Post MSN Psych Mental Health NP Certificate Program Online Information Session

OK, all right, we are live.

I see some folks coming in. Welcome everyone.

Yep, I see some more names. We're going to give it just a second and give some folks some time to log in.

And then we will get started.

And Cecilia, just to let you know that when you were just talking, there was a great deal of distortion. I'm not sure if it's because we've allowed the participants in yet or not, but just giving you a heads up on that you could hear you. It's just sound like you were talking in a barrel, not sure if it's because others aren't muted yet or not.

OK, let me try something.

What about now? Is that better?

Much better. Not happening now. Whatever you did, fix it.

OK, cool.

Basically an IT professional at this point.

OK. All right. OK. So we are going to go ahead and get started. This is the information session for the Postmasters Psych, Mental Health and P program here at University of Cincinnati. My name is Cecilia. I am an enrollment services advisor. I work with this program. I work with a lot of our other graduate level nursing programs at the College of Nursing as well.

I do see some familiar names in the chat, so that's exciting. I know I'm working with a few of you, so hello.

I do want to bring attention to the chat function here. Any questions you guys have as we're kind of moving through the information, feel free to drop those there and I'll kind of be monitoring it and and answering those as we go.

We will, We probably will answer some questions just kind of as we're moving through things, but anything specific that you're wondering about definitely drop it there in the chat. We are also going to have AQ and A at the end with Doctor Tyson who's joining me here today, who's the program director for the Postmasters PMH and P program.

So you guys will have the opportunity to ask him any questions or anything you're wondering about the program?

So, so let's go ahead and get started. So first just a little bit about the College of Nursing in general. I do want to go through our vision, our mission and our core values. So our vision through creative leveraging of technology, the College of Nursing will lead the transformation of healthcare and partnership informed by the people we serve, which is you guys are students and the population as we're training you. Our mission of course is to develop nurse leaders who are empowered to generate, explore and apply nursing knowledge for evolving healthcare environments. So we want to make sure that you are all set and good to go to practice independently as a PMHNP after you graduate.

And our core values are collaboration, accountability, integrity, respects and excellence. So these are just kind of some of the things that we keep in mind that inform the work that that we do at the College of Nursing and the way that we interact with you guys too.

So if you kind of did you know about the College of Nursing. So we do have the, we were the first in the nation to offer ABSN degree. So we definitely like to brag a little bit about that one. So by default we have the oldest BSN degree in the nation. So we were you know kind of the the first. We have been providing graduate level online learning since 2007. So that's quite a long time. So we're very well tenured in the online learning space and we've had a lot of opportunity to figure out what works for our students.

How best to educate you in a distance format? 84% of the College of Nursing students do attend their program online. So even those folks who are local to Cincinnati who are you know, minutes away from from the college, they still attend their program online. We know that you guys are working full time and you have busy schedules and you know things like that. So we're happy that we can offer a lot of our programming online and all of our full time faculty are certified in the specialty in which they teach. So your faculty have a wealth of practical knowledge that they can share with you in the classroom.

They are. They're still out there, you know, doing these things and kind of keeping up with healthcare and how it's always changing.

So some layers of support, This is definitely something that I, I want to go over and a lot of times students, you know are wondering, you know how is the university going to help me through this program, You know what resources are there for me so that I can be successful and I'll and I'll go over them. So first you have your enrollment services advisor, that's me. It could be one of the one of my colleagues, but we are here to kind of help you on the front end. So we answer, you know, a lot of those questions that come up as you're choosing a program and getting ready to apply.

Will help you with the application process.

Help you, you know, with the application requirements, just kind of going over some of those things that come up in the beginning and then.

We also have your student success coordinator, so these are the folks who will serve as an advisor for you throughout the program, so they'll check in with you a couple of times throughout the semester. Just make sure you've got what you need, that things are going OK. If you need a resource at the university and you're not sure where to go, they're a good, you know, kind of person to reach out to. They can get you connected with the right folks. They'll help you with registration each semester, help you figure out what classes you're taking, things like that.

You also have your clinical site coordinator, so they're there to answer questions about anything clinical, so.

There's like paperwork that you and your preceptor will do and I'm sure that some of you are familiar with you know kind of some of the the clinical processes from your MSN programs. But they're they're there to answer any questions, help you get settled with your clinical sites. They're there to you know kind of support you throughout the the clinical rotations that you'll do as part of the program. You also have your program director who's joining us here tonight, Doctor Tyson, your program directors are always responsive and engaged.

They're always, you know, a good resource for you. They're a good resource for me as I'm helping you guys through the program and they're a good resource for your student success coordinator, so program directors are really highly involved with.

The process every step of the way. And then you'll also have your faculty. So these are the folks who are teaching your individual classes that you'll be taking.

They are also engaged with you guys. We always want you to feel like you can reach out. You can always e-mail your faculty you know. If you need that support, you can set up an appointment to meet with them. A lot of your faculty will hold like virtual office hours, so we always want you to feel like you are connected with your faculty and that you can reach out for that support in the classroom as well.

And then another thing too that we have is specific financial aid support staff for our online students. So you guys are a bit different because you can't just go to the Bursar's office, right, if you if you have a question. So we do have specific financial aid support staff set up for for you guys, for our distance learners.

I do want to go over our pass rates. So these were our pass rates for 2022 and these are folks who passed their board certification exams on the first try. So 96% is really, really high. We're really proud of this number and our numbers for these pass rates are always consistently high. So once you graduate the program, you do go into that exam very well prepared to take it, you know to pass it the first time to do well on the test and then of course go on to practice as a PMHMP. That's why you guys are here.

