What online NP program did you attend/recommend?

I went through SUNY Stonybrook. Loved that it was online, but I understand that now you have to go to campus several times a year.

Overall the instructors were great and I felt that I had a lot of support.

My only real complaint was a lack of support finding clinical sites. I drove an hour and a half one way to one site and it was a fight to find that one. It was the only women's health one I could find.

I graduated in May 2011 with the Adult Nurse Practitioner. Passed the boards on the first try.

Isabel

I'm currently in the ANP program at Stony Brook & the online format is very convenient with my work and life schedule. However since I started in the Summer of 2011, this is the first semester I can say we got some support from the faculty. There is mostly new faculty and a new director of the ANP program so we now have video lectures in addition to the PowerPoint slides. I second the issue made by the previous poster that there is little to no support in finding preceptors. I almost quit last semester because I had a tough time finding someone for this semester.

I just finished University of Cincinnati. The Pro's and Con's are as follows, in my opinion.

Online degree pro's (in general).

1) Online is very good for DIY learners.

2) More than enough time for full-time work, and family, along with studying. I would recommend a job like 3-12's or 4-10's to allow for full days to commit to learning. But that is how it worked for me. Some people may like getting up early, or staying up late to take the courses in smaller segments.

3) Competitive cost, but now gas/time costs. From where I lived, attending the University three days per week would have cost about $10 per day in gas, plus 1 1/2 hours commuting on each class day.

4) Wide range of choices. Schools are popping up everywhere with online courses, and many waive the out-of-state fees.

5) Ability to arrange your own clinicals. For someone who is well-connected, this is a huge bonus.

Online degree con's (in general).

1) Overall, I think it is diminishing the reputation of the profession. Too many physicians I talked to scoffed at the idea of an "online" degree. You don't have to put in on your CV, but if your CV shows employment in Arkansas for the last 10 years, but your recent degree is from the University of California, San Diego, it's not hard to figure out.

University of Cincinnati

1) Complete lack of attachment. Instructors for online education are, IMO, very detached. Most also work full-time. Most of the instructors I had were not actual instructors, just adjuncts who "monitored" online courses. And I use the term "monitored" very loosely as well. Too many instructors logged in to the courses once or twice in an entire semester. Often responses were in a "tweet" form from their i-phone.

2) Loosely assembled material. Many of the classes I had, especially the "advanced" courses like differential diagnosis and clinical management (the core of the degree), were assembled from videos that were archived from years before. Some of the most important lectures were recorded from the side of a crowded room, with ambient noise (laughing, coughing), and general conversation overlayed with a power-point presentation. Very difficult to hear and comprehend. And much of the material in this program was taken from a now-defunct acute nurse practitioner program, which covered the topics, but not very well.

3) No connection with colleagues. Most of the classes were arranged with a weekly discussion forum that was supposed to enhance exchange, but instructors did not monitor this, or become involved in the discussions. I know that at this level you are supposed to "master" the topics with less oversight, but the discussion board was a waste of time. When people figured out that instructors grade on total posts, not quality of posts, the quality of the discussions dropped considerably.

4) You are treated like an online student. You are assigned a local "advisor". They are supposed to facilitate that "connection" with the college. I gave up after the second conversation with my advisor, as she made it very clear that she had no connection with the University either.

5) They could care less about your feedback. At one point I tried to connect with the dean of the program, to express some thoughts about the experience, and why I felt that Survey Monkey evaluation questions weren't very valuable for actual feedback, and I was told that I had no business trying to tell them how to do anything.

6) If I paid this much money for a seminar that was this poorly presented, I would have requested a refund and left. Unfortunately, once you pay the first $7,000 and wait a waste a year getting started, it is hard to just walk away and start over somewhere else.

I know it sounds hypocritical that I will have the rewards of the degree, and have criticism for the process, but I think the only way to know is to experience it. I was fortunate to have strong connections for both clinicals, and employment afterwards, but I had to really work hard to overcome the perception of the degree. And I really just jammed through tests and assignments to get them done. Now I can move on to real application.

My advice for the online degree: don't start it unless you have a support system for clinicals. Anybody who has money can take the classes, but not everyone has the ability to get valuable clinical hours. Many physicians who are your friends stop calling when they find out you are looking for hours. It's like selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. Despite years of solid connections, my clinical success rate was about 1 out of 10. Have more sites selected than you need, and always have a back up.