks. No idea what the difference is, but I'm taking one right after the other so at least I'll get them out of the way.