Cathryn Smith
04:58:35 PM
Welcome and thanks for taking time out of your evening to join us for the Women's Health NP Information Session! We will get started shortly.
Welcome everyone to the Women's Health Nurse Practitioner Information Session this evening.
Thank you all for taking time out of your evening to to learn about our program with us.
I'll give it just another minute or so for folks to get logged on and then we'll go ahead and get started.
While we're giving it another minute or so, I'll go ahead and introduce myself. My name is Katie Smith and I am an enrollment service advisor here at the University of Cincinnati.
I have been employed here for five years and I have over 13 years of higher education experience under my belt.
And presenting with me is Heather McCracken.
Kaneshia R.
05:01:57 PM
Hello
So we'll kind of spend some time going over our program this evening. There is an opportunity at the very end of the presentation for question and answer. If you do think of anything, any questions as we're going through the presentation, feel free to put them in the questions tab and we will certainly get to those as as quickly as we can.
So just a little bit of quick information about the College of Nursing here at the University of Cincinnati, we believe that.
Leveraging technology here at the university is going to help transform healthcare partnerships.
As we educate our the patients that that that we deal with.
Our mission is to develop nurse leaders who are empowered to generate.
And take that knowledge that they've learned with us here at the university.
Into the healthcare system.
We believe that collaboration, accountability, integrity, respect and excellence.
Help to make our students a more well-rounded individual here at the university.
Couple of fun facts about the University of Cincinnati. We are actually the first in the nation to offer a full Bachelors of Science and Nursing degree.
Fun little factoid there. I believe it was 1916.
As a whole, the College of Nursing has been providing online graduate nursing programs since 2007.
And just about 84% of nursing students attend a program online here at the university.
All of our full time faculty are also certified in which in the specialty in which they teach. So these are individuals who are not only teaching but they do practice at least one day a week in a clinical setting as well.
Our online students have multiple layers of support and I do like to make sure that students are aware of this kind of upfront.
So you'll have me or one of my colleagues, our enrollment service advisors. Our job is to educate you about our program, help determine if UC is a good fit for you.
We will also walk you through and get you through the nursing cast application, which is it's a big one, it's it's grad school, so it's an arduous application.
You'll have a student success coordinator.
That is, someone who will work with you from the time that you've been admitted to the university until you walk across that stage at graduation. So if you ever need to make an adjustment to your student curriculum or your your student schema, your plan.
Maybe you know you're expecting an infant or adopting, or maybe you need to care for a sick family member and you need to take a semester off for, you know, any particular reason that Student Success Coordinator will work in tandem with faculty to get that academic plan of yours readjusted?
Clinical Site Coordinator is an individual here at the university who can assist with clinical placement.
We do encourage our students to first try to utilize.
That professional network of yours before kind of tapping into the clinical site coordinator.
But they are here as an extra layer of support to offer some assistance with that.
You'll have your program director as an as a resource as well. Professor Moss, who is the Program Director for the Women's Health Program. She is currently on sabbatical.
So there there will be a slew of other individuals who can also kind of step in and help out if needed. And of course, your faculty. So you know, our our mission here is to ensure that we are setting our students up for success.
And we want to do whatever we can to help you earn that success and and complete the program and set you up.
You know, to be comfortable and ready to sit for that NCC board certification examination.
Our students will also have a designated financial aid support staff here at the university strictly dedicated to the online student population. So we do have many, many resources and and this is just a little sampling of it.
So just know that as an online student, you do have many resources here at the university at your fingertips as well.
As I stated just a minute ago, Professor Tamara Moss is on sabbatical and presenting with me this evening is Heather McCracken. So I'll turn it over to you to give a quick introduction of yourself.
OK. Now I can hear you, Yes.
Melissa F.
05:07:20 PM
I'm having trouble getting my video/audio to work, but I am listening :) thank you
Melanie J.
05:07:21 PM
Hello all
Very good. Very good. Well, thank you for joining us this evening. And my name is Heather McCracken, and I'm one of the faculty that is teaching in the Women's Health Program here at University of Cincinnati. So I became a nurse practitioner in 1997. So, wow, that makes me older than I want to admit. But I've been doing this a really long time.
And I've seen healthcare change a lot in that time, as you can imagine.
As many of you probably have, Healthcare is always changing and nursing you know continues to step up to the plate and and.
Cathryn Smith
05:07:59 PM
@Melissa, the only video that will work is just the two presenters.
Help move things along, so I'm excited to be in this role.
Jessie G.
05:08:03 PM
Hello everyone! Thanks for hosting!
In education now as well, so I've been teaching here at University of Cincinnati.
I think this is my fifth academic year.
So love working with the other faculty with Professor Moss.
And so excited to you know answer any questions that you have tonight. So as far as working as a Women's Health nurse practitioner, I had worked Med Surg and Labor and Delivery prior to becoming an A Women's Health nurse practitioner.
And then, as a nurse practitioner, I've worked in private practice.
In OB GYN I've worked in.
Hospital based clinic settings in academic health.
You know, that's kind of been the most of it, but different practices over that amount of time. So there's a lot of opportunity that's really evolved over the years. So that's exciting. There's a lot more.
Jayshreeben T.
05:09:15 PM
Hello
Melissa F.
05:09:16 PM
thank you
Alicia B.
05:09:17 PM
Hello everyone!
Diverse, you know, kind of locations that you can work. We're starting to see Women's Health nurse practitioners work in patient as well.
You know, in maybe labor and deliveries working postpartum.
Triage, things like that. So it's constantly evolving and I know we'll probably talk about all that in a minute, so.
Anyway, I'm Heather McCracken. And should you join us, you know, here at University of Cincinnati and the Women's Health Program, we'd be really excited to welcome you. And I would be one of your faculty that you would have And then again as.
All of the faculty that you will have for the Women's Health courses are in fact nurse practitioners with that specialty experience, so.
Wonderful. Thank you for that.