So I do want to introduce Doctor Tyson. He is the program director for the Postmasters PMHMP program. He's joining us here tonight. Thank you for your time, if you want to go ahead and kind of give us some information and more about your background.

Thank you so much. Cecilia, can you hear me OK?

I can hear you, yeah.

Can you hear me, Cecilia? OK.

One time I I gave half a lecture and and none of the students would speak up that they couldn't hear me. They were like, I guess intimidated or something and I have no idea why. So it's great that all of you guys are here tonight. Thank you so very much for being here. We are just delighted and honored and very pleased to learn of your express interest in the PMHMP program here at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing. Again, my name is Doctor Lee Tyson.

You see a bunch of letters after my name there. That doesn't mean necessarily a whole lot. Other than like you, we all are working really hard to get to the places that we want to go. So I am duly certified as a PMHMP as well as an adult nurse practitioner.

I also am a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Fellow in the Association of Nurse Practitioners, and a Fellow in the International Association of Addictions Nursing.

So a few things else about me. I own and operate a growing psychiatric nurse practitioner practice, one of the largest in the southwest Ohio area. And by the way, I am always looking to hire very good and competent and willing to learn nurse practitioners, even new graduates, especially ones who come out of our program because I know that they've had a good education. I work as a hospitalist at a facility.

In Dayton, OH as well, where I work on a gyro psych unit as well as a dual diagnosis unit. And and of course it's my honor to serve as an associate professor and the program director here at the College of Nursing. I bet at UC about 12 years now and I've been in the program director role almost six years at this point, had no intent ever of going into academia.

It's one of those things that just kind of fell into my lap, but I embraced it and it's been really good to me, probably better for me than I've been to it. But you will be the judge of that, I'm sure. So let's move on to the next slide. Cecilia, please.

I want to tell you a little bit about our program, but I I want to start first of all by saying, piggybacking on some things that Cecilia already said, what makes you see really cool and really different and just an outstanding.

Institution or our faculty? Each of our faculty is credentialed as a PMHMP and none of us are residing in this academic ivory tower.

Looking down on everyone and telling you this is how you do, OK, we are there in the trenches with you and just like me, all of your faculty are out in the highways and byways of clinical life and seeing patients and putting into practice.

Things that we are also teaching you, our faculty.

I really, I'm sure all schools say this, but I can say with full set of confidence that our faculty want to see you be successful. We want you, if you start this program, to complete the program. And if you don't complete the program, then we feel like we're partly responsible for that. And so your success is our success. I know that I've had my fair share of instructors over the years.

And and it's like you know ZAP, I gotcha you know and and so you always feel like you're.

You're the people are out to find you, catch you doing something wrong, and we're all about catching you doing something right. And so your success is our success. And so we are, as Cecilia said, highly invested in you.

And your completion of the program, the other thing that I will say to piggyback on what Cecilia shared is while our graduate programs have a A pass rate, first time pass rate of 96%.

Particular program, it's above 98%, just above 98%. And so we are helping to bring that average up a little bit. We're very proud of that. One of the things that would be to your advantage by coming to this program is that I as the program director, I serve as and have for a number of years now as the chair of the ANC CP/M HMP certification exam. And so I am responsible for approving all the test questions.

And not to the extent that we can teach to the exam. We do not do that at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing. We teach you how to be a good nurse practitioner. But it is good, I think, to have someone at the helm that knows what is expected of you in order for you to be able to be successful on the first time once you graduate from our program. So what you're looking at tonight is our postmasters.

Version of being able to take your ANCC certification exam so the graduates of the PMHMP and P program for Individuals and Families. It is designed to develop a diagnosis and then implement and monitor a plan of care. In short, really what psych MPs do. If you're not super familiar, we pretty much do most everything that psychiatrists do, but rather than do it from the discipline of nursing.

The discipline of medicine, we are doing it from the discipline of nurses and always remembering that we are nurses first. And so there is that holistic care, that ministry of presence, that bedside demeanor that means so much to the clients and to the patients that we serve. And so upon graduation from the program and successful passing of your exam and state licensure, you can work like me in an outpatient setting, you can work in a federally health qualified.

Federally qualified Health Center. You could work in incarceration, correction, correctional facilities. You could work in a school.

You could work as an inpatient hospitalist, though I would not recommend that be your very first job right off the bat.

You can work in primary care places where they have a lot of psychiatric needs and you might be embedded there. You can go out and you can do like I did and you can hang your own shingle at some point, depending on which state that you reside in. And so really there there's carp launch recently.

I forget what magazine published this, but nurse practitioners the number one?

Occupation Career path for folks these days. It's very rewarding. I will say that psych NPS are extremely generously compensated in most states. That's not the case everywhere, but we are running neck and neck with anesthesia these days. As to who gets compensated more generously, there is still a shortage of psych NPS out there. There is still a dearth of mental health care.

Especially in rural areas and especially in states.

Out West, OK, graduates of the program are eligible to sit for the ANCC certification exam that I've been referring to. And we want you not only to pass it, but we want you to pass it on the very first time. One, it helps you to get into your career path a lot faster. And two, selfishly it it continues to make our program allow us to be able to boast about having a very high pass rate and.

You would have excellent faculty here.

Who know how to help you become successful. The program more generally is designed for RNS and aprons who have a minimum of a Master's degree. Of course you can have ADNP as well or even a PhD, but a minimum minimal degree of a Master of Science and Nursing? That can be as a Family Nurse Practitioner or Adult Nurse practitioner. It could be in Women's Health.

