University of South Alabama NP program

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Nurse Manager.

Hi,

I am researching grad schools and became very interested in the University of South Alabama's ENP (dual FNP/ACNP) online program. I am interested in knowing how competitive the program is regarding acceptance. I have a GPA now of 3.3, 2.5 years ER experience in a level one trauma center, 1 year of trauma icu experience, 3 years of management experience, ACLS, PALS, TNCC and will have (hopefully) my CCRN cert when I apply. What are your thoughts considering the above information and your knowledge first or second hand on this university? Thank you for any information you can give.

Rachel

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Nurse Manager.

If anyone has any information please reply. I have probably read all the posts related to this school on this message board and just have these few questions left.

Thanks

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This specialization is new so its probably why people aren't responding. Your stats look good but the best resources would be the school itself. I was looking at this school also so I know that each specialty has someone you can email and ask questions to. Good luck.

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Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, MR/DD.
Hi,

I am researching grad schools and became very interested in the University of South Alabama's ENP (dual FNP/ACNP) online program. I am interested in knowing how competitive the program is regarding acceptance. I have a GPA now of 3.3, 2.5 years ER experience in a level one trauma center, 1 year of trauma icu experience, 3 years of management experience, ACLS, PALS, TNCC and will have (hopefully) my CCRN cert when I apply. What are your thoughts considering the above information and your knowledge first or second hand on this university? Thank you for any information you can give.

Rachel

Hi I am a new student in this program Fall 2010. Your stats sound fine. This is a new program so as long as you meet minimum standards and your state BON recognizes this school you probably wont have to much of a problem. They are accepting applications for Spring 2011 until Jun 15. I would apply and go from there. Hope this helps. As one poster stated this is a new program Fall 2010 students are the first class to go through it.

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Specializes in ER, CCT, EMS.

I have applied for USA ENP Spring 2011. I am anxiously awaiting word. I have been scouring the internet looking to see if anyone has posted anything.

I have a 3.4 GPA, more than 10 years as a paramedic, more than 7 years of flight experience, more than 5 years ER experience. Multiple certifications to include CEN, CFRN, CTRN, FP-C, CCP-C, and all the other usual TNATC, TNCC, ACLS, PALS, etc.

I'M DYING TO KNOW ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.......................

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I am graduated from USA's FNP program. You will take the same first year courses as I did. PM me with your questions.

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I am graduated from USA's FNP program. You will take the same first year courses as I did. PM me with your questions.

Blessedx3, how do you like the FNP program so far? It seems there are a lot of mixed reviews on here about the online programs. I was accepted for the dual FNP/ACNP and the cost is right, but want to make sure it is a good program. Thanks in advance. (Sorry, I cant PM).

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Specializes in ICU/CCU.

I just dropped out of the ACNP program at USA. The classes were so tedious and so much reading. Way more than what I had expected and planned for. 6 chapters in the book,powerpoints and 90 study questions every 2 weeks. I feel like I just read it but did not retain or learn anything. Instructors and advisors are no help and seem like they could care less, if you finally do get a hold of one!!!! Would not recommend it. There has to be a better program out there!!

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i just dropped out of the acnp program at usa. the classes were so tedious and so much reading. way more than what i had expected and planned for. 6 chapters in the book,powerpoints and 90 study questions every 2 weeks. i feel like i just read it but did not retain or learn anything. instructors and advisors are no help and seem like they could care less, if you finally do get a hold of one!!!! would not recommend it. there has to be a better program out there!!

the np program at usa sucks. i have just dropped as well. i have one other friend that dropped last year and told me not to go :( i should have listened. my other friend that is a semester ahead said it sucks and may drop as well. here is an email that i recieved from a high up in the college about getting a better education with videos or powerpoints that had verbal teaching in it.