So just kind of some quick facts about the Women's Health program and then I'll turn this over to Heather for a little bit. So the Women's Health program is designed for students who have a Bachelors of Science and Nursing with at least one year of RN work experience under your belt. Unfortunately clinical experience for your BSN doesn't necessarily, it is not considered, you know, full work experience. So we want to see that work experience.
After you've taken your NCLEX.
The program ultimately, you know, it's designed to prepare students to diagnose and manage common and even some complex medical conditions in in female patients.
Heather, I believe there they'll be licensed to work with patients aged 13 and up. Is that correct?
Yes, yeah, from puberty on, yeah.
Depending on when that occurs.
And again, upon completion of the program, you will be prepared and eligible to sit for the NCC Board certification for the Women's Health Nurse Practitioner.
On average, we typically range between a 94 to a 100% board certification pass rate. So our students are really walking out of this program very well prepared to sit for the boards.
All of our all of our courses for the Women's Health Program, they are 100% online.
And they're also asynchronous, meaning there's no live lecture component on a on a weekly basis for the program.
We do have a one time I believe it's two day virtual intensive and that'll take place a little bit later in your program as you're getting ready to begin the.
Clinical for primary care of episodic illness in women. So it's a pretty unique intensive. We actually partner up with the nurse midwifery students as well.
And so both of those cohorts of students will will join that intensive and and there so there is a one time 2 day virtual intensive lecture series that students will have to attend but aside from that on a week to week basis.
There is no requirement for you to to sit in a in a virtual lecture, if you will.
So with that, I will turn it over to Heather for Whoops, wrong way. Hello for a little bit to kind of give you some more detailed information on the program.
Great. Thank you. Yeah. And and as you mentioned.
The asynchronous part is really nice for students as far as flexibility goes, and I do want to kind of bring up one of the nice parts of our program.
Is that we've been doing this for many, many, many years completely online. I know a lot of programs with COVID and all of that kind of began putting together.
Distance learning to be able to go fully online and we've actually, like I've said, I've been here 5 plus years.
And well before I came. So online education is really for this program.
Something that we've been doing for many, many years.
So you know, you can be assured, you know, I know technology is always exciting, but.
You can be assured that this is a process that we're very comfortable with and we've been doing for for a very long time. So I think that's definitely a benefit.
Because everybody's lives are busy and this does take a good amount of time for sure. So when you enter into the program, there's an option to go the full time or 6 terms or seven terms a little bit longer. And so really thinking about how you might be able to balance this out and say you choose you know six terms and then you get started in all the classes and it it comes back to you how much time it takes.
To do all of this and maybe you might be in a situation where you have a lot more responsibilities maybe than when you've been in school in the past or something like that. And so being able to balance this and then you can work with your student success coordinator and you know figure out the best schema for you. But being able to balance everything for sure is is always you know one of the things that you're considering as as you're going back to school.
But you'll start in semester one with classes, kind of foundational classes. I know everybody remembers, you know, anatomy and Physiology and pathophysics and all of those.
Interesting and challenging courses, so you'll start out with an advanced version of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Biostats, and Pharmacology.
And so we'll get those foundational classes done the first several semesters.
Research, physical assessment, advanced reproductive dynamics, really diving into the.
The whole reproductive Physiology if you will. Kind of anatomy and Physiology, hyper focused on the whole reproductive.
System and then clinical reasoning and then we'll get into primary care. So with primary care though that's when we start the clinical portion of the program. So you'll have.
Depending again on how many terms or you know the length of the schema that you choose.
The last four semesters will include a didactic course where you'll be getting content and it's paired with a clinical course where you're able to apply what you're learning in your courses. So, so primary care and then primary care clinical basically is what you'll get.
In the beginning of that that for clinical.
You know, kind of List of semesters. Next you'll move into Advanced Women's Health One.
And Advanced Women's Health One practicum. And then that focuses on gynecologic health.
8032 and 8022 focus on obstetric care and then the final semester is kind of integration. We go over professional issues. We recap the whole program.
And then in that final semester, you know, kind of focusing on all three of the previous sections and content, preparing you to go into practice. So in our expectations to like just like any other, you know when you became a nurse, the things that you were able to do and how long it took you to do those things and reason through and apply was a lot slower at the beginning and it kind of ramps up and in the same way in this program as well.
You'll be learning more and more and then be able to apply that during your clinical time. So we find that students really when they are doing the book learning part, if you will, being able to then go into clinical and apply those things can really be beneficial for your learning and retention. I know me personally that that is the case as well I can certainly.
Relate more to what I'm learning when I can kind of put a scenario with that or a patient experience so.
That tends to be really beneficial for students and then having the last semester where you're kind of re reviewing all of that content while also in clinical is very, very helpful.
And I know we had mentioned earlier in the presentation.
As far as finding clinical sites, I know that's always a concern.
You know as mentioned it's nice if you can kind of network with with folks you know and in your area to be able to find clinical sites closer to home or with with folks maybe you have worked with or know or you know have some connection that's really nice because then you have the flexibility to maybe find something closer to home or.
You know, there's a lot of times where students have a good experience and then you know it could lead to a job when you're done. So kind of utilizing those resources and that networking can be beneficial for your learning and for you know later on and and maybe career wise. So that's one of the things that I've kind of taken away working with students with this, this clinical piece so.
Anything else you can think of or did I miss anything?
I think you got it all. I can forward here to the next slide.
OK. Preceptors, we're kind of on that, on that track there.
So it is important that you have a license.
You know where you're going to be doing your clinical time, so having an unrestricted license for both yourself and your preceptor are requirements of the program. And like we talked 3rd, 4th semester around that time is when you're depending on your schema when you'll get started in clinical.
And then I kind of touched on just being able to have the the ability to find your own preceptors can be really helpful to to facilitate your hours make those connections.
And kind of interest in in areas that you are interested in working in?
We do have clinical site coordinators that help with all of the paperwork, as you can imagine. You know, we we have paperwork that goes along with this we you know.
Have guidelines and things like that and then we also the clinical site coordinators have.
You know, contacts that you know maybe have had students of ours previously that would be interested in having students in the future. So options that you know if you're having difficulty sometimes can help to make connections if there's a need there as well.