Midwifery, it could be an MSN in leadership, it could be an MSN just like that was in an accelerated program and it's an entry level position for you. That too is acceptable as long as it is an MSN. And one of the expectations and things that that we prefer in our program is that you have at least one year's RN level experience in the discipline of psychiatry.

This program is customized based upon the applicant's previous educational experience.

And so know that as we look at your schema, as we look at admissions, we look at everything really from a 360 view and a holistic perspective. And so not there's not one size that fits every student. And so your schema, your program would be uniquely tailored to you. Another really nice thing about this program, it is 100% online, there are no.

Requirements of a physical presence at all. During your tenure as a student, there are all the courses are offered in an online format, asynchronous format, with the exception of a two day virtual intensive and and this two day virtual intensive. While you might be like, Oh my gosh, I've got to be present two days virtually for a bunch of lectures and so on seminars and so forth, that is one of the things that really makes our program unique and if there is any, universal.

Highly praiseworthy.

Feedback that we get it is from our two day intensives we we get glowing evaluations and comments on that aspect of our program. So it's it's a really cool thing.

Cecilia, you want to move on to the next slide?

Some prerequisites for our program, we already talked about one of them. We want to make sure that you have an MSN degree. And again, it can really be in any area, even a generalist area. You may have to take an extra course or two depending on where you're from, but as long as you have that MSN, it does not have to be clinical. Students also need to have completed a statistics course with a grade of AC or better.

Most MSNS are going to have required you to have that before you graduate with an MSN, so I'm usually.

This is usually just something that has already happened for most of you. Students must also have completed their BSN and MSN degree at a regionally credentialed nursing credited institution such as CC and E National League for Nurses or a CEN with a cumulative GPA of three-point O or higher. And I will also say it says here.

Slight correction Students must also have completed their BSN and MSN.

Some of you may come to this program and not have a BSN because there are now, as I was alluding to earlier, accelerated programs. If you've got a bachelor's degree in another discipline and you go, when you go back to school and you do an accelerated program, many accelerated programs will now graduate you with an MSN. And so you don't technically have absent. So again, you don't have to have ABSN. What you have to have though is an MSN and and as I already shared students, we want them to have at least one year of our inexperience.

In the discipline of psychiatry.

Next slide. And the other thing that is maybe a little bit complicated and it's some newer expectations by ANCC or what we call the three PS and the three PS are required courses in order for you to be able to.

Sit for the ANCC exam and actually able to commence your studies in our program or at least the psych specific portion of it. So the three PS are advanced Physiology slash Pathophysiology. So the peas we get from Physiology, pathophysics and advanced physical, there's the P there health assessment.

That's the second P And the third P is advanced pharmacology. And all of these courses per ANCC, they have to be a standalone course. They cannot be combined with another course. We have some schools that do that. ANCC will not accept it. They have to be taught because the PMH and P certification exam is across the lifespan. Each of these have to be taught across the lifespan. So for example, if you're an F, you're.

An adult null nurse practitioner.

And your advanced pharmacology or your advanced health assessment was specific for adults. You would need to actually go back and take those peas again because it wasn't across the lifespan, OK. So ANCC is very personicity about that and I get that. So one of the things that if you should apply for this program that I would do as part of your admissions.

Committee, I would highly vet and scrutinize your three PS so to make sure that when you complete this program.

They're actually eligible to sit for the ANC certification exam, OK, and you can see some of the other bullet points there for the required three PS.

Please note as well I'm just going to read these a couple of bullet points to you. These courses, they have to be passed with AB or better OK, no B minuses, no CS even though that might have been passing at your institution. Again, want to reemphasize, they have to be taken across the lifespan from the perspective of advanced practice nurse.

OK. And again, they've got to be independent courses.

And as I've already said, they can't be combined. All right. And if if you need any of the three PS, what we would do is front load your schema with those three PS. You could take them one at a time if you want, or you can take them all three at once if you need all three. Or you can take just whatever one you need, but it's but those must be completed before you commence your actual.

Postmaster's program at UC OK, so next slide.

Alright, and I think this is where I'm gonna be still for a while.

Yes. So I am going to go over the admissions process, the application process. I'll go over some tuition and fees. We'll talk a little bit about clinicals. I do just want to bring attention to the chat. If you guys have any questions or anything, feel free to to drop this there. I am keeping an eye on that as well on my end.

So for the admissions process, your application is completed through a system called nursing cast, which is it's like an application service. A lot of different schools will use it to manage their applications and we do.

So everything is housed in nursing cast for you?

So you will have First, you'll start with your official transcripts from any institution that you attended. So a good rule of thumb is that if you received a grade, you should report it as part of your academic history and order those transcripts. It might have been maybe just a couple classes in your undergrad, maybe you transferred those out somewhere. It might have been somewhere that you didn't actually graduate from. We do want those those reported in your nursing cast application, and we'll need those transcripts as well. That way we can accurately calculate your incoming GPA.

Another thing too about your transcripts that's a little bit weird. You don't actually send those to the University of Cincinnati, which I know is a little odd since you're applying to the University of Cincinnati. But you will have those sent directly to Nursing cast to the application service and then once they're received they will attach those to your application. We want a copy of your current nursing license. Doesn't have to be anything too official, could just be like a screenshot from your State Board of Nursing or from nurses. You will upload that into Nursing Cast.

Will also want to see a copy of your resume, so just make sure it's it's updated.

