MSN Womens Health NP Online Information Session

Katie, you can hear me.

OK.

Everyone.

Good evening everyone.

My name is Katie Smith, and we'll get started here in just a moment. We'll give folks another minute or so to log online.

Alright.

All right. Well, we will go ahead and get started. As I said, my name is Katie Smith and I am one of the enrollment service advisors here at the University of Cincinnati. I've been here for four years and my entire career has been spent in higher education. And with me this evening is Professor Moss. So without further ado, we'll go ahead and get started. There is a chat box, so feel free to type in any questions in the chat box. We will.

Try to answer as we're going through the presentation, but if we do miss something, we will kind of go over again at the very end and make sure we capture all your questions.

So some fun facts about the University of Cincinnati and more specifically the College of Nursing. We have a very strong mission statement and the program as a whole is very mission driven. So our mission is to develop nurse leaders who are empowered to generate and explore nursing knowledge for evolving healthcare and environments. So we tackle that by using technology.

And a partnership with with healthcare providers.

The University of Cincinnati was actually the first in the nation to offer a Bachelors of Science degree, so we're very proud of that.

We have been providing online graduate level nursing programs since 2007.

About 2/3 of our students are currently in an online program here at the university.

And as you will see, all of our full-time faculty are certified in the specialty in which they teach.

We provide our online students a plethora of of support, so you'll have your enrollment service advisor on the front end. That would be myself or one of my colleagues who's here to assist you during the application process. So it's our job to connect with you, educate you about our program, how it can help you, and and truly making sure you know you're finding the best fit for you.

You'll have a student success coordinator who will follow you from the time that you've been admitted to the program until you graduate for the program.

Students will have access to a clinical site coordinator as well, so we do encourage our students to try to locate and secure their own clinical site or preceptor first using your professional network.

But if you do have a difficult time, that clinical site coordinator could step in and offer you a list of sites or preceptors in and around the area of where you live to kind of help get that ball rolling. Of course, your program director is also a wonderful resource as well and your faculty. So our faculty are are here for you, we they want you to be successful in the program.

So they're willing to, you know, do whatever you know that might that might mean for you, you know, if you need an extra zoom call for some assistance, they can assist with that.

You'll also have access to financial aid support staff here at the university as well.

So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Professor Moss, who can speak a little bit about her background and she's going to touch on the program a little bit as well.

Katie, I'll just say next slide, so you know when I'm moving. OK, great. All right, let's see. Hi, everyone. My name is Tamara Moss. I'm faculty and program director for the Women's Health Nurse practitioner program. I've been a certified Women's Health nurse practitioner since 1994 and I've practiced extensively throughout the US providing care to medically.

After serve primarily in the Central California and on the United States Mexico border, currently my focus is on education and developing and implementing technology through online and on site simulation experiences. Next slide.

Katie.

OK.

OK, So what types of professional experiences um.

Our best for Women's Health applicants So what type of work experiences might you have? Many of our applicants work in labor and delivery. They might be working in postpartum, newborn, nursery, NICU or outpatient OB GYN clinics and these experiences do provide exposure of working with individuals and with their families. However, we do have applicants that have never worked in the Women's Health area but have always had.

A desire or an interest to work in this area, and we certainly do welcome people without a Women's Health background to apply.

What I would say to that is that if you were, if you do not have a lot of Women's Health experience and you're applying to the program, you may want to.

Find a volunteer.

Setting a maybe be part of a professional organization that has to do with Women's Health, just to show that you really do have this interest in the the area. The other thing I'd like to highlight as far as when you're talking about your work experience and applying to the program, you may want to make sure that you highlight any leadership committee work that you do at the at your agency, any special certifications.

And anything that provides evidence of professional development above and beyond just going in and and working your shift.

Some areas that you might be involved in or work in after you are finished the program we deliver Women's Health nurse practitioners deliver a range of acute, chronic and preventative healthcare services to their patients. Typically, we are seeing this patient population from puberty through the lifespan. These services are delivered in outpatient settings ranging from private practices to.

Hospital based clinics, breast specialty clinics, community health centers, reproductive endocrinology practices, family planning clinics, and state or county health departments.