DeAnne B.
05:22:44 PM
Does the preceptor have to be a WHNP or can it be a MD?
Let's see and we do match those up. So when you're in primary care it's a more of a you know a site where you might see more of of primary care and gynecology more you know make sure they have you know some gynecology type practice there OB etcetera. So and then the preceptor has to have an active license as an advanced practice provider, nurse practitioner or or a physician.
Oh yeah, it can be both and.
You know, it's it's helpful to have.
Elisabeth W.
05:23:27 PM
Are we allowed to have preceptors that work at our place of employment?
Some experience with a nurse practitioner just to kind of see, you know in your area or so state by state, the practice restrictions or the the the Nurse Practice Act can change from state to state. So it may be slightly different from one state to another. So it's nice to work with a nurse practitioner and kind of know your scope of practice and then you know. There are some areas of the country though that still don't.
Have many nurse practitioners and so that may not be a possibility.
But either way, I think it's helpful to just spend some time with a physician as well. You know, we have collegial practices and being able to work.
You know and and have that integrated kind of practice.
With other providers is good, so it's nice to have the option of spending time with both so.
Our preceptors at our place of employment so.
So that kind of depends. That can work out.
And I would have to double check the exact.
Cathryn Smith
05:24:17 PM
@Elisabeth, as long as the preceptor is not your direct supervisor that should be acceptable. It's a bit of a gray area, but it can happen.
Guidelines as far as having preceptors at your place of employment, Sometimes that means say you work in a hospital and there's a physician group that comes to your hospital. Yeah, absolutely. You can have one of them as a as a preceptor going into their practice if they are agreeable to that.
But if you maybe are a work in an outpatient clinic and your job as a nurse is in that practice, then that gets a little difficult. So it just depends on the scenario that you're talking about and oh, good, you answered that as well, so.
I wasn't sure if you saw the question and I was typing and I was like, well, I'll just throw it in here just just so it's there.
Elisabeth W.
05:25:19 PM
Thank you!
Yeah. And I'm not usually involved in that decision, but I'm, you know, peripherally aware of of kind of of that situation. It can be, you know, kind of drawing the lines of work and clinical so.
Yes, yes. And then and that that's exactly what that clinical site coordinator will also assist you with.
Is understanding if your workplace is going to be an acceptable site so that there's no conflict of interest, you know, your direct supervisor. If that's the only person who can precept you, well then yes, that's that's going to be an issue, and that's probably not going to work out.
Kristie R.
05:25:56 PM
I work in a program outside of the clinics I would precept that would be ok?
I see another question just came in. I work in a program outside of the clinics I would precept for. Would that be OK?
Christy, I think that's OK. I think the questions worded a little ambiguously, but I think it's OK again.
You know there's there's a little bit of a Gray area when when you use your workplace as as a clinical site, but we can we can figure that out with our clinical site coordinator.
Kristie R.
05:26:33 PM
Thank you
Yeah, and sometimes maybe you're when you work in a health system and you maybe it's a different site other than the one you mainly work in or something like that. Sometimes that can happen and actually it's nice to spend time at more than one side or with more than one preceptor. It's nice to get a variety of.
Perspectives on caring for patients and and so you know even now I like it's I enjoy working with other people to see how they do things differently or how they explain something maybe differently or you know you can learn a lot from each other. So. So it is kind of nice to have different perspectives getting to see different types of clinical sites so you kind of know what the options are for you.
Absolutely. All right. Let me kind of OK, everyone. I know this slide is like next to impossible to read and I do apologize, but.
We can certainly we will be sending this presentation out to everyone and we can always, you can always touch base with your enrollment service advisor and we can forward the nice large readable document that's a little bit easier to read.
Behroze R.
05:27:45 PM
Are fertility clinics an acceptable place to do some clinical time?
All right, so this document just kind of breaks down.
What clinical course you'll be taking the focus and gives you an idea of ideal clinical sites and preceptors and Heather, feel free to tag on to that as well.
Looks like there's a question about fertility clinics being an acceptable place to do clinical time.
I I feel like it can be for sure. There's a lot of folks that have interest in working and fertility or you know maybe have worked as a nurse in in fertility and I feel like the best place for that clinical site is really like the last semester.
You know, 'cause it's good to get a good solid foundation of primary care of GYN and of OB, and so that last.
That last semester is a good spot I feel like for for the sub specialties because you've gotten a good foundation of the others, but but that can be a really good place for fertility clinic.
I don't. We don't encourage students to do that through the whole program because you really do need to learn all. For example, like when you're in nursing school, you do, you know you do maybe geriatrics and Pediatrics and Med surg and you know OB and you make all the different rounds to the different areas of nursing.
Similarly in this program you're kind of getting a foundation of different areas of Women's Health and so you don't want to you know spend all of your clinical time just in in one specific area. So but it definitely is a good site and and again I think best case would be like that last semester.
And not to kind of get off track here, but there are a lot of sub specialties within Women's Health. So there are some that focus just on GYN. A lot of general Women's Health practices are OB and GYN together, but there are some that specialize just in gynecology in a specialty called urogynecology is another one that specializes in.
Like it says you're you're the the kind of urology and gynecology together, so urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, so you know different areas focused on you know pelvic floor, things like that. There's areas that specialize just in breast health, breast clinics, there's obstetric general OB practices.
And then there are subspecialties even within that maternal fetal medicine.
Visualizing in high risk pregnancy.
Behroze R.
05:31:04 PM
sounds great, thank you so much!
I just lost my journey of that fertility like we we just spoke about as well. So there's there's lots of different subspecialties even within the specialty of Women's Health as well.
And also, sorry, I just thought of some more federally subsidized health centers. There is, there are clinics that specialize in reproductive health.
Related to contraception and STI's you know.
OK. That's all I got for for right now. Probably think of a couple others, but so there's lots, there's lots of kind of more focused areas to work even within.
The specialty of Women's Health, so.
Awesome, wonderful. Thank you for that.