You can upload that there. The doctor Tyson, the the review committee, the review committee will review that as part of your professional development. And then there's also a goal statement that you'll write. So talking a little bit about, you know, why you're interested in becoming APMHMP, you know why now is is the right time for you to go back to school, demonstrating an understanding of of the specialty of, you know, what psych mental health MPs do on the day-to-day.

We will also want 3 letters of recommendation, so ideally.

Current supervisor, if you can. Anyone in the leadership positions or current or former supervisors, if you guys work with any psychiatrists or if you work with psych NPS, people who are kind of doing the work that you'll be doing after graduation. Those are always great references to have. And the way that this works in nursing cast is that you will input their contact information and then they will receive a link to the e-mail address that you provide for them. They can click on that link and they'll upload the letter for you. So you don't have to go and you know, gather those or anything like that. Nursing Castle handle that part for you.

And we do want you to have, as Doctor Tyson talked about your MSNI know there's there's a question in the chat.

That you went straight from the ADN to the MSN. That's totally fine. Some of our students coming in won't have ABSN. You could have had an accelerated MSN or you could have done a program where you do an ADN to MSN. That's totally fine. As long as you have your Masters of Science in nursing from a regionally and nursing accredited institution, you're good to go. And then we're looking for a cumulative 3 point O GPA coming into the program.

Another part about the Nursing CAS application is the coursework entry. So this is where you will enter in your classes as they appear on your transcript. So it would be, you know, Nursing 101, it was three credit hours. I got an A and you'll enter those for all of your classes. And I know at this level a lot of you guys have several degrees. You'll have lots of transcripts on your application, so this will take some time. You can always save and come back to it.

Nursing Cast does offer a professional transcript entry service where if this sounds like this is going to take me way too long, I don't. I don't feel like messing with this part. We get it. You can opt for the professional transcript entry. It is an additional call, so it's totally optional.

Just something to kind of keep in mind that students will opt for sometimes. It can save you some time.

And then once all of your you know your things are are input you've you've done what you can do on your end. You will submit your application in nursing cast. Normally there is a an $80.00 nursing cash application fee when you submit your application but we're actually offering application fee waiver codes it's like a coupon code you know if you're if you're online shopping we we are offering those for our applicants for the summer and the fall semesters right now.

So whenever you're ready to apply, reach out to your advisor and we can send you over one of those codes that can waive that that normal $80.00 nursing cast application fee. It can also help offset that cost a bit if you do opt for the professional transcript entry option. And then there's also normally a $20 secondary UC application fee, but that's actually waived for the entire 2024 school year. So very pleased about that. But definitely reach out to your advisor when you're ready to submit your application and we can provide you with one of those codes to waive that.

Cast application fee, but the admissions process is holistic. So we're looking at of course your GPA coming in, but we're also looking at you know what you know leaders in in your area have to say about you and their letters of recommendation for you. We're looking at your professional development with your resume and then also looking at your goal statement. You know, we want to know, you know why this is the program for you and and why you're interested in becoming APMHMP. So it's not just one thing like Doctor Tyson talked about earlier, it's a it's a holistic process.

So the application process, you'll complete the application through nursing cast which we talked about.

Mm-hmm.

Hey Cecilia, you've got a lot of echoes, at least I'm experiencing that. So I'm not sure if there's anything any corrective action, but it's it just started.

You.

Are the rest of you all experiencing that? Can you respond in the chat, or is it just me? If so, I apologize for interrupting.

You said there's some echo.

Yeah, I see somewhere.

One person saying lots of Echo and other people are saying I'm being rude and interrupting you, Cecilia, so you keep going.

OK. Give me one second guys.

OK. All right. Can everyone hear me OK?

A little echo but.

We can hear you, I think. I think it's not worthy to stop.

OK, OK. If it persists or if it gets bad or if no one can hear me, just just let me know or drop something in the chat. But yes, so the application process, you'll complete that through nursing cast. You can submit and you should submit your application. If you're waiting on transcripts or references to come in, sometimes these will take a few weeks. This is honestly the longest part about the application process is just kind of waiting on those things to come in. Once your application is submitted, your advisor can go in, we can see everything. We'll make sure that everything's coming in as it should.

Sometimes we can reach out with like a friendly reminder to your references if if they're taking a little long, just things like that, we'll make sure that we'll make sure that things are progressing and that we're not running into any delays.

Always monitoring the applications on our end as well.

Once your nursing cast application is submitted, we've got everything we need. It'll prompt you to log in and do the UC Graduate School application, which sounds scarier than it is really. You just have to log in, create a UC account with us, and then once your admissions decision is received, it'll live there and you can you can view it when it's ready.

Usually your admissions decision take one to three weeks, kind of depending on on where we're at in the semester.

Different times like midterms and and things like that, our faculty have a lot going on. So at busier points like that, sometimes it can take, you know, kind of closer to the three weeks. But we do try to get your admissions decision back to you as soon as possible. That way you can start planning for the upcoming semester.

So tuition and fees breakdown, So the cost per credit hour. I do kind of want to draw attention to the fact that the in state cost, per credit hour and the out of state cost are nearly the same. Some of you may have experienced if you're if you're looking into programming or even in your undergrad may have experienced this that sometimes that out of state tuition can be quite a bit more than the in state tuition, but ours is nearly the same. You can see there's a $15.00 credit hour per credit hour difference.

So we're happy that we're able to to offer it and for it to be accessible to our students outside of Ohio as well.

Another thing to to keep in mind with this program for our certificate programs is that they were not eligible for federal financial aid. So this means you can't file a FAFSA to to pay your tuition here.