Uh, we are seeing Women's Health nurse practitioners being used in the acute care setting as well. So you might find these experiences to be OB triage or any partum clinics supporting rounds on gynecological patients or postpartum units. And these are just some of the environments you might.

Find someone with a Women's Health background practicing it.

So next slide.

OK, so the program is 49 credit hours in length and it includes a 672 clinical practicum hours. The program can be completed in six or seven semesters. 6 semesters is considered full time, seven is considered part time. The clinical practicum courses typically start in the 3rd or 4th semesters of the program. Our coursework is all online except for your clinical practicum.

Hours, we do not require a site visit to Cincinnati. However, we do have one synchronous online experience called our clinical skills intensive and that is found in the primary care practicum A and W8006 and that is the first week of whatever term you're in the first week of that particular course and we go over basically.

Some of the outpatient skills that you'll be needing right away when you enter your practicum work.

Students know their clinical needs best, so we do encourage them to find their own preceptors. But we do have, we can assist you with locating people in the area that have precepted in the past. Graduating from our program makes you eligible to take the Women's Health Nurse Practitioner certification exam that is through the National Certification Corporation or as we refer to it in CC. This certification is needed to apply for state.

Licensure to practice in all 50 states.

Our pass rates are pretty phenomenal. Um, in 2018 we had 100%, in 2019 we had 95%. In 2020 we had 100% and in 2021 we had 98%. And I did not add in here because I just got it not just not too long ago. In 2022, I believe it was, it was either 95 or 96%, I can't remember. I think it's 95. So next slide and we're just going to talk a little bit.

Hear about receptors. So as I said before, students kind of know your own best clinical needs and we, so we do encourage you and and know the providers that are in your area, right, because unfortunately we cannot be experts at knowing every single, you know, OB GYN or Women's Health nurse practitioner or nurse midwife in your area. So you, you know, you make alliances and network with people that you work with at the hospital.

So usually that's a good place to kind of start looking for preceptors. Um.

What else is in here? You do have the 672 hours and we do have assistance with our clinical site coordinator who can provide, like I said, the preceptors that have precepted our students in the past in your area.

I think we can go to the next slide.

Yes. OK. So then this next slide you will receive this I believe with our.

Site our advisor, the student Success Coordinator and this outlines for each clinical practicum area the focus that you're going to be the patient encounters you're going to be focusing on for that particular term and the acceptable providers that can be preceptors for that particular practicum. And as you can see it's hard to see probably with the slides, but it basically outlines.

123 and our four practicums, the first one being primary care, the second one being advanced Women's Health, One which is a gin.

Centered.

Practicum advanced Women's Health too which is our OB centered practicum. And then the last practicum is advanced Women's Health 3 where that's where we would encourage you to have a kind of a traditional site that still sees a lot of OB angin patients. But also you could branch out into some specialty areas like MFN clinics or you're oguine or Gen. Onk maybe if reproductive endocrinology.

Um, and do some hours there because people kind of like to start kind of seeing what kind of opportunities they might have in those settings as well.

And um, I really, I think that's about it. As far As for this particular document, I would like to highlight that this document is also on the clinical landing site for the college and you do have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to get to Women's Health and you want to click on it there to get this document because it is.

Of the utmost importance that you are in the appropriate clinical site for the the class you are enrolled in because if you're in, let's say you're in a Jinong site for your advanced Women's Health too, that's not going to work because you need to be seeing OB patients. So if there's no other site available, you would be asked to drop that course because you cannot be successful in providing the kinds of clinical encounters.

And experiences we need for that course. So that's why it's really never too soon to start planning and getting preceptors in place for your clinical practicum sites that will be coming up.

And I think that's it. I'll turn it back over to Katie.

Alright, wonderful. Thank you for that. Hopefully everyone can hear me.

I hope I came off mute. OK. So what we'll do now is we'll kind of transition and talk about the application process, the prerequisites. We'll touch on some tuition information. Again, feel free to type any questions in the chat box as well.

So, prerequisites what our faculty looking for during that application process. We do need to see that students have completed an undergraduate statistics course with a grade of C or higher. That's going to help prepare you for Biostatistics, which you'll take in your first or second semester here at the university.

