Psych NP programs - EKU or UAB?

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

I am working in my BSN and then plan to apply to (online) PMHNP programs. I am considering the programs at EKU and UAB - are there any current students with feed back on either program?

Thanks!!:up:

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You can check out Gonzaga University in Washington State (Spokane). It's almost entirely online, but you have to attend a weekend seminar 1x per semester. You have to find your own clinical sites though, which can be tough. The school offers a lot of support though. I've been happy with the program.

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Is the program reasonable priced? I'm in my last year of of BSN program and am also looking for a PMHNP program that's online.

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Specializes in Forensic Psychiatry.

My advice as a Psychiatric RN & PMHNP student and someone involved in NP clinical program planning is:

Get experience working as a Psych RN before applying to NP school. It's meant to build off of what you have learned about psychiatry while working. I know that there are many schools out there, mine included that do accept people with little to no psych experience. It puts them at a severe disadvantage, not just the steep learning curve but in terms of the opportunities they have for their clinical rotations.

Online schooling also really limits the type of clinical rotations you have available to you. For example my site will not accept online students. We get asked all the time and I'm sure many of them are quite bright - but the medical director is a Psychiatrist and because there is no version of online medical school, he does not trust the quality of online programs.

I'm sure it's possible to do an online program straight out of your BSN and do well with it - from reading this board it seems people do it all the time. I'm just cautioning you that psych is a pretty small world and providers know providers and know nurses. Working and getting that experience doesn't just give you a better learning experience when you go advanced practice but also opens up a lot more doors in terms of your clinical training.

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Note for future readers that Gonzaga only accepts students from certain states..

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I did my research on Gonzaga and saw that they do not accept students from Maryland.

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