For this for this program for certificate programs, students will usually pay their tuition by setting up a payment plan with the bursar's office. Your advisor can send you more specific information about this as well.

You can also look into a private student loan. So this would be like with your personal bank, a Sallie Mae loan, those types of things. Or you can look into tuition reimbursement through your employer. So these are really the common ways that our students will will fund their tuition without being able to file that FAFSA.

It's definitely something to keep in mind, you know as you kind of move forward with the with the application process, if you have specific questions again about the the payment plan or you know the.

Loans or tuition, things like that always reach out to your advisor and we can kind of go over things in more detail with with you. I know these things look a bit different for each student, so we're happy to kind of go through that with you on an individual basis. We also have the University to business scholarship program which we're really excited about.

If you again reach out to your advisor, we can double check and see if your employer is on there. If they're not, we're happy to kind of help you get the ball rolling there. Doesn't cost your employer anything to be a partner with us. You can also use that on top of any like tuition assistance or tuition remission or or anything that your employer will offer you.

But the students who are employed with our business partners do get an automatic tuition scholarship. So that's really exciting. But that's a little bit about your your tuition and fees. It'll look a bit different for you. If you need some of those prerequisites, those three PS that we were talking about earlier, that can change your tuition for the program. It'll change kind of the length of the program for you. So these things are again, you know, pretty individualized for for each student.

So here are the clinical requirements for the program. I know this is really, really small. The text is small, but we can send you over a copy of this if you'd like to have a look over at your advisor can send you one. But something that I want to bring attention to with with our clinicals, which I think is something that really makes our program strong, is that your first clinical rotation is done in psychotherapy. So for this first rotation, you're actually not even with a prescriber for this one because we want you to have that foundation of psychotherapy before you move on to.

Kind of synthesizing that with the with the prescribing portion of it. So for this first one you can be with a social worker, a counselor, a therapist, a psychologist, things like that because we really want you to have that strong foundation. And then in your second and third clinical rotations that's when you're working with a prescriber. So you'll be with a psych NP or with a psychiatrist for these two. But this is just a little bit about your, your clinicals and and how those are set up. Each clinical is 168 hours. So if you break that down weekly, it's about 12 hours a week.

Just if you split it up over the the time of the semester.

This might look a bit different for you. You could do more hours one week and unless the next really just, you know, whatever works for you and your preceptor, as long as you have 168 between the start and the finish of the semester, you're good to go. Another thing I want to bring up and and highlight is that 204 of your total clinical hours can be done in telehealth. This is a really popular option for our students even after graduation to go and work in telehealth. So we're excited that we can kind of offer you that experience while you're a student as well.

That's another thing where your clinical site coordinator will come in kind of helping you get those approved. That goes for all of your clinical preceptors, but you'll work very closely with them and with the faculty and with the program director for your clinicals.

We do have a few state restrictions. So there are seven states where we cannot accept students. You can't live in these States and matriculate with us. You can't be a student with us in these states, and you also can't complete any of your clinical rotations in these states. So those are Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. But if you were in any of the other states, you are good to go there.

So I do want to kind of open the floor. I know there's some questions in the chat and and I'll we'll get to those in a moment. Just for AQ and A with with Doctor Tyson if you guys have any any questions or anything that you're wondering about that you'd like to go over with Doctor Tyson, definitely drop those in the chat then I'll go ahead and and kind of go over some of these too. Do you have any tips for writing a good goal statement? Yes, so for the goal statement really I think what the the faculty are are looking for here.

Is demonstrating a clear understanding of the specialty. So you know, you'll want to make sure to touch on, you know that you that you understand what APMHMP does that that's the work that you are passionate about. It's the work that you want to do after graduation. Take your time writing your goal statement. You know, you'll want to make sure that it's that it's thoughtful. You know that it goes over, you know the things that that we're looking for. You'll want to talk about, you know, why you're prepared for the program and and why this is is the program for you and it's the work that you want to be doing.

When you are working in nursing Cast, when you go to upload your goal statement, there's also a prompt there which you can use as as kind of a jumping off point to get you started and as a way to sort of edit your goal statement and it'll highlight those specific points that that the faculty are looking for.

And then does Medsearch 7 years count as psych experience as an RN or just working in a psych practice as an NP count?

Doctor Tyson, do you want to kind of go over the like the the requirement for psych experience and kind of what you're what you're looking for there?

Yes, I'm just looking for that question again.

'Cause I'm still getting a little echo, so I'd like to be able to read it.

Can you make that? Oh, OK, I've got control of my own.

Can you, can you just say the question once more? I apologize.

Yeah, So does Med surg for seven years count as psych experience as an RN, or does working in a psych practice as an NP count?

Yes, let's put it this way, when you're a nurse and you're doing Med surg, you do psych every day, right? I mean that could definitely be argued, but if you've done seven years of Med surge that I I don't, I would not have any issue counting that as the minimum one year requirement.

And then, OK, so this is a good question. So I obtained my MSN in 2014. Is there a time limit on how old your your MSN can be for acceptance into the program?

Generally on on my end, I don't, I don't think so, especially if you've been working as a nurse since you you graduated. A lot of our students have been out of school for a little bit you know and have you know decided that they that they're ready to come back. So it's it's OK if you're MSN is a bit old.

If you have any, like, specific questions about those you know, the prerequisites or how that might, you know, affect those sorts of things, again, definitely reach out to your advisor. And we're happy to to kind of go over those sorts of things on a on a personal basis with you too.

As long as you have kept up with all of your.