We do need to see that students have completed their BSN from a regionally and nursing accredited, so either AC any accredited or ACE an accredited institution.

With a 3.0 GPA or higher.

We also require that our students have at least one year of working RN experience under their belt, so not necessarily any clinical experience that you performed during your BSN, but it does need to be.

Available.

After you've completed your you're registered Nurse licensing board.

Um, if there are any students on the call who are currently enrolled in the University of Cincinnati, RN to BSN program and you're getting ready to wrap up your program, feel free to check in with your enrollment service advisor to check in about any admission options that might be available to you.

So our faculty perform a holistic review of your admission packet. Our admission goes through nursing cash or the application goes through nursing casts. So CAS nursingcas.org is the website. There is an $80.00 nursing cast application fee and you would create an account in nursing Cass and you would add a program for the University of Cincinnati.

So you would just take time to make sure that you've selected the correct program, so you would scroll through and search for the Women's Health program.

We do require official transcripts from all colleges or universities that you've attended, and those transcripts will need to be sent directly to nursing Cass. So nothing should be sent to the University of Cincinnati. Everything will go right to nursing Cass and they will provide us a very detailed document. It's normally about 50 or 60 pages long when it's.

All said and done of all of your transcripts, your letters of recommendation, etcetera.

If you have any international credits or international transcripts that need to be sent in, those will need to be evaluated by the World Education Service for short, we call it West or any other NASIS approved organization.

We do need to see that conferred BSN degree as as part of your application. So if you're, you know, maybe in your last term of your program and you've started the application process, we will not send your application out for faculty review until we see a conferral date on your final transcript.

Again, we do like to see that 3 point O GPA or higher.

We do need a copy of your current unrestricted RN license. A simple screenshot from nurses or your State Board of Nursing is perfectly acceptable.

We do require three professional letters of reference or recommendation, preferably one from a current supervisor.

And I would encourage you to think about who you are using as a professional reference. So think about an individual in a leadership role.

Perhaps a charge nurse, an MD, A Women's Health nurse practitioner, CNM.

Maybe not necessarily a coworker. You know, we're looking for individuals who can speak to your readiness, your professionalism, and your preparedness to really take this next step in your career.

There is a professional resume or CV. Either is acceptable.

And there is also a professional goal statement as well, or a personal goal statement. So talk to us about, you know, why Women's Health.

Not necessarily why you became a nurse, but kind of why you're looking to take this next step in your career.

You can talk about your future goals that you hope to achieve upon completing the program.

Anything along those lines? The last component of the application process is something called transcript or coursework entry.

So every course that you have completed in your college career needs to be input and typed out into the nursing cast application. So you have two options there. You can enter the courses on your own. Please know you can start and stop. You don't have to sit there and do it all at once. Or you can also opt to pay nursing cash now. This would be an additional fee to enter those.

Courses for you. But by having those courses entered, it really does help our faculty.

During the review process as as you are or as they are reviewing your application. So it'll really help them during the review process to look at you a little bit more holistically. It'll give us an overall nursing GPA, science GPA, math GPA. So I promise there is a method to the madness, if you will.

Professor Moss, do you have anything you'd like to add about the application process or what faculty are looking for?

I think I told, I think I already talked to making sure that you provide on your CV any above and beyond type of work you do at at your particular side of employment. Whether that be committee work, special certifications that aren't just like a external fetal monitoring because that is a is a must to work on the labor and delivery unit, but maybe your certified through NCC.

And.

OB nursing there, I think there's an OB certification in that maybe your you have some kind of certification in breastfeeding as a breastfeeding consultant type thing, anything like that, that shows above and beyond any type of volunteer work possibly within your profession.

I don't know blood pressure screenings or anything like that, and as far as the the references, they should be references that can speak to your.

Ability as a professional nurse. Uh, so people that you've worked with in the past, like a social worker, even if they work at your hospital, might not be the appropriate person because they might may not be able to speak to you and your abilities as a nurse.

Wonderful. Thank you for that.

And I'm so sorry I got so excited about the application process. I feel like I just kind of went over this on the last slide.

