Chamberlain University FNP Program Survival Guide

Let me start off with this statement. You won’t have a “life” while in the program. If you were told that the program is designed for working people, you heard it right with conditions. You can work but you won’t have life. Forget about family dinner, being with kids as usual, going to family gatherings on every holiday/weekend, and going out with friends. Forget it! I believe ALL online programs would be the same, not just CU. The program itself is not so hard, it’s just time-consuming to the max!!! Remember how you were during your nursing school? CU MSN program would be somewhat close to that without going classes and a bit more free time. Assignments won’t let you rest but doable with time investment. That being said… now you are ready to read the rest. =p

If you didn’t come from FB (Facebook) CU (Chamberlain University) page, I suggest you join them (CU MSN-FNP Students). Tons of peers, who suffer, cry, and laugh together with you, are there to support each other. For each cohort, there is a separate FB group. For me, I am in a FB group which ends the program in April 2020. Go to the CU MSN-FNP Students and shout out for your end program date, then someone will pick you up.

If you found this in the earlier stage of CU FNP program, critically before NR511, I would say you are somewhat lucky as I will tell you how I would have done it differently if I started all over again.

Until NR509, there is no way you would worry about failing class unless you slack off or get caught cheating. Starting from NR511 is a totally different ball game. In the CU MSN-FNP Students FB group, you will often see people worrying about failing classes. The majority of them are in NR511 and on. Why does this occur? Well, some of the problems that CU has is the design of each class from NR511. They crammed so much content into 8 weeks that your life will start to get miserable. You will have case study discussions that would take a couple of hours to complete, quizzes/mid-term/final exams that do not have a clear guide to study with, and presentation which will take a day or two to complete. That’s not all. You will have to fulfill 125 hours of practicum which excludes all the commute time you spend on the road. Think as if you have 1 full-time job that pays your bill, 1 half-time job without pay (your practicum), and you are in full-time school, not to mention your family duties. I have seen people changing to a part-time or even to a per-diem position if their finances are met. I personally changed working from ER to case management so that I don’t have too much physical stress on top of all the workloads. Yes, expect life modification as if you were in the BSN program. Balancing lifestyle will be a huge challenge for you especially with kids.

So, how would I do it differently?

I would start to study ahead of time. The majority of the lectures from NR511 and on are generally the same contents of the Hollier review book and Hollier Clinical Guidelines. These books are designed to prepare you for the board exam so you are preparing the exam way ahead of the time. Up to NR509, you can easily find time to do an extra study with these books. By preparing ahead, when you are in the NR511, you won’t need to worry too much about the learning contents which are mainly tested by midterm and final exams. Be aware that the midterm+final exams would be about 30%~40% of your total grade. It will impact a lot on your grade and GPA. However, as long as you get perfect scores on the assignment, you can “pass” the class with a quite horrible midterm and final exam scores. All the classes are out of 1000 points. You just need 800 to pass the class. In general, the midterm is 100 points and the final is 200 points. Think about it. You can miss EVERYTHING from the final and still pass the class. Yes, it is horrible but doable. =]

How would I aim for the study? After you join the CU MSN-FNP Students, ask the peers about the syllabus of NR511 and on (I will post them on my blog as I go onward with the program). You will see the general topics that they cover each week. You look for the topics that each week covers and study off of those two Hollier books. Another popular book would be FNP Certification Intense Review book.

Up until the epidemiology, pharmacology, and pathophysiology, the classes prior to these classes are mainly focused on essays. If you like to get things done quicker, double up the classes. It’s doable as many, including myself, did it.

Textbook? I didn’t buy one physical textbook as I rarely read. I purchased pdf versions starting from the epidemiology, pharmacology, and pathophysiology classes. Prior to that, I do not recall even thinking of purchasing one.

Always get ahead of the class in terms of assignments. Do it ahead of time when time is there and get over with it. I currently am in the preview week for NR601 (as of Sep 1, 2019) and I started working on the Week 5 case study assignment (200 points!!!).

Do you have a hard time finding a scholarly reference? This is what I usually do. Go to google and type your search word. For example, I am looking for some articles for osteoarthritis. When I type in google, I would type “osteoarthritis ncbi”. Then, I will see all the articles that are published by NCBI which is a good resource for scholarly articles. Of course, you can always use the school online library.