Nursing continuing education credits, you should be fine.

Perfect.

OK, so I'm a graduate of the MSN Women's Health and UC Program. Hello alumni, Do I still need to send transcripts? Yes, So you do have to order your UC transcripts to be sent to Nursing Cast, which again, I know seems a bit weird because you're applying to UC, but it's actually Nursing Cast that is going to want a copy of those transcripts to attach to your application. So yes, you'll have a copy of your of your NP program from UC sent directly to Nursing cast.

Are these clinical hours offered only from 8:00 to 4:00, so like during business hours?

No, I don't, I don't think so. I think it's it's going to depend on you know where you're at for your for your clinical rotation for sure.

Doctor Tyson, do you want to like give some insight on the.

That's absolutely correct. I mean, if you're one of if you've got a psych nurse practitioner that's working the night shift and you want to have them precept too, that's perfectly fine. So it's whenever your preceptor is available and you are available at a mutual time.

So what do you think sets this program apart from other PMHMP programs? Also a very good question.

I do want to. This was way, way back in the beginning, but I do want to bring attention to the fact that we've been doing this for a very, very long time.

So when you go into the program, just know that we've had lots of time to figure out what works for our students, how best to educate you in a distance format. This is definitely not something that we're that we're new at. We've had lots of time to, you know, get the program, you know, buttoned up.

Another thing too is that your faculty are certified in the specialty that they teach in. Doctor Tyson mentioned earlier that they are in the trenches with you and that they're not in an academic ivory tower, which I think is is is great. I think you know that they are able to, you know, relate to you guys in that way.

Healthcare changes from day-to-day and they're aware of those changes because they are, they're in it with you. So I think that practical knowledge that the faculty bring is, is something to to highlight.

I know I talked about this too with the with the clinical rotations but I I think it's it's that's our program apart that we want to make sure that you can do therapy. So it's not just about prescribing you know we want to make sure that you have that that strong foundation of therapy before you go into your your clinical rotations or before you start the prescribing. So I think that's also something that that sets us apart and the conversations that I have with students it seems to be something that's really important to you guys to be able to do you know the listening and the the prescribing.

It's kind of a conversation that I've had on my end.

So those are some of the things that that I think set us apart Our our high pass rates 96% for our is, is our average for our program graduates which is really high which is really great. So you guys do you know go into that exam really well prepared to to take it and to pass the first time so that you can go on it and and practice as a psych MP.

Yeah. The other things that I would add is that you see is a very reputable school. We've been around a long time. We've been doing the online education thing and online teleeducation earning clinical hours, well years before COVID and and so this is old hat to us and owning A psychiatric practice where I preset lots of different students from different institutions.

Let let's just say there are a lot of what I call diploma mills out there.

Where they'll take your money and they'll give you a degree, and then you haven't really gotten a great education. Folks, I see this every day. I precept students from some of these other institutions, which shall remain nameless, and it's really gotten to the point where I will not.

I will not readily precept someone unless they come from a state school or from a legitimate parochial school. So.

You you get what you pay for. But the thing of it is at UC we're not incredibly expensive and you still get a really high, I would say superior product. So those are those are my thoughts in addition to everything else Cecilia has has shared.

So we do have a question. So a question about the intensives.

So, so that's correct. They did used to be in person.

But I know with with COVID, we made the decision to switch those to holding them virtually and we found that they were just as effective. They saved our students a lot of time, a lot of money traveling to to Cincinnati. So if we can offer it in a more accessible way and for it to still be effective and for you guys to get you know what you need out of those those clinical intensives.

Then I think that's always the better option. Doctor Tyson, do you want to talk a little bit about?

About that question, yeah. So it as Cecilia said, it always was in person. Students would descend across the nation. And honestly, that was like my favorite week of the semester. Stressful, but my favorite week of the semester because I got to meet everybody in person and it was really, really cool.

And then COVID happened and so we had to like, you know, be innovative and and then we were, we're really good at it and this thing really went off without a hitch and apart from being able to have a physical ministry of presence with each other.

You know, it just made it so much more efficient and economical and easier. And so we continued the virtual format and we get no complaints about it. So it is virtual, but it is all day for two days in a row. It's always the 6th week, the 6th week, that Wednesday and Thursday of each of the first semester of the program. You don't do it every semester, It's just your first semester when you actually start taking.

This the designated scheme.

Not the three piece, but when you're actually in the program week 6.

And it's required.

So I want to kind of jump ahead just a little bit. I took statistics about five to six years ago. Will that be considered that? That's fine. As long as you've taken a stats class before you come here, you're good to go. Doctor Tyson mentioned that almost every MSN program is going to require that you've taken bio stats.

So most of our students will have this and and it's it's OK if it's a bit old, that's fine.

Tell me more about the telehealth clinical option.

So up to 204 of your clinical hours, 204 of the 504 can be completed in telehealth. I do know that it's a it's a popular option for our students. Doctor Tyson, can you talk more about the the telehealth and how that works?

Yes. And Cecilia, that actually has changed. There's been and that's something I should have caught in this presentation before We're doing this live, live sharing, but you can actually do all of your hours remotely now. It's certainly not preferred, but we had a telehealth policy that was written before COVID and so we had that 204 hour rule. But it's just in today's world, COVID has changed everything. It's just not.

Realistic and it's not fair to enforce that upon students and the whole industry has changed other schools and not just diploma mill schools but very reputable schools And so it's just been a national trend. I I kind of grit my teeth a little bit when a student is graduating from our program and and it's been all telehealth again that's not what we want but it is something that in certain circumstances that can be approved.