Couple things I'll point out on on these, this slide here again there is the $80.00 nursing cash application fee and you will pay that when you submit the application.

So you can work on your application without submitting it. So again, you can kind of start and stop and log in as as much or as little as necessary.

You are able to submit your application while we are waiting on transcripts and references to arrive at nursing cast.

Jade, great question. I'm going to take this question really quickly. Is there a minimum length requirement or format for the personal goal statement? Ultimately we're looking for about 500 to 750 words. There's there's no like set format, you know, doesn't necessarily need to be like APA format or anything like that, but you know this the your goal statement and your resume.

For CV are going to be used as as writing samples so you know take time to make sure your your spelling is correct, your grammar is correct, that your your goal statement is clear and concise.

It's legible.

So 500 to 750 words there.

We talked about the full coursework entry. An applicant must reach what's called the verified status in nursing cast before we will send your application out for faculty review.

So kind of what that verification process looks like is when nursing, Cass will basically go over your entire application with a fine tooth comb to make sure that we have all the transcripts necessary. You know, did you maybe take some?

Courses at A at a Community College, you know before you enrolled in your in your four year uh, you know BSN program. So they'll look to make sure we've got all the transcripts, your references.

And they'll they'll verify everything, that it's all correct and accurate. Once verified, we'll send your application out for faculty review.

There is a secondary University of Cincinnati application fee, so once you reach that verified status, there's that secondary UC application fee which is $65. Feel free to connect with your enrollment service advisor and we can definitely get that waived for you for the fall 2020 three term.

Once your application has been submitted for faculty review, it will go through a committee review. So there are several individuals who will look at your application packet and you should have an admission decision within about two to three weeks. You know, just know, depending on the number of students that have applied, you know the decision could take a little bit longer, but we do try to keep things moving for our students.

We're going to transition over to tuition fees and breakdown. So for students who live in state of Ohio, it is for fall 2023, it'll be $892.00 per credit hour.

And out of state tuition is $907.00 per credit hour.

Um, so it's only a $15 difference. I think that boils down to about $735 difference over in state to out of state tuition.

Here you can see the in state total is 43,770.

The out-of-state total is 44,505.

Our program is eligible for federal financial aid.

If you are eligible for military benefits, take the time to contact your regional VA representative to determine if your benefits will be able to to cover our program.

We do have a vet success coordinator here at the university as well. Her name is Jill, and she is also more than willing to help field any questions you might have about your benefits as well. Umm, the University of Cincinnati is very lucky. We're only one of three institutions in the state of Ohio that have a dedicated VA representative, so we're very lucky.

There is a program fee which is kind of lumped into that either 892 or 907. It's $56.30 per credit hour, but it's all kind of lumped in to that overall per credit hour cost.

There is a bloodborne patho fee which gets assessed once an academic year. So every 3rd semester that'll be assessed in in your tuition bill.

Also we do offer a university to business scholarship program. So right now we have over 100 partnerships across the United States with with different businesses and and organizations. We've got mercy Bon Secours, Ohio health.

Nationwide Children's Hospital, where if you are employed at those institutions, you are eligible for a scholarship to help cover your cost. Here at the university, that scholarship is something that is eligible for you, the employee.

Your spouse or domestic partner and also your dependents up to the age of 25. So it's a pretty wonderful program. We're very proud of it. And you can always double check with your enrollment service advisor if you have any additional questions about that university to business program.

We do have some state restrictions and this is going to be a result of State Board of Nursing and the Department of Higher Education Regulations. So the University of Cincinnati cannot accept applicants to nursing programs from Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York.

Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee.

Umm, so hopefully no one on this call resides in those states. It's just, I realize it's very hairy and I apologize for that, but we are not able to accept applicants from those states as students who live kind of in the Greater Cincinnati area, Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Claremont counties in Ohio, Northern Kentucky, Your Boone, Kenton Campbell, you are able to.

Take the metro program.

All online, so you would apply as like a local metro student, but you are able.

To take the entire curriculum online.

All right. Are there any questions for Professor Moss or even myself about the program or application process admission criteria and anything like that?

All right. I'll give give folks another minute or two to type out any questions you might have.