All right. So we'll kind of switch gears briefly from kind of talking about the program a little bit more in depth to kind of what faculty are looking for in an ideal candidate or someone who's interested in applying to the program. So right off the bat, here are some of the prerequisites that we'll need to see.
During the application process, and I apologize everyone, I feel like I'm sitting in the dark.
But I didn't. I didn't realize my new office does not have a ceiling light. So I've tried to, like, use as much light in my office that I can. So I'm so sorry. I I promise, you know, it's just 6:00 and dark outside. But I I looked great, you know, two hours ago when I tested this.
Yeah, yeah, you know, So I'm sorry I I normally don't look this dark so.
Prerequisites we do need to see that everyone has.
An undergraduate statistics course. We need to see a grade.
C or higher. In that particular course I have seen statistic courses housed under like your your standard math department. I've also seen statistics courses housed under psychology as well. So as long as on your transcript it says somewhere in there like an intro to stats, Introduction to statistics.
Statistical analysis, anything along those lines should be perfectly fine.
We do need to see your BSN from a regionally and nursing accredited institution.
Preferably with a 3.0 GPA or higher is what we would be looking for.
Alicia B.
05:34:06 PM
Any special requirements for a post Masters student?
For that particular, for this particular program, I just saw a question come through. Any special requirements for Postmaster students? Alicia, Alicia, Alicia. I apologize if I pronounced your name wrong. Great question.
We currently do not offer the Women's Health Program in a postmaster's.
Curriculum plan just the the MSN is is what we offer.
You might be able to look at doing like the Postmasters DNP. I don't specifically recruit for that off off the top of my head, so I'm not. I'm not even 1000% sure we have a postmaster's DNP.
Good, great, I thought so, but I'm like.
So, yeah, so Alicia, you you could consider doing the Postmasters DNP option and that course or that program would also require.
Some sort of statistics course as well, all of our online.
Nursing programs are going to require a a statistics course.
Again, we kind of touched on this a little bit ago, but we do require at least the one year of working RN experience.
I would say it's preferred to have some sort of exposure to Women's Health, whether you know you're working in a in a clinic, mom, baby, NICU.
Antipartum, Postpartum. I would say it's preferred, but it's not required. Heather. I don't know if you have any other feedback or advice on on the work experience.
Yeah, Yeah. So and I think you'll, you talk a little bit about holistic admissions, but it is, it is definitely a benefit to having Women's Health experience. It's not an absolute.
So if you have, you know, good experience as a nurse, you know it's it's still a possibility 'cause there's certainly those out there that really have a passion for Women's Health, but.
Have not had an opportunity to work in Women's Health. It definitely it is helpful, but it's not, you know, an absolute.
Awesome. Thank you for that.
UC students that are currently enrolled in the RN to BSN program here, feel free to touch out, reach out and touch base with your enrollment service advisor and we can kind of talk to you about what that admission process would look like for you.
And just making sure we can get you squared away.
So as Heather mentioned, we do perform a very holistic review of applications here at the university.
Alicia B.
05:37:16 PM
Thank you!
Our applications will be reviewed by a committee of professionals.
That are working and teaching in in the program.
So the application for our graduate programs is online and it's through a third party called Nursing Cass, so nursingcas.org.
Is the website. There is an $80.00 nursing cast application fee. We do have some fee waivers available right now.
For the summer 2024 cohort and the fee waiver will waive the $80.00 application fee, so that's.
You know, manicure, pedicure, new pair of shoes.
Who knows? Could get you anything.
And then we are automatically waiving the $65 University of Cincinnati application fee as well right now. So in theory.
You could apply for free, which is, which is awesome.
Couple things that we need. Again, I feel like I'm, you know, meeting the proverbial dead horse here. But again, the BSN from a regionally and nursing accredited institution, we do require official transcripts from every single college or university that you attended, so even if you did some courses at a Community College as a prerequisite.
And then you transferred them into, you know, XYZ University. Even though there's like that block of transfer credit at the top, we do need the official.
Transcript for the Universe from the University that you attended.
Behroze R.
05:39:10 PM
are there two different applications we need to submit? I completed the nursingcas application but was confused if there was another application for UC I was supposed to do
OK, great question here about the application process. So the application that you complete in nursing cast is exactly what our faculty will review.
So once you complete that and it reaches what we call that verified status, which is when we've received all your transcripts.
Your 3 letters of professional.
Recommendation or academic letters of reference.
A copy of your RN license, the professional resume or CV, and your goal statement. So once kind of all of that is in and it reaches what's called the verified status, meaning nursing casts, you know, kind of puts this little stamp of approval on it.
We do send that application out for faculty review. You'll receive an e-mail from the Graduate School here at the University of Cincinnati. Just kind of saying, like, hey, thanks for your application.
They'll send you a username and a password. It's like a auto generated you know, random letters and numbers code and what you will have to do is just change that password to something that you can remember and once an admission decision has been made you'll check that University of Cincinnati.
Portal for your decision. So you would receive an e-mail from the grad school. Once the decision has been reviewed or been made by faculty, you'll get an e-mail kind of saying like hey.
Katie, a decision has been made on your application. Please log into your UC portal you know to review your admission decision so you don't have to do a second application for UC. It's just like changing a password.
But again, we do need the three professional letters of recommendation and your references.
They will complete everything electronically.
Right within the application portal itself in nursing cast. Heather, do you want to give some feedback on who is an appropriate?
Individual to ask to be a reference kind of what what the committee is looking for.
Behroze R.
05:41:40 PM
ok thank you for the clarification!
Sure, and feel free to pipe in too. I think it's helpful that, first of all, they're professional references, so even if there's someone you've known your whole life.
And but they've never worked with you, so we're looking for professional references. So it's helpful to have maybe manager, supervisor. It could be a nurse practitioner that you work with on your floor.
A physician, So someone that you work with professionally, that's that understands, you know, kind of your job.
Or you know. Even beyond. So you know. You may have worked with the unit clerk for you know, you know.