Um, so one of the ways that we ensure that you get that across the lifespan education as we've already shared, is you got 100 hours minimum in each of the three H demographic speeds and adults and gyros. So, but yeah, it used to be that you had to have 100 hours in each of those different populations in person and then anything beyond that could be tell out. Now it can all be telehealth.

Another thing that to go back to the other question, like what makes us stand apart, we are one of the few programs in the nation that has an entire clinical that is devoted exclusively to psychotherapy instead of just medication management. And so that's another thing that really kind of puts a feather in our hat. Again, some students don't like it because they're like Oh my gosh, I don't want to do psychotherapy, but that is one of the that is one of the premier things that psych NPS do. We are one of those credentials that are.

Allowed and.

Prepared for and certified to do psychotherapy, just like a licensed independent social worker or a psychologist or marriage and family therapist. We can do all of that with your licensure. And there are a lot of programs that are graduating of folks and they really haven't. Students really haven't gotten the education in that particular arena that the student deserves and more importantly the the patients and clients deserve that the that the students.

And their clinician role will one day serve.

An offer?

So we have a question on U CS website about the accreditation.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure why it would say anything about.

Yeah I can, I can, I can speak to that. We are fully certified. What we are doing right now is and we get certification from CCNE and ACCN and all of those we're we're certified different undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate departments all are are fully certified but that happens every 10 years. And so what's happening right now we're at the end of our 10 year mark and and only the really good schools get 10 year certification. The rest get like you know.

2-3 or up to five?

But if we've been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, so we get 10 years. So we're changing to a new credentialing body called the National League for Nurses. And so we're jumping through those hoops right now.

Fully certified under our old regime, but we're transitioning and so this is one of our transition years and so that's that's what that's alluding to. So no worries, everything is good and kosher.

OK, so this is also a good question, one that I get a lot. Is there any flexibility to the number of credits per term? Some of the courses have prerequisites, that's true. I'd like to take more credits per term if possible.

So the the prerequisite part I think is going to be the most difficult thing with kind of changing your schema. It's very flexible. A lot of our students want to take fewer classes per semester, which is a little more cut and dry.

Doctor Tyson, can you talk about like if if there's any way to shorten the program, can they complete it in any less than 4 semesters?

Yeah, it's it's really tough to shorten the program, and here's why. While it might be possible for you to load up on some didactics and to take more than you know what the schema actually requires.

It's going to take you at least really three semesters even because really, honestly, there's really no way to shorten it. And I really think about it because.

You're you're Practica experiences, your internships, your clinicals. In other words, they have to be done in sequence. You can't take clinical 1-2 and three all at the same time 'cause they they build on each other.

And so that's three semesters right there. And then to boot, you can't start your first clinical until you've had a previous semester in which you've had like psychopathological disorders across the lifespan and Psycho Advanced Psycho Farm. So really, 4 semesters is the shortest that you can do it now you can load up on front end, back end, in the middle with some didactics, but it's it's tough. It'd be tough to, I think, to pull that off.

Yeah. So I think, yeah, because of the prerequisites for semesters which is 16 months, that's the the quickest that you could complete the program, but just kind of speaking on flexibility in general.

The program is very flexible. I get the question more often. Can I take fewer credits per semester? And yes, you can, especially with a program like this which does not have federal financial aid.

Taking fewer classes, sometimes students will opt for that. It can make those payment plans a bit affordable.

So the program in general is, is very flexible. You just have to kind of work within the confines of those prerequisites and your clinical rotations of course.

So yes, so the application fee waiver for nursing cast, so when your application is ready to submit, so that means you've done everything, it's OK. Again like like I mentioned if you're waiting on your transcripts or references to come in, those will those will take some time.

Reach out to your advisor. It might be me. It could be one of my teammates, Joni, Megan, Katie, Christy. Just reach out to whomever you've been working with. You probably have heard from us if you search your inbox for University of Cincinnati.

We'd love to reach out to you guys and talk to you, but let us know and we can send you over one of the application fee waiver codes. We do have a limited number of those. So it's always better to kind of submit, you know, sooner if you can, just to make sure that that we can give you one of those. We definitely want you, we want to send you one. It'll waive the normal $80.00 nursing cash application fee. So yeah, just let us know. We're going to ask to see a screenshot of your application showing that all of your applications are or all of your requirements are complete.

Just because again, those those are in limited supply, so we want to make sure that we're giving them out to students who are ready to apply. So we'll just ask to see a screenshot and then once we've got that, we can send you over one of the codes.

Do I set up my own clinical, So yes, students do secure their own clinical preceptors. We always encourage you to start putting out feelers in your professional network early. It is never too early to start. You know kind of putting out feelers and you know seeing what's out there. You guys are definitely the experts on clinical opportunities in your area. You definitely are more aware of those things than we would be. I do want to highlight though your clinical.

Site coordinator and kind of your your clinical support that you that you have.

We do keep a database of clinical sites and preceptors that have worked with us in the past so they can provide that information to you which can help you, you know, kind of have a jumping off point, can help you make some of those connections in your area. So while students do set up their their own clinicals, you're definitely not in it alone. You know you've kind of got someone you know in your in your corner kind of rooting for you, you know there to to answer those questions and assist however we can.

Let's see. OK, Oh, this is a very good question.

So let's see.

So it's a question about.

The so the difference between the certificate option and the DNP option.

And if you can, front load your psych NP classes at the beginning.

I can talk a little bit about this.