So if you've not been in touch with an enrollment service advisor, feel free to reach out to us. Our Direct Line at the university is 513-556-7400.

The main e-mail address is up here as well. Feel free to e-mail that.

That is monitored daily.

And.

I don't see any questions. I can I can hang out for a minute or two at the end.

Question.

The question, the questions are coming through, do you see the chat question participant?

On your side.

Bar of your screen, Katie.

Yeah, I.

I do look at that. I was in the chat area, not the questions area, OK?

I know, I I don't know how that works.

Alright.

All right. Let me do a quick scan here. Thank you Professor for pointing that out.

Yes, the presentation will be available after the webinar. We will send you a copy of this entire recording.

If someone needs additional support, is their resource or peer tutoring? Yes, online students are eligible to work with the academic.

Resource office here on campus. I'm sorry, the the full title of the.

Office escapes my brain right now, but yes, students are eligible to to receive that.

Um.

I think it's the academic Resource Center maybe.

I think you're right. Academic Resource Center or academic Advising Resource Center. It's like a RC.

We're very big on acronyms here.

All right. Oh, great question. What sets our program apart, Professor, would you like to tackle that?

I think that our program is very.

Our faculty have many, many years of experience and we've lived and worked in diverse places all over the country.

Even I'm trying to think, I think possibly even outside the country if I'm not mistaken with a couple faculty. So we have we bring up just many many years of experience with diverse experiences and also I believe we have some of the best pass rates because those pass rates if you look many of the programs will put first time pass rates as.

If that graduating class all passed within the year, we use first time pass rates. We're looking at it kind of like hard and so we're only looking at truly the pass rates as they come in and they know that sounds a little confusing. So if you looked at our pass rates for the whole graduating cohort over the year, meaning that they might repeat, they would all have certification by the end of their first year.

No doubt. I mean everybody passes by the second time around. And like I said many times, they truly do all pass on their first time. So I think that really, really sets us apart. I think our faculty work with students very individually. We're pretty hands-on. We are available with phone calls, text messaging. Once you get into the specialty courses, I will say that the core courses, they're larger.

Um, you have to be on top of those courses because they are large courses. But once you get to those practices or the specialty courses, the practicum courses, you're going to find that we're working with like a small group of students, usually around 30 and we know what's going on. I mean, you know, you've been in those larger courses before. We have a handle on you and kind of know what's going on with everybody. So I feel like we really.

You will have some individual attention, especially when you get to that specialty portion of our program.

Thank you for that.

I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that new questions tab was there. That's normally not there. So I apologize guys.

Very. Most of your students able to work full time, Brittany, great question. So most of our students do work while they are going through the program.

I have seen some students might drop their hours a little bit kind of once they get into the clinical component or or have some sort of arrangement at work.

If you do plan to work full time, you might want to consider looking at the seven semester option just kind of spreads out those didactic courses over an extra semester for you to ensure that you're not getting too bogged down with that six semester option. I think you're taking three courses at a time concurrently throughout the program, so I know that might be a little bit heavy for working professionals.

Um, Shayla, can I explain the coursework entry section? Yes, absolutely. So the coursework entry. Basically, if you elect to do the courses yourself, what you would want to do is have one transcript sent directly to nursing Cass, and then you'll want to have a second official transcript sent to yourself. Basically what you're entering is.

Exactly as it appears on your transcript if you took five courses in your first semester.

You would enter, you know, semester one, you know, freshman year since I state technical Community College.

I took English 101 um intro to English.

I it was a three credit hour course and I got an A. So you're literally going to type out kind of exactly as it appears on the the transcript. You'll have the opportunity like once you enter those you know five courses, there's like a little add semester button and you would just click add semester and then you would you know just kind of keep working your way through the courses that you've completed. Just for A-frame of reference, I actually created a nursing cast.

Application myself so that I can understand what my students are are going through and so that I can try to help you. It took me about 45 minutes to enter my full bachelors degree into the nursing cash application. So you know it takes a little bit of time again. You can start and stop. Don't feel like you need to sit there and do it all at once.

Let's see here. Are there any stipulations on the number of years that have passed since completing the prerequisites? Jade, that's a great question. I assume you are asking about the undergraduate statistics course.

