University of Cincinnati PMHNP Program

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Looking for some insight into the Psych Mental Health NP Program with the University of Cincinnati, specifically the post-masters. I was previously enrolled in their PMC-FNP program which was sort of awful; instructors literally read from slides as your lecture and would take days to clarify content (which usually consisted of "refer to page bla bla" rather than a real explanation). I've previously taken online classes and this was insulting to say the least. I completed a couple semesters with As and decided to defer but chose to transfer to theit PMHNP program because we have a greater need in my area.

I'm curious to know how others found the PMHNP program at UC. I obviously know self directed learning requires focus and they all have their issues, but rather than applying to other schools, I'd like to commit to this one. However, I'm really nervous it's going to be similar to the FNP.

How were the final 9 courses (including 3 clinical)? Were instructors helpful and fast with responses? How was testing (I.e., proctored vs unproctored vs papers)? Were you able to have time with your family while completing your studies? How was it finding clinical locations as well as how long it took to get approval? If you took boards, were you prepared by UC and were you successful the first try?

I won't be starting back until the end of 2020, so I have time. Thanks in advance!

Specializes in ICU,M/S,Onco,SNF.
2 hours ago, amberger101 said:

Yikes! Are you a DNP Student there? What track are you in (post masters, DNP, or MSN for PMHNP)?

2 hours ago, amberger101 said:

Yikes! Are you a DNP Student there? What track are you in (post masters, DNP, or MSN for PMHNP)?

BSN-DNP PMHNP student; IKR!

Specializes in ICU,M/S,Onco,SNF.
24 minutes ago, AnnaRN said:

I have completed 3 classes so far: psychopathological disorders across the lifespan, neurobiology and psychopharmacology, systems interventions for individuals and group and internship 1, I will be taking clinical psychiatric diagnostics and management of adults, clinical psychiatric diagnosis and management of children and internship II for this upcoming fall semester. You need 504 hours to graduate. In addition to the delayed response from instructors, instructions for homework assignment are confusing as well. I find myself spending more time dissecting the assignments than I have devoted to studying. The problem with online programs is that they make you do a lot of busy work to compensate for not being in class in person. They overwhelm you with so much work that you don't get to spend the time to actually learn the material. I do study very hard for all of my classes. I just want to able to pass all of my tests and be done with it. I do not feel like I learn a lot from online classes.

WOW!, just the thought of it overwhelms me already.. I haven't even started. Now I am more confuse if I went to the right place. Would you have chosen to transfer given the chance/choice, after all these issues you've had with UC? What's keeping you there if I may ask.. maybe that'll help me not to change my mind.. : ) because honestly I am already feeling a know-for-yourself vibe, the way they respond to necessary stuffs, what more when I am already there.. @AnnaRN

I actually tried to apply for another school. unfortunately, I am too far out to transfer. I don’t mean to scare you, you can do it too, I am just not happy with the quality of the education that I receive from UC and I get frustrated with unclear instructions from instructors.

Specializes in ICU,M/S,Onco,SNF.
1 minute ago, AnnaRN said:

I actually tried to apply for another school. unfortunately, I am too far out to transfer. I don’t mean to scare you, you can do it too, I am just not happy with the quality of the education that I receive from UC and I get frustrated with unclear instructions from instructors.

I guess everywhere is the same. Took me a year searching/finding/declining then ended up to almost the same as what I was trying to avoid =D Thanks a lot for the reply. What school have you tried? @AnnaRN

The Ohio State University, they provide preceptors and I am an alumni of OSU as well. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for application so I ended up applying for UC ...

Specializes in ICU,M/S,Onco,SNF.
24 minutes ago, AnnaRN said:

The Ohio State University, they provide preceptors and I am an alumni of OSU as well. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for application so I ended up applying for UC ...

Is UC a public school? Any pros studying at UC? I know theres a list of cons ?

1 hour ago, AnnaRN said:

The Ohio State University, they provide preceptors and I am an alumni of OSU as well. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for application so I ended up applying for UC ...