There is the option if you guys already have your MSN and you want to do the DNP you can do You can Co enroll in the post MSN site certificate.

And the post MSN TNP, we don't actually have like one that's combined, but you can enroll in both and and get both of them at the same time and you can front load your psych NP classes. So you can take those you know kind of at the at the beginning of your program. And then once all of those are complete, you can go ahead and sit for your board. So you could potentially still be finishing up your DNP, but as long as you have all of the required psych classes, you're good to go to sit for those boards and you can start practicing even while you're finishing up the the DNP portion of the program.

If you already have an MSN doing this Co enroll option is the better option versus doing the full Psych DNP which you might have seen on the on the website. But for for folks like you guys who already have an MSN, the Co enroll is the better option.

Another thing too, that students kind of take into consideration if they if they want to enroll and and do the DNP and the certificate together, is that as long as you're taking one DNP class per semester, you can use financial aid.

And so you can kind of utilize those funding you know opportunities that are unique to DNP students that you don't necessarily get if you only do the certificate. So that's something to that students will will look into is the the financial aid aspect of it. It's a good option if if getting your DMP is eventually something that you that you want to do.

That's that is kind of a very specific and unique question. We've got some more resources that we can send over to you if you guys are interested in doing the Co enroll option and we can also get you connected with the right folks at the the college for the DNP portion of things.

So do you have a list of approved preceptors that you can mail us?

So we can't share that information to students who are not in our program. But once you apply and once you are admitted into the program and you know you're kind of you're started with us, that's when when we can get you connected with your your clinical site coordinator and they can provide that information to you once you're once you're in the program.

Last time it took some time to set up the agreement with clinical sites. It will, it can. There's a lot of paperwork and things that we have to do on our end and that your clinical site has to do. But that's why we will get you connected with your clinical site coordinator early to kind of start that that process. It will take some time.

Is the DNP program rolling admission or is the application due in the summer? So admittedly my knowledge on the DNP is very limited. My specialty is our MSN and our certificate programs. I do know that the DNP only starts in the spring and the fall. It does not have a summer start like this program does.

And and it's actually only in the fall is my understanding and we only admit students starting in the fall, so.

OK, again, very, very limited take, take what I say with a with a grain of salt, but this program does have the three start dates per year.

The the DNP definitely check. Check online at the College of Nursing on the on the website and you can read more about the the DNP specific requirements and if the Co enroll option is something that you're interested in, let your advisor know we can send over some additional resources and get connected with the right people.

Is the is the certification alone an option? Yes.

At less than 16 months.

So this the the program that we've been going over is just the certificate alone that's for students who already have their MSN and they are looking to become certified as a as a psych NP. So the certificate is a good option for those students who you know that's that's what you're looking for. It's very utilitarian. You know we'll we'll give you the the credits that you need so that you can sit for the boards.

16 months is the minimum due to your prerequisites. There's some classes that you have to take before you can move into your clinical rotations, and your clinical rotations themselves are are necessarily 3 semesters. So you're looking at 4 semesters minimum for the program, which is 16 months.

And it sounds like there's a few folks who are are looking for the dual enroll option in the DNP program, which it's a great option for students who who want to get their DNP eventually anyway.

Definitely reach out to your your advisor and we can we can help you with that. It's a kind of it's kind of sticky doing the the Co enrollment but we're happy to kind of help you guys through that that process.

OK, alright. Well, I think we, we went through all of our questions. Any other questions that I can go over or anything else for me or for Doctor Tyson?

OK, so so it sounds like too, there's there's some questions and I'm gonna go over our contact information like the the general kind of inbox that you guys can reach out to if you're not sure who your advisor is. I'll go over that with you in just a moment.

So 4 next steps. So right now we are accepting applications for the Summer 2024 semester and the Fall 2024 semester. Summer will start May 6th, Fall starts August 26th.

The application deadline for the summer semester is March 15th, so.

This is all of the things that you can control and all of the things that you can do on your end in nursing cast. So that's your resume, your personal statement, your RN license, the name and contact information for at least three recommendations for you. Again, those will take some time to come in, so it's OK if we're still waiting on some of those, you know on the on the front end.

We'll want you to report your academic history again. Anywhere that you've attended, anywhere that you've received a grade, even if it was a long time ago, even if it was in your undergrad.

Will require that you complete the coursework entry yourself, or if you opt in for the Professional Transcript entry option, either one of those.

And then once all of those are complete.

We can provide you the application fee waiver code and you can submit your nursing cast application at that time. By April 1st is when we're going to want all of those other things to come in. So those are your your letters of recommendation, your transcripts, it's OK. We do have some additional time after that March 15th deadline to allow for those additional materials to come in.

So once we we have everything, we will send it over to to Doctor Tyson for him to review and then we'll get your admissions decision back to you usually within about two weeks.

OK, so this is the general contact information. So this is our office of student Recruitment. Our phone number is there, you can call us. You can also e-mail us here. This is our general inbox and we'll get you connected with your advisor. Again, it sounds like there's some some follow up questions and kind of some resources that we can send to you guys. So definitely reach out to us here and then we'll be happy to get that information over to you.

But that that is all for tonight. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Thank you Doctor Tyson for joining us tonight and all of your insight, it's always so helpful.

Be on the lookout for an e-mail with this link to the recording so that you can re watch anything that you might have missed or anything like that. I know there was like some audio issues, usually those are fixed in that recording so if you missed anything due to some technical issues that should be fine when it comes through. But yes just be on the lookout for a link and we look forward to chatting with you guys after and helping you with your application.

Good night everyone.