A number of years. And they know you're a hard worker, but they really can't speak to your practice as a nurse, you know, things like that, so.
Hopefully that's helpful, but but I I would say nurses that you work with, you know, maybe one colleague but the rest either supervisors or.
Physician, Nurse practitioner.
Advanced practice in our CNS. Something along those lines can be really helpful.
Awesome. Thank you for that. And I know this would, I would hope this seems intuitive, but you know, take the time to update your resume as well.
I had an applicant maybe a year or two ago who applied and you know, their application was not admitted to the university.
And you know, I kind of gave her just a little bit of feedback from from what I could see, you know, the resume was just like.
Name hospital or agency that they worked at and like a couple of bullet points.
It was very, very general, very vague.
And and so I, you know, I kind of said well you know, from you know what you submitted, you know, we don't see work experience in Women's Health. We don't see.
The experience in, you know, anti partum, postpartum.
You know, it doesn't look like you've worked in Women's Health at all.
Lo and behold, you know, she's been a woman, you know, working in Women's Health for 18 years, but didn't take the time to to put that into the resume. So, you know, this student, you know, kind of reapplied later, really dumped some more time and energy into, you know, her resume and and was admitted to the university. But, you know, take take the time, you know, put in any additional certifications that you've earned or if you're a member of any professional organizations, you know, take take the time to to put that in there.
Jessie G.
05:44:44 PM
Will you offer another waiver for fall 2024 applicants as well?
So you know, I'm not a mind reader. I wish I was.
I wish I was. I wish faculty were. But we're not.
Cathryn Smith
05:45:02 PM
@Jessie, Yes!
That's that's a really good point to be sure to include like certifications in that. So all of your nursing experience, so maybe you worked in ICU and you were a manager and and you have certification in that or you know make sure you put all that so we can see what you've been doing since you've been a nurse. So but that is really important and have it professionally kind of put together and maybe have someone else take a peek at it look for typos. I feel like that with the professional.
Goal statement, too. Have someone else read, reread that you know.
I know everyone's busy, but take a minute, even if it's an extra day, you know, and.
You know you're you're applying to Graduate School, so you want to you know have that presented in a way that you you would turn something in in Graduate School. So a nice, you know sentence structure and paragraphs and check for typos and and all of those things. So like you're turning an assignment in I guess if you will think about it that way.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
And a professional goal statement is also required as part of the application process.
And I'll let Heather kind of tag on to this in just a second. But we don't necessarily want to know why you became a nurse because you've done that. Why this next step? Why nurse practitioner? How is this degree going to help you?
In in your career goals, in your career path, you know take the time and your goal statement to demonstrate you know a clear understanding.
Of what the role of a woman's health nurse practitioner is. You know, how. How is that going to help you?
In in your career and again I reiterate it absolutely have another set of eyes on that goal statement on that resume.
Microsoft Word has some fantastic.
Editing tools now, so you know, take the time you know. If you if you write something up and it gives you like a 79%, take the time. Read those reviews, those changes, those edits, let's get it up to the 100% So you know, follow those tips and tricks in in Word or Safari or you know, wherever maybe. But Heather, I don't know if you have any other tidbits on the goal statement.
No, I think that's great. Those are good tips for you to bring up.
Awesome. And then the last component of the application process is called coursework or transcript entry. So even though you're having your transcripts from the colleges and universities that you've attended.
Sent directly to nursing cast.
We do require coursework entry, so each individual course that you completed.
In your college career will be typed out and kind of input into the nursing cast application, and I know that sounds crazy and cumbersome.
But I will tell you during the application process, it really does help faculty on the back end when they're reviewing your applications. I don't know if anybody has ever scanned a college transcript into like a digital platform.
But when you do that, there's all these little watermarks all across the page, and it makes it nearly impossible to read and try to decipher what it says. So by taking the time to kind of type out those courses, put it into the application, it really does kind of help speed that review process up for faculty. Now you've got two options. With that coursework entry component, you can enter the courses on your own.
Or you can also pay nursing cash an additional fee to enter the courses for you. So you will still request to have your transcripts sent to nursing cast and then once they arrive they do have a team of professionals that will enter all of the courses for you.
And you will be able to approve and make sure that you know they entered everything correctly and they didn't say that your final elective of your senior year was like underwater basket weaving or something goofy like that. So you will be able to kind of ensure that everything was entered correctly into the application.
And the extra fee for that coursework entry? It's based on the number of college transcripts that you have.
So, you know, I think one to three transcripts is.
Like 75 or $80.00, Four to six is like 90 or $95 and then seven or more is $150.00.
Jessie G.
05:50:31 PM
Do you highly recommend paying the fee to electronically transfer it? I manually entered mine, and I'm just hoping it doesn't seem unprofessional.
OK, so Jesse, great question. As long as you entered the courses on from your transcript into nursing cast exactly as it appeared on the transcript, as long as you entered it exactly how it appears on the transcript, it should be perfectly fine.
I I personally I I did this. I I am not a nurse, but I have a fake nursing cast account purely so that I can help my students because it's a big application and I entered my bachelor's degree.
Into nursing casts purely so that I could understand how long it was going to take someone. What kind of time frame can I tell them? It took me about 45 minutes, so it wasn't terribly time consuming.
But I also realized that some of you, you know, have a much busier lifestyle than I do.
So you know, I think it kind of depends on how busy you are, the kind of time that you have to put into it.
I have an applicant right now who has 11 different college transcripts.
Personally, I don't want to enter 11 different college transcripts into the application and she was like, hey, since you're waving that $80.00 nursing cash application fee and that $65 fee, she's like, it's it's a great $150.00 spent for me. So.
As long as you entered it correctly, I I think you should be just fine.
Jessie G.
05:52:05 PM
great, thanks! I do think I inputted it pretty thoroughly!
Yeah. I entered mine when I was in the doctoral program, so yeah.
Behroze R.
05:52:13 PM
I paid the fee to have it done for me by nursingCAS and submitted the application. Will I still have access to see the coursework when its entered by nursingCAS even though I already submitted it?
