University of South Alabama dual FNP/ACNP Fall 2019

[lexicon28]

Hi! I was wondering if anyone out there applied for this program as well? I got my acceptance email from the “Congradapp” waiting on the official letter. Just wanted to extend a happy hello and possibly meet some of the folks that will be in my class ?

-Alex

[Kimbalotz14]

Hi guys, I am waiting to hear for myself for the spring 2020 program. Approximately how long after your application was in and being reviewed did they come back with a decision?

thank you!

[fsuao2006]

On 6/10/2019 at 11:51 PM, jamiejammer said:

I am applying for the spring 2020. anyone already started this program?

from what i read on the previous year posts we should hear at the end of august

[flymedicRN24, BSN, MSN, EMT-P, APRN]

I will DISAGREE 99% about USA finding clinical placement. Many of us who just graduated in May had trouble throughout the program finding placement. A fee students had to drop out and 2 in our cohort were from previous years class, due to now finding clinical placement. If you are a male, as I am, Good Luck finding OBGYN clinicals. I drove 4 hours 1 way to get to my site. That is after calling over 100 locations throughout FL. USA never helped me. WORST SCHOOL IN THE HISTORY OF SCHOOLS.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

On 7/30/2019 at 3:28 PM, flymedicRN24 said:

I will DISAGREE 99% about USA finding clinical placement. Many of us who just graduated in May had trouble throughout the program finding placement. A fee students had to drop out and 2 in our cohort were from previous years class, due to now finding clinical placement. If you are a male, as I am, Good Luck finding OBGYN clinicals. I drove 4 hours 1 way to get to my site. That is after calling over 100 locations throughout FL. USA never helped me. WORST SCHOOL IN THE HISTORY OF SCHOOLS.

I'm sorry you had that experience. I know FL is a difficult state to get clinicals period, due to the saturation of students. We just did our on-campus skills intensives and with the new CCNE requirements, they have to assist us with clinical placement if we have exhausted all of our options. They did say we'd have significant travel involved if they have to find placement for us (e.g. Oregon or other rural area).

Congrats on graduating. Can't wait to be done ?

[Blessed_305, ADN, BSN]

Hello everyone, I have been accepted to USA's Fnp/Agacnp dual program for Fall 2020. How is the journey so far with the courses, assignments and instructors? It will be great to read recent reviews on this program.

Thank you.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

30 minutes ago, Blessed_305 said:

Hello everyone, I have been accepted to USA's Fnp/Agacnp dual program for Fall 2020. How is the journey so far with the courses, assignments and instructors? It will be great to read recent reviews on this program.

Thank you.

I'm halfway through the program. So far, it's OK. With any online graduate program, you're going to have to do a fair amount of self-teaching in the foundation courses. I was able to keep working full time until I started clinicals.

This semester is my last portion of the FNP part of the program. Since we've started clinicals, we now have lectures which are live, but recorded in case you can't attend. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many of our classmates have their acute care clinicals suspended by their sites. We're all worried about not being able to finish the second half.

Overall, it's been a good experience. I've enjoyed going to campus for skills intensives. Not sure when we'll be able to do the second one yet with the gathering ban. We were supposed to go in July. But we learned a lot of hands-on skills before starting the FNP clinicals last year. My OB/Gyn preceptor was happy with my pelvic/PAP skills, which is what I was most nervous about before starting. I wish they had taught us more about E/M coding before we had our first rotation. We're in our second rotation and finally had a module about it. They are good about listening to our feedback and making changes.

We are the first cohort that has a comprehensive final at the end of the FNP portion. We'll see how that goes. I did like a quiz we did where they gave us case material we hadn't learned yet and allowed us to use resource material to come up with a proper diagnosis & treatment plan. Just like what we'd do in real life. I felt like it was a good gauge of how we'll function "in the real world".

We no longer get study guides for exams now that we're in didactics. We get "reading guides". Our classmates work together to make our own study guide based off the lectures and reading guides. These have been very helpful. In the foundation courses, you get comprehensive study guides which are very detailed. I won't say "easy A" because it wasn't easy, but if you do the work to complete the guides, you should earn top scores.

I find the clinical courses to have the most "work" involved, just due to the sheer volume of paperwork, evaluations, SOAP notes and Typhon entries. USA requires more info in Typhon than any school I've come across at my clinical sites. Most of the other NP & PA students I've met on-site only have to enter about 4 to 6 items. We have to fill out nearly every field plus a mini-SOAP on each patient. It can be very time consuming.

But on the whole, I like the program. I feel like they're preparing us well for boards & future practice.

[Me-O-My, BSN]

Hi everyone! I'm happy to have found this thread! I just started the AGACNP this Summer 2020, and thankfully we only have a reasearch class this semester. After being out of school for 10 years it's taking some adjusting to get started again.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2020 at 10:06 PM, Me-O-My said:

Hi everyone! I'm happy to have found this thread! I just started the AGACNP this Summer 2020, and thankfully we only have a reasearch class this semester. After being out of school for 10 years it's taking some adjusting to get started again.