the methods for online learning are different for the student and for the teacher. a majority of the online courses in multiple tracks have little or no sound associated with them. there have been some problems with mediasite in the last few years. it may look like faculty can just do a recording and post it but it is much more complicated that than. faculty cannot do their own recordings and they cannot post their own recordings. faculty must make appointments with several other people to get this done and get on a waiting list. an error or pause in a mediasite presentation can mean starting over and that is something that the faculty cannot do without help from our tech people. even for the mediasite presentations that were already posted, the entire mediasite system has been non-functional several times. it is not a reliable system. for those reasons, we have not done a lot with mediasite and don't intend to do so with the present system.

what the fnp faculty have done is to go out, on our own and found other equipment that will allow us to put audio into a ppt presentations. even after that, we've had to work around finding out that the equipment is not compatible with most of our computers. we are in the process of reworking some of our ppt presentations but its going to be a slow go getting them all done. i've spent the last several days working on just one presentation and it will take more days to complete it. i am excited that we've found a way to add sound to our classes but we are still in the beginning stages of this and all of the ppts and lecture notes may not have sound added this year.

i know that you are familiar with the term "evidence based". although the ppts and lectures without sound may not be as appealing as the ones with sound added, we have evidence that our past teaching methods result in either a 100% or near 100% pass rate on the certification exams each year and our graduates are sought after by employers.

graduate school is not the same as bsn education. our biggest job is to point you toward the right resources and be sure that you are able to read and interpret the information that is available. it is never to summarize information. if you decide to go on for the doctoral degree, you will find that the "teaching" that happens at that level is usually guided but almost never fed or "presented" by the teacher. the higher you go in education, the more you are expected to acquire, synthesize, and apply knowledge from multiple sources.

hopefully, we are going to be able to provide the class of 2011 with more sound enhanced presentations than we've ever been able to do, before. we look forward to adding this level of "being connected" with the students.

okay after reading that let me tell you. i graduated with my bsn from this school in 2007 and they were still working on the mediasite videos then. i can promise you that they will not get them up in 2011!!! hope this helps for any of you that are thinking of going here. yes the tuition is cheap but so is the education!

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Blessedx3, how do you like the FNP program so far? It seems there are a lot of mixed reviews on here about the online programs. I was accepted for the dual FNP/ACNP and the cost is right, but want to make sure it is a good program. Thanks in advance. (Sorry, I cant PM).

The cost of the tuition is cheap because the education is cheap. I tried the NP program and it sucks!! Pay for an education that is worth it. This program doesn't teach you, you pay to teach yourself :(

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Specializes in Plastic Surgery, ER.

Having graduated from USAs NP program, I can probably tell you who wrote the above statement regarding powerpoints LOL

Anyways, compared to what appeared to be available to watch/listen to on mediasite, we really didn't utilize it much at all. The other issue I had was that it would've been nice to be able to download those lectures to listen to later, add to an ipod etc. Also there were many that appeared to be interesting topics that maybe I would have saved to listen to now (when I'm done with school), but didn't have time during classes due to the large amounts of reading we already had assigned, plus clinical etc...

I agree with the author of the above noted statement that the higher you progress, you are expected to take ownership of your education and try to find answers on your own/among your peers. However, I did feel at times that the faculty was a bit less than understanding with our concerns/complaints and at times unflexible. Then on the flip side of that, we had a few students who were whiners that wanted everything handed to them.

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I would say run, run, run away from this program at University of South Alabama. It is EXACTLY "You get what you pay for". There is a reason this program is cheap and online. The graduating class before mine (Psych NP) had a 1/2 dozen students who complained about a lead instructor - and the dean backed up the instructor with the students feeling reprisals. If you don't mind taking tests and NOT getting them back to know what you got right or wrong, (just get a general review of how the class did), instructors who don't routinely answer questions and dismiss students questions if they think it doesn't bear answering (or flat out ignoring questions in a forum), misspellings galore, assigned readings that cannot be accessed, and the most recent passing rate is only 92% - then this program may be for you. Unfortunately, these standards are subpar for me and I've gone through too much of the program to back out - but am considering transferring to another program (and paying more for a quality education.) Yes, I may lose some credits, but I'm currently gaining headaches on trying to keep my mouth shut because there are retributions against the students who say something and the dean doesn't care. There are some instructors who actually care about the students' learning - but they have no say in how the program is run. -

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