University South Alabama PNP program question

[rnmindy]

I am wondering about the online courses at USA for the NP programs. I hold a M-F full time job and have just applied to USA for the PNP program. I am new to onlie courses so I was wondering if anyone with experience with online courses particularly in the same program can shed some light on what to expect and how they work so that I can prepare. I have read other threads and gather that it is a work at your own pace type of thing but I wanted some input as to if there are certain times you have to log on for tests and such. Would it be reasonable for me to log on in the evenings after work and on weekends for class work? I do plan on working only part time once I get into the clinical portion of the program.

Also, I graduated with my BSN in 2006 but havent worked in a pediatric setting since 2009. from 2009-2013 i worked with both adults and pediatric patients in an outpatient setting but I am worried that this might hinder my acceptance into the PNP program. Any insight from another student who had a similar situation and got accepted? Thanks

[malenurse122879, MSN, RN]

I applied to USA's PNP RN-DNP - I was curious about the workload too and I'm also a NICU nurse - havent actually been a PEDS nurse... would this be an issue? Technically NICU is a branch of Peds... just curious.

[rnmindy]

Just as a follow up I emailed the college to ask the same question that I mentioned in my post regarding whether or not the Peds experience has to be recent and this was the reply: "yes, your 2 year work experience is acceptable." So I would assume the fact that you work in NICU and not Peds would be acceptable. They seem flexable and very nice there. We shall see. What semester did you apply for?

[malenurse122879, MSN, RN]

I'm applying for Fall 2014. I'm guessing you're going for the same. Good luck! My GPA sucks so you probably have me beat lol. Only have a 3.0 although my GRE was decent - unfortunately they dont care if you took the GRE or not :-/ I've got about 6 years of nursing experience and i THINK I wrote a pretty decent goal statement. If they look at GPA heavily I'm screwed.

[rnmindy]

I am honestly not sure what they look at more. I would think and hope that they give equal weight to both. Good luck to you too.

[Annaiya, NP]

Don't worry about not having recent peds experience, you'll be fine. I would not consider an online program a work at your own pace type of thing, you will be studying every time you are not working. there is A LOT to learn. Patho will be your most time consuming course and assessment isn't far off. Some classes require exams at a certain time and some give you a day or two range. Just plan to do nothing but work and school and you'll be fine. Then when you do have time off it will be a nice surprise:) Online classes are nice because they are more flexible with the time you spend but they take longer to figure out because there is no one there to explain everything to you. You just have to read through the course info and figure it out.