Sounds like you're starting with NU 608. Good class to get your "feet wet" and get used to APA again ? I'm in the Dual Role ACNP/FNP program and just finished my FNP clinicals. I start the ACNP portion in the fall. We go to campus in a few weeks for our ACNP intensives. If all goes well, I'll graduate May 2021. Send me a PM if you have any questions I can help answer for you.

[TwiliRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

On 3/25/2019 at 9:59 PM, SopranoKris said:

Congrats on getting accepted. I'm in the Dual Role ACNP/FNP program but started Fall 2018. Gearing up for clinicals in Fall and will be going to campus intensive #1 in July.

Just a few notes for you: every track takes the same 6 classes at the beginning. Your Patho, Pharm, Physical Assessment, EBP/Research, Theory, and Population Health courses will have students from all MSN tracks in them.

Definitely search for your course-specific facebook groups when you're in Patho, Pharm, etc. Those groups are full of great info. They only allow you to join during your current semester, but the Patho & Pharm groups have been lifesavers with alphabetized study guide indexes and study aids. You'll find each class on FB as UnSoAlNU.### with the ### replaced with your course number. Definitely join those pages once you're registered.

They are pretty mindful about not scheduling exams and papers due in the same week, even with different courses. I felt I had plenty of time to prepare in between assignments.

You will need the ability to convert your papers to PDF. In EBP/Research, you'll have to merge all your research articles with your paper, so you'll need the full version of Adobe to do so.

Make sure you check USA Online often once it's July. You'll have a day-long online orientation. Ours was scheduled to end at 5 pm, but we had technical difficulties with WebEx and didn't get done until nearly 7 pm. Find out the date and make sure you have the day off, as they don't allow make-up sessions.

Exams so far have been open book, open notes. However, you have a short amount of time to take the exam, so if you aren't prepared, you aren't going to be able to "wing it", especially in Pharm.

Beginning Fall 2019, exams will only be available on a particular day for a certain time frame. They used to allow 24 hours in Patho and 48 hours in Pharm to take the exams. A couple of students decided to cheat and discuss exams/quizzes online and the school found out. So, they are cutting down the time window for exams significantly. It's unfortunate a few bad apples ruined it for the rest of us. My clinical didactic course in the fall only has a 2-hour time window to take the exam from 1000-1200. I'm a night shifter so these hours are awful for me. I'm usually sound asleep at that time. Yikes!

Good luck to you all

So I know this thread is old but as there is very little information about this program I'm hoping by bumping this specific post that others who are also applying for the Fall 2021 BSN to DNP will see it and benefit as well. Thank you so incredibly much @SopranoKris for sharing your experience during your first year and the heads up about exams. One of my primary anxieties about choosing this program is being from the PNW and not being able to find any real details about what to expect the first year. I know plenty about WSU and UW's programs but I just don't have anyone in my network that even knew about this program. The cardiovascular subspecialty was too good to be true for me though so this program is absolutely my first choice. So, seriously, thank you!

[Lipoma, BSN, RN]

Do you guys know if we can precept with PAs? I applied to the DNP FNP/ENP program and work with PAs in the ER. 

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

On 2/7/2021 at 3:13 PM, Lipoma said:

Do you guys know if we can precept with PAs? I applied to the DNP FNP/ENP program and work with PAs in the ER. 

It depends on your state's BON. If they have a restriction on PA as preceptor, you can't (like Louisiana). But if your state has no restriction, then you can use a PA. They try to make it seem like you need to do most of your hours with an NP, but in reality, you take what you can get. Most of my hours have been with DOs. I've had a few NPs. I learned much more from the DOs than the NPs. I'm having a harder time trying to get my ER & acute care hours because they didn't renew the contract with my hospital due to COVID. It's slim pickings for clinicals in hopsital settings right now. I have all my FNP hours completed. I'm supposed to graduate in May and I'm scrambling to get hours still ? The school did offer to set me up with clinicals at a rural hospital, but I just can't afford to pay rent on 2 places at once. I may have to bite the bullet and do it if I can't find anything around here.

On 1/27/2021 at 12:31 AM, TwiliRN said:

So I know this thread is old but as there is very little information about this program I'm hoping by bumping this specific post that others who are also applying for the Fall 2021 BSN to DNP will see it and benefit as well. Thank you so incredibly much @SopranoKris for sharing your experience during your first year and the heads up about exams. One of my primary anxieties about choosing this program is being from the PNW and not being able to find any real details about what to expect the first year. I know plenty about WSU and UW's programs but I just don't have anyone in my network that even knew about this program. The cardiovascular subspecialty was too good to be true for me though so this program is absolutely my first choice. So, seriously, thank you!

You're welcome. Glad it help. I'm finally in my last semester. Can't wait to be done ?

[TwiliRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I know it probably seems like it's been forever but do you mind if I ask if you're completing the MSN or DNP route? I will hopefully be starting my DNP and when I did my own course breakdown giving myself summers as a cushion if needed, I was looking at 5-6 years. I may be off but if you're in the final semester you finished in...3 years? roughly? I was just wondering if you did indeed tackle the DNP that quickly if I could pick your brain about how you arranged your classes ?