My family all went to medical school and NP school at Ohio State and University of Cincinnati - my in-laws are all from Ohio. From what I know they both supply preceptors for the state of Ohio, but have issues, like any online program, securing preceptors outside of their brick and mortar state. Did you do online or in person with OSU?

1 hour ago, SMZ_DNPstudent said:

Is UC a public school? Any pros studying at UC? I know theres a list of cons ?

UC is a state school like OSU, and they're both public universities. Both ranked high and both have great medical and nursing programs for the state of Ohio. Are you in Ohio? I'm curious why you chose them.

The issues I've had are communication - PMHNP is a newer program for UC and I was hoping it would have less students and faculty along with more attention since it's new, and therefor have lesser issues than their online FNP program. Unfortunately, I have other graduate school experience along with brick and mortar and UC's communication is about as bad as it gets. Although I went to a private nursing school for my ADN and their communication, despite being in person, was also pretty awful, along with inconsistent grading, etc.

I previously got into Yale's FNP program and turned it down because the area was dangerous and I didn't want to sell my house yet. I got into Duke's online DNP/FNP program so I could stay in my home state and turned it down because of the price, but I also had some issues with communication during the application process that gave me a bad taste. I was at Montana State for their DNP/FNP and I transferred to UC because their communication and instruction was just as bad as what I now see at UC and I didn't find out until last minute that they didn't transfer any of my previous MSN course work and I had to repeat multiple classes. I'm at the point where I feel like I need to commit to a program now because my kids are so young and I don't want them remembering how distracted I was with school, and I'm willing to tough it out because I can take it so part time. I definitely would not do UC distance if I had more than a few classes left - I would absolutely move to Cincinnati (my family still lives there) and do an in-person instruction. A BSN-DNP online at UC sounds awful, no offense. Hopefully you have a different experience, @SMZ_DNPstudent, because truly these online programs are what you make of it. Lots of tests, lots of self directed studying, lots of figure it out yourself - sorry to say.

2 hours ago, SMZ_DNPstudent said:

Is UC a public school? Any pros studying at UC? I know theres a list of cons ?

I'm sounding very pessimistic and the semester hasn't started yet - definitely don't listen to me. Give it a chance and experience it for yourself before making any decisions. It could surprise you how different things are when you get this far in the program ?

Specializes in ICU,M/S,Onco,SNF.
17 hours ago, amberger101 said:

I'm sounding very pessimistic and the semester hasn't started yet - definitely don't listen to me. Give it a chance and experience it for yourself before making any decisions. It could surprise you how different things are when you get this far in the program ?

More like, realistic ? Im from SoCal, got accepted to different online grad schools but most have MSN or FNP programs only/no direct DNP, then some out of state universities but found out to have very bad reviews (instructors/employment wise/clinicals) so I declined the acceptance; then there’s this another calstate university but has very tedious admission requirements so I did not bother applying (though cheapest tuition I found so far), and there’s one out here in socal that I got accepted and I like but $120k for the DNP program. ? that’s why its kind of disappointing that after a year of searching/declining, I still end up with a grad schools with alot of cons. ? Then UC, I found very little bad reviews online (or I guess I just did not dig deeper).. ?

9 hours ago, SMZ_DNPstudent said:

More like, realistic ? Im from SoCal, got accepted to different online grad schools but most have MSN or FNP programs only/no direct DNP, then some out of state universities but found out to have very bad reviews (instructors/employment wise/clinicals) so I declined the acceptance; then there’s this another calstate university but has very tedious admission requirements so I did not bother applying (though cheapest tuition I found so far), and there’s one out here in socal that I got accepted and I like but $120k for the DNP program. ? that’s why its kind of disappointing that after a year of searching/declining, I still end up with a grad schools with alot of cons. ? Then UC, I found very little bad reviews online (or I guess I just did not dig deeper).. ?

You'll have plenty of time between the start of your core courses and the psych specific ones. I'm also from So Cal, but live in rural US - can I ask why you didn't do UCLA or USC?

I sincerely hope my comments would not frustrate people who maybe interested in going to UC for psychiatric mental health program. Again these are my as well as some of my colleagues opinions. It would not hurt to take one or two classes to see if you like the program or not. Who knows maybe you will have better experience than I do... ?

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