eliyazure

Buyer beware, that is a good concern. Personally, I had a great clinical placement team that worked closely with me to find my clinical rotation sites. My assigned placement specialist made calls, emails, letters, and found connections via alumni etc. Her name was Erika and I talked to her all the time. I was also able to recommend places on my own and she would contact them on my behalf. No one in my class was unable to be placed for a clinical. I completed my clinical rotations in pediatrics, 2 family practice rotations, and women's health all within 30-40 minutes from my house. I absolutely loved my preceptors and had a good experience. A Simmons instructor does travel out to your clinical placement, while you are there, to evaluate you at the site to make sure it is an appropriate site and you are meeting the rotation requirements. Yes, they make you sign a waiver understanding it is a possibility there might not be an available preceptor in your area or you may have to travel up to 2 hours. The farthest I remember a classmate traveling was about an hour and a half. No one in my cohort was unable to find a preceptor. I did hear of one girl in another cohort that was not placed so she doubled up on her second rotation so she could complete the program in time. The extreme workload and difficult coursework was actually the reason most people dropped out, not failure to find clinical placement. I think there is this risk with all programs, I was at DeSales University, which is not online, and they couldn't find me a placement due to local competition for preceptors. This is why I transferred to Simmons. Thanks to Simmons I graduated within 18 months, passed my boards, and I just got my first job as an FNP.

I went to Simmons College's online FNP program out of Boston. They have one time only on campus weekend event they call "immersion weekend" before clinicals start. During the weekend you do your physical exam in front of a professor and practice suturing, as well as the chance to get to meet everyone you know only in person. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun with my classmates. The program workload is pretty intense though.

Just wondering what the typical day would be like in an outpatient pain management clinic, what the patient's are like,. how much drug seeking behaviors do you encounter etc.