OK, here's another question that just kind of came through. I paid to have it done by nursing cast and somebody application.
So, so yes, I apologize, I do not want to pronounce your name incorrectly, so please don't hold it against me. But yes, if, if and when the coursework entry for your application has been completed.
You will be able to approve the work, so you'll get an e-mail from nursing casting, you know, Hey Katie, the professional transcript entry for your applications complete. There's usually like a little hyperlink that they embed in it.
Behroze R.
05:53:09 PM
its ok! its said like Bay-roze :)
Click here to view and make sure everything is correct. So yes, you will be able to see all of the courses that they entered for you. Bay Rose OK, I would have been close.
Amber K.
05:53:13 PM
How many students are accepted into the program in a term?
But I I might have butchered it a little so.
Sofia F.
05:53:15 PM
If we are currently taking a statistics course can we send in the application, other transcripts, references, etc and then just wait and send in the statistics transcript when completed?
OK, great questions here. Let me get these approved real quickly.
Amber asked how many students are accepted into the program in a term So great question. Even though we are an online program, we do try to keep our cohorts to a manageable size. Nobody wants 300 best friends.
In a cohort nobody, nobody's gonna learn. In that kind of environment, we typically bring in, I would say between 40 and like 50 would be like a Max.
For the Women's Health Program.
I would say generally 35 to 45 is is typically our our happy spot.
For the Women's Health Program.
Great question. OK. Sophia, if we are currently taking a statistics course, can we send in the application other transcripts, references, etcetera? Sophia, fantastic question. Yes, you can.
Apply to the university while you are still enrolled in your statistics course. So what you would want to do is make sure that you list the name of the institution where you're taking your statistics course at.
And it'll actually give you an option to list if it's like completed in progress, like degree earned. So just make sure you listen the courses in progress.
Behroze R.
05:54:43 PM
thank you!! :)
Now we won't be able to review your application until we have that final statistics grade, but your application can still reach that verified status with the courses in progress. Great question there.
The nursing cast application fee, again, it's online. We will have waivers available for summer 2024 and also fall 2024.
You can like continue to work on your application and make changes.
Without submitting so you you know until you hit that submit button.
You can make changes, edits and and whatnot.
Once you're ready to submit your application for either the summer or the fall term, e-mail your enrollment service advisor, whoever you've kind of been working with.
Just send them a quick screenshot of your nursing cast homepage. So like the personal information.
Academic history, supporting information and program materials kind of. Each one of those tabs completed and then we can send you the individualized coupon code. I wish more than anything it was like apply to UC for free, but it's not. It's like crazy. It's like an 18 digit number letter combo.
So e-mail us and we can get that individual coupon code for you.
You can submit your application before references complete the evaluation process, so they'll still be able to access that portal.
After you submit your application.
And you can also submit before transcripts arrive at Nursing Cast. So again, you don't want to send your transcripts to the University of Cincinnati, you want to send them directly to Nursing Cass.
And we do have some tutorials, some video tutorial links that yours truly created. Again because I want my students to know what they're getting into with the application process, and it's really big.
So I we've got a landing page that we can we can post out as well.
Super helpful to to kind of keep an eye on that and if you've got any questions on how do I find my transcript ID number or where do I find this?
Those videos are are super, super helpful.
The UC application again. It will require no additional documentation. You don't need to submit anything else again.
And again, we are waiving that $65 UC application fee as well.
Once the application reaches what we call that verified status, we do send completed applications out once a week for faculty review.
And for the Women's Health Program, it is a committee that reviews the applications.
It is so there will be a multitude of individuals that will, you know, sit down, review, make comments, and you know collectively what they will determine. You know if your application is admitted, let's be optimistic and you should have an admission decision within two to three weeks.
You know, depending on kind of where we are in in the year sometimes.
Kristie R.
05:58:30 PM
At what email do we request to the waivers ?
Um, you know, we might be a little bit crazier, but, you know, we we do try to keep things moving for students.
Christy, great question for where to e-mail for the application waiver.
At the very end of the slide, I will have like the the general inbox that you can e-mail. We monitor that minute by minute throughout the day if you will.
You can also e-mail me or if you've been working with one of my coworkers or colleagues already, you can e-mail that individual. So multitude of ways to kind of get that.
Kristie R.
05:59:06 PM
Thank you
Take a quick pivot here and talk about the tuition and fees breakdown for you. So in state cost per credit hour is $892.00 out of state is $907.00 per credit hour. So do the math. It's only a $15 difference from living in state to out-of-state, so just know that we're not price gouging you if you live outside of the great state of Ohio.
So you can see a kind of breakdown here of in state total and out of state total.
I believe that total is for the 6th semester, so it'll increase just a little bit if you, you know, take advantage of of the seven semester option.
There is a $56.30 per credit hour program fee.
Now that program fee and the $31.00 Bloodborne Patho fee that you see here, both of these are all lumped in to this grand total number that you're seeing over here, the 43,000 or the 44,000. So we are very competitively priced.
The program is eligible for the federal financial aid for the FAFSA. For the Free Application for Federal Student Financial Aid, I can talk tonight.
If you are eligible for military benefits.
Double check with your regional VA representative to determine if your benefits are eligible to cover this particular program.
We do offer payment plans as well, so sometimes.
You know, students apply for the FAFSA just to kind of see what they're eligible for.
And then decide, hey, you know what, I'd I'd really rather just kind of pay per term as I'm going through the program. So that payment plan has you making 3 equal payments over the course of that semester and by the time you finish the program, it's completely paid off, which is pretty cool.
We do have a fantastic university to business scholarship program as well. So right now we have over 120 partnerships across the country.
With employers, one of the the big ones that we have.
Secured recently was Mercy Health on Secor's hospital system. I know that's kind of a nationwide.
Change so you know. Be sure to check out our University to business profile on our website and see if your employer's listed on there.
If if they're not, it's a very simple, easy process. It's at no cost to your employer whatsoever.
Think of it as like as a work benefit, you know, Hey, you get dental, you get health insurance.