If so.

Oh, we'd like to see that within about 10 years of of completing that course. But the most important part is that you have continued to have been a practicing nurse throughout that time frame as well.

Catherine, wonderful question. Lectures are are not in real time, so they are asynchronous, meaning that you don't need to log online at, you know, 6:00 PM every evening to to partake in a lecture. They are recorded. Some faculty may do.

A PowerPoint, or maybe like a with like a voiceover recording. They might do a simple video of them lecturing for a few minutes and upload that online.

Professor, I don't know if you have anything else you'd like to add about the lecture component.

No.

Well, as far as lectures or individual.

Um, it depends on the individual. Who's the faculty member who's teaching the course. Sometimes there are live sessions that might be offered that wouldn't necessarily be required for attendance as mandatory, but would be available for some students to be live at for a discussion, a review of a worksheet. Lectures probably are not never going to be live. Those would be recorded.

Um.

And the only the only caveat to that is that CSI that is online and is is synchronous during the primary care practicum, which would either be I think in your third or fourth term.

Wonderful. Thank you for that.

Shayla, I just answered one of your questions in the chat. So the undergrad stats course required is is there to help make sure that you are prepared for Biostatistics, which you will take as part of your program here at the university.

OK, Alexandra, hopefully the.

Professor Moshe kind of answered your question a little bit there. So it's not necessarily you know that you need to log online every night and and partake in lecture. It sounds like there will be opportunities where you can log in if you are available.

But it's not required.

Renee, great question. So if you'd like to be considered for next semester, what are your steps? The fall 2023 application is currently open. I will tell you we are very rapidly approaching capacity for fall.

So next steps would be to get started on the nursing cast application again. So nursing Cass cas.org is the website.

Feel free to touch base with your enrollment service advisor. You know we're here to help be that resource during the application process. If you've got any questions or you need some help finding you know where to upload your documents in the application, feel free to reach out to us. That's exactly what we're here for.

Angelica, yes, that's a great question. Northern California and California in general is, is a very, very popular state for us. So we we do have several students enrolled in a variety of our online nursing programs within the state of California. So our clinical site coordinators again we do track where our students are completing those clinicals. So yes, you know if if you have a difficult time.

That clinical site coordinator can can be a great resource for you.

To, you know, help get you those those resources you know in and around the area of where you live.

Brittany, great question about when you would decide whether you want to take that six semester or that 7 semester plan. So when you schedule like you're welcome call to.

Once you've been admitted to the program with your student success coordinator, that's when you'll really kind of, you know, sit down and talk to them. They'll have a chance to get a better idea of, you know, what kind of work you're doing, how many hours are you working, you know, what kind of shift are you on?

Um, so you'll kind of work with them in determining which program which is the better fit for you. So that's not something you need to know right away during the application process. We've definitely got some time on determining, you know, which is the best path for you.

Angelica.

So, Angelica, the short answer is yes. So even though you have an associates degree that has nothing to do with nursing, we do still require that transcript. And I'm sorry, I I realize it's kind of a hassle, especially if, you know the coursework is not pertaining to nursing at all. Umm, I I feel your pain. It happens a lot with my career changers, you know, an individual who maybe you know.

Has a bachelors or an associates you know in in a non nursing related field but ultimately yes we do need that official transcript sent to nursing Cass and.

The coursework entry as well will need to be completed. I'm I'm so sorry, so sorry. Please don't hate me.

Um, but if you have any questions about that, um, feel free to reach out to myself or or whoever you know your your ESA is your enrollment service advisor.

OK. I'm going to do a quick scan and make sure I got all the questions we talked about that.

OK. I think, I think we got all of the questions. Are there any last minute questions?

I think we got them all.

I'm going to go ahead and approve all of these questions and that way they will at least be in the chat.

And we've kind of talked and gone over most of them while we've been on the on the call here.

All right. Anything else we can help with this evening, folks?

Alright, well, without further ado, thank you all again for taking time out of your evening to attend. We greatly appreciate it.

And feel free to reach out to your enrollment service advisor with any additional questions that you may have. But thank you all so much for attending.

Have a good evening.

Thank you. Bye, bye.