Find your practicum clinic as early as possible! Do not procrastinate on this as it could delay your graduation until forever. Finding one is already a headache but sometimes dealing with practicum coordinator is another headache. Be on top of them and check on them if they did follow up with your practicum clinic. I was lucky to have a practicum coordinator who was on schedule with everything but I heard bad stories about how their practicum coordinators forgot to submit a form and they have no idea what and who to contact. If you don’t hear from them within 1~2 weeks of your last contact, call or email them. Also, you don’t have to be stuck with the assigned practicum coordinator. If he/she is slow and delayed, contact student services and have them changed. It will make your life so much smoother. *(If you are near OC in S. Cali area, let me know. I have a clinic that would be approved for the entire 5 practicum classes! The doctor is willing to accept students most of the time.)
People often ask about a number of sites needed to complete the practicum. It could be from 1 to 5. I am lucky to have a clinic that the school approved for the entire 5 practicum classes. The clinic has enough flow of pediatric patients to fulfill the required pediatric hours (120 hr or so). Some students like or prefer to have separate pediatric and women health clinic. If you can find each, then go for it! You will have a chance to see and learn a lot more than staying at one site. The downside of having 1 clinic for the entire 5 classes is that you cannot learn the different ways of practice besides your preceptor. The best part is that you don’t have to worry about your preceptor being absent when it’s your time for that specific site. Especially if your preceptors are MDs, for my case, they will never quit on you unless he/she has to go on a vacation. Because, most of the time, the MD owns the clinic or the MD is partnered with another MD to run the clinic. It’s their own business, hence, they are always there. Some PAs and NPs, change the job while you are in the practicum with them. Once they are gone, your practicum site is gone. Be mindful when you find clinics.

Talking about some of the insufficient practicum coordinators, another insufficiency comes from Complio. Oh my… whoever is evaluating the documents that we submit, I am very sure that they are not educated in terms of healthcare. In my case, I had TB that I don’t even remember. I must have had it when I was a very young age. Whenever I have a TB test, it always results in positive. So, I skip all the steps and go straight to X-ray to prove that I am either completely healed, no active TB, or negative, whichever soothes their wordings. I uploaded the X-ray result showing no TB and it got rejected. Why? The reason showed that I still needed to do the skin test. What?? I am NEGATIVE per X-ray! X-ray result is much more specific and sensitive than skin test! I fought over email and phone call and they kept insisted on me to complete the skin test. I educated the representative and that didn’t matter. So, I called the school that takes care of compliance then the TB was cleared. I also heard a story about how they required a student to take extra boost immunization… the list goes on… So, your solution is to call the school. They will clarify.

While you are in the FB group, ask people for the “Rate your professor” file. If possible, avoid the mean ones. I have the link but I think it should only be shared among the students. Your life is already hard enough as is, avoid as much as possible if there is away. Some professors can be very nitpicking on papers especially APA format and deduct points. It could lead to pass or fail because of that a few points cut out from the NR511. *As of Jan 2020, you no longer have choice of instructor. But I heard from some that they were able to pick or change. So, I guess it depends on who you talk to.

How to get full credit on the discussion?
I have not gotten points off from the discussion to this date. Of course, you need to stick to the rubric. But from my point of view, many people miss their points because they miss mentioning the details. These instructors have been teaching similar or the same classes for years. They know all the details that they are looking for in a discussion posting. As long as you do not miss little details, you won’t miss a point. Here is how I do it.
When I read discussion instruction, I highlight what seems to be important to mention.
I copy and paste the discussion instruction on a Word. As I read, I highlight in red what I would mention in a discussion. This way, I do not forget what I need to address while writing a discussion.

References
You will be heavily graded on APA starting from NR509. You may not lose a point from the contents but you would be surprised how much points you could lose from the reference section. I am listing a few that you will come across.

How to reference Epocrates
Lovastatin. (2019). In Epocrates Essentials for Apple iOS (Version 12.1.2) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://www.epocrates.com/mobile/iphone/essentials

Bicillin L-A. (2010). In Epocrates Medical Reference App (Version 19.1) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from: https://www.epocrates.com

How to reference Chamberlain Competency
Thomas, A., Crabtree, M. K., Delaney, K., Dumas, M. A., Kleinpell, R., Marfell, J., … Wolf, A. (2017). Nurse practitioner core competencies content. Retrieved from https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.nonpf.org/resource/resmgr/competencies/2017_NPCoreComps_with_Curric.pdf

How to reference Hollier Clinical Guidelines book
Hollier, A (2018). Clinical guidelines in primary care (3rd ed.) Advanced Practice Education Associates

Can you get CEUs credit for renewing RN license? Yes! Every state is different but at least for CA (where I live), you get 15 CEUs for 1 unit/semester. (1 quarter unit = 10 CEUs) So a 3 unit class would be 45 ECUs. You can check detail from RN.CA.GOV.

What is the difference between ANCC vs AANP?
Take a look at this video!

Another part to consider for ANCC vs AANP.

To be continued…

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