You know, you have a health savings account, you know, kind of thing. The University of the Business program is just like that. It is a a perk, a benefit.
And you get a scholarship to go along with it, which is pretty cool. So check out our website For more information about that. Or reach out to myself or one of my colleagues and we can definitely.
We do have a few state restrictions where we are not able to accept distant learning students from.
This is typically a department of Higher Education regulation.
Or a state specific regulation. For example, maybe they don't allow distant learning students to perform clinicals in that state. So.
Those restricted states are Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York.
Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee.
So I do apologize if you reside there. Don't hold it against me. I'm just the messenger.
OK. I feel like we've done a really good job of kind of answering questions as we've been going through the presentation. But at this time, feel free to type out any last minute questions that you have.
Melanie J.
06:03:36 PM
I have an MSN already but want to move to WHNP level. Is there a way to merge those credits into your program? Does DNP offer the option of WHNP? I know you already addressed it but I need clarification please. If it is beyond the scope of this meeting I understand.
Victoria C.
06:03:37 PM
How flexible is the course schedule? Can the coursework be completed in 8-9 semesters? Is there any requirement to remain in a certain cohort?
For either myself or Heather. Oh, perfect. Look at this. Got some questions coming in right now.
Melanie, fantastic questions. OK, so if you already have your MSN full transparency, probably the quickest route would be either the post MSNDNP or a post MSN Women's Health Certificate, which again, we do not have the certificate for this program.
We do allow students to transfer a maximum of 12 semester hours.
Into like our any one of our online MSN programs. So 12 hours, it's not a lot when the program is already 49 credit hours.
So just kind of food for thought there. The post MSN DNP option would be a little bit more advantageous in my opinion.
That way you're not having to like retake courses that you've already taken because they do look at your MSN when building kind of that post MSN curriculum.
Melanie J.
06:05:11 PM
from a clinical standpoint, does certificate make a difference?
But if just to kind of clarify because if your goal is to be a Women's Health nurse practitioner, you still you have to complete that portion of the program even if you tie it in with the DNP. So I think like what you're saying Katie is and depending on what your math your first masters is in too, do any of those courses overlap with what is in our required courses so?
You you know, they would have to be.
Equivalent to to get those hours applied, if I understand correctly, so.
Jessie G.
06:05:45 PM
Can you talk a little bit about how marketable WHNP is vs FNP? I've done a little of my own research on this but would like to hear your takes.
So I'm not sure I understand, Melanie, the clinical standpoint, the certificate?
Kristie R.
06:05:48 PM
What’s the cost of the DNP program and how many hours is it?
Melanie J.
06:05:49 PM
ok, thank you
Yeah, I think I mean to to get the Women's Health Program experience and then to be able to sit for the NCC certification you have to do.
There's a required, you know, courses that have to be followed and a certain number of hours in clinicals that apply to be able to sit for that certification, so.
Yeah, hopefully that kind of makes sense.
Cathryn Smith
06:06:25 PM
@Kristie, the DNP is still $907 per hour out of state.
Katie, there's a question about the course schedule from Victoria. Oh, you're muted. Sorry.
There we go, trying to do too much at once. I was trying to type and not have you guys hear the Clicky, Clicky, Victoria, great question. So the the Women's Health program kind of the slowest pace that we offer part time wise is an eighth semester.
That has you completing the program in two years, eight months, and you would be taking two courses basically every single semester for the for the full 8 semesters. So if you're already working with.
One of our enrollment service advisors, feel free to touch base with them. We can e-mail you that 8 semester option so that you can kind of get a feel for it.
Can you talk a little bit about?
Marketability WHMP versus FNP. So Jesse, in my professional opinion.
If Women's Health is what your passion is, it kind of what you wake up every day and it's what you want to do.
I That's what I would want to do.
If you're thinking, I want to be an FMP because it's more marketable.
I understand where where that thought process comes from.
But also know that you know if if you go that route, you have to be able to show.
That you've truly worked across the lifespan. That you've you've done your pediatric hours, you've done, you know, in your practice, you've you've practiced with kids, you've practiced with woman's health. You've you've practiced in primary care.
And so if if you're just thinking from a marketability standpoint.
I would. I would want to do what kind of makes me the most happy, personally.
Melanie J.
06:08:53 PM
apologies, I mean in practice
Melanie J.
06:08:54 PM
thank you. that helps.
And there's nothing wrong with, you know, down the line, you know, if if Women's Health, you know it's kind of what you're thinking right now, you know there's nothing wrong with starting out in Women's Health and doing a postmaster's FNP certification later on kind of down the road. And you then you'd be dual board certified as well.
Victoria C.
06:08:56 PM
thank you!
Behroze R.
06:08:57 PM
How will we know when the transcripts have been entered into our application by nursingcas if we have paid to have it done? Will it delay acceptance into the program?
Sorry, I'm trying to get these questions approved real quickly and make sure we get all of your answers here. Heather, do you have any other advice on FNP versus WHNP?
Yeah, yeah, that's definitely a debate, you know? But again, where your passion lies, what you want to be doing.
You know when you get done. Would you be happy working in a, you know, a general?
FNP kind of office, family, family.
Health kind of, you know, it just really kind of depends on what you want to do and also you know geographically the area that you're in and.
What the needs are in your area or community as well Is it, you know our advanced practice nurses over saturated in your area What what's the needs in the area that you're in or that you want to live as well. So and I know not all but a lot of our students really make those good connections.
You know, in their areas.
You know, looking, you know, in their areas that they're really interested in working.
Cathryn Smith
06:10:14 PM
@Behroze, you'll receive an email from NursingCAS once it's completed.
OK, let me make sure I kind of grabbed everything. Oh, Christy asked about cost of DNP. So the DNP will still be 907 per credit hour?
So when your application.
Is complete or when the coursework entry is completed, you'll get an e-mail from nursing cast and it'll kind of say like hey the transcript entry is completed.
I I do have access like in nursing cast to see like if you know we're still waiting on transcripts or if your application is kind of in the queue for the coursework entry to be completed.
Babe Rosa, I don't recognize your name, so I don't know that I'm working with you, but you can always e-mail me directly or whatever enrollment service advisor that you're working with.
And we can kind of keep an eye on help track that for you as well.
Amber K.
06:11:24 PM
Would it hurt to apply for both the WHNP and FNP program? In case you weren't accepted into the WHNP program but worked to complete the FNP program and and afterwards work in Women's Health
Behroze R.
06:11:25 PM
Is there a difference working as an OBGYN NP and WHNP? If so, does this program prepare us for both? Also I thought you may have said this, but does being a NICU RN for 6 years set me up for success in this program?
Behroze R.
06:11:27 PM
I have been working with Cecelia but thank you I will!
OK. Sorry. A couple more questions coming in.
OK, yeah, Cecilia will be able to to help you with with that. She'll she'll help take care of that for you.
Amber, would it hurt to apply for the WHNP and FNP program? So you you can you can certainly apply for both programs.
Not a problem if you decide to do that.
What I would highly encourage you to do is make sure that you write a separate goal statement.
For the other specialty, so like if you submit the Women's Health application.
You know have your Women's Health goal statement and then what we can do kind of manually on the back end is add that FNP application so that you're because you're only going to get one waiver.
That way you don't have to pay the $80.00 for the secondary.
Application. So I would just make sure you have the two separate goal statements.
So that the the committee that's reviewing can can look at you more holistically as as opposed to?
I've even I saw a student once that wrote like just a very generalized.
Goal statement and they did want to be reviewed for two different programs and it was so generalized, you know, they were like, can we get some more here? Can we give us a little little bit more information here? So definitely Taylor.
Both of those goal statements if you decide to go that route.
Amber K.
06:13:14 PM
Also would we get an email 2-3 weeks after we submit the application or 2-3 weeks after the application deadline?
Kristie R.
06:13:15 PM
Can we attend 8 semesters for the DNP program as well?
Yeah, The OBGYN and Pi think years and years and years ago they may have referred more as that and but it's WHNP and sometimes you hear, especially sometimes I'll, I'll hear physicians say that maybe, but it's bless you, it's WH, it's a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner certification. So there's not an OB Gen. NP, but sometimes you'll hear people say that.
Cathryn Smith
06:13:48 PM
@Amber, the decision would come once your application is verified in NursingCAS.
Mistakenly or they don't know so.
I think you're, I think you're asking like when you would get the admission decision and so that would take place we send those completed applications out once a week.
And once it's verified is is when we send it. And you should have an admission decision within two to three weeks of being sent for faculty review. So like you might submit your application tomorrow, for example, but we're not going to send it until we have everything until we have all of the components.
Christy. Christie. Christie. I'm sorry if I've been saying your name wrong all this time. I apologize.
I I don't know the answer to the DNP question. My colleague Grant works specifically with all of the DNP programs.
Behroze R.
06:14:56 PM
Perfect thank you!
I will put my e-mail, I will put his e-mail in the chat here for you.
If you do want to kind of reach out to him.
Specifically about the those DMPS.
Think that would be additional? Yeah. I would be curious to see what he says because.
Cathryn Smith
06:15:28 PM
Grant.Warren@uc.edu (DNP options)
Amber K.
06:15:36 PM
Thank you!
I think the DNI think the BSN to DNP option. I think it's 9 semesters to be perfectly honest with you. But again, I'm not 100% sure because I don't work with the DNP programs, but my good old buddy Grant does and he will be able to take great care of you.
I'm doing a quick scan I I think we got all of the questions.
How did I miss this slide? We've talked about a lot of this, so I'll go quickly.
The application deadline is March 15th.
And that you'll need to have everything.
Behroze R.
06:16:08 PM
Would working in an adolescent gynecology office be ok for clinical at some point too?
Kristie R.
06:16:09 PM
Thank you!!
Then we need to have everything in by April 1st. So all of your transcripts would need to be in by April. First, your references.
And and the coursework entry would need to be done by April first if you paid for the professional transcript entry.
Again, sorry to go over that so quickly. Here is this is our general line.
We are our team. We're currently remote this week, so if you do call that line, leave a voicemail.
I do check that all throughout the day the e-mail here is also checked.
Cathryn Smith
06:17:13 PM
catie.smith@uc.edu
Many, many times a day and we can, you know, pair you off with the the correct person that you've been working with very quickly. I will also put my e-mail in the chat as well. So if you do, you know, think of anything.
Don't hesitate to reach out to me as well, I'm more than happy to help.
In any way that I can. But be on the lookout. You'll probably receive an e-mail.
Melissa F.
06:17:34 PM
thank you very much for the informative session
From us in the next day or two with a copy of this recording. But again, I I think we got all the questions. So thank you all so much for taking like you know, an hour and 20 minutes out of your evening to join us tonight. I really, really appreciate it, Heather. Thank you because I could not have done this without you.
Thanks Katie, you are full of great information. It's interesting to listen to.
Elisabeth W.
06:17:57 PM
Thank you both so much!
Victoria C.
06:17:58 PM
Thank you!
Thank you. Thank you, Thank you. All right, everyone. Thank you so much.
And we'll we'll see you next time. Thank you.
Oh, there's a oh, adolescent gynecology.
That is an option. Adolescent psychology. Sorry, sorry, I just saw a question pop up.
Oh, I did. I miss one. I'm so sorry.
Jessie G.
06:18:33 PM
Thank you!
Behroze R.
06:18:33 PM
thank you!
Amber K.
06:18:35 PM
Thanks so much for your time!
No, no, no. It just like, popped up right at the end. So it asked if adolescent gynecology could be OK at some point. Yeah, yeah, that would probably work for the GYN.
Melanie J.
06:18:36 PM
Thank you
Like it all the point they just lots of lots of yeah, that's great. Good questions, good questions. Thanks everybody.
Awesome. Thank you again, everyone. We appreciate your participation.
DeAnne B.
06:19:54 PM
thank you
Jayshreeben T.
06:19:55 PM
Thank you!