An outline

I met briefly last week with one of the Nursing Faculty to express my frustration. Summed up this is what I don't get:

• There is no support for nursing graduate school plans at the campus I attend unless you are interested in their graduate program.
• The pre-med program (not an actual degree - therfore not an actual deparment) has a 'graduate school' advisor.
• There is no consistent database to find schools. Word of mouth seems to be the way people decide on nursing graduate school programs. Currently students in my BSN classes are fairly consistently aware of the following programs with a clinical emphasis: University of Utah, Westminster College (both northern Utah universities so that makes sense), Oregon Health Science University (about a days drive away - they have a fairly aggresive marketing campaign), and Southern Alabama University... Southern Alabama? how did that make it into the mix?

She agreed completely and said she faced the same thing when she was working on her MSN and is dealing with it herself again as she looks at schools to pursue a PhD. I asked her if she had any advice on how one goes about this process. She had the following three points that she felt were the important decision makers:

• Decide what kind of a degree you want (clinical vs. adminstration/leadership vs. education)
• Decide if there are any geographic areas that appeal (or don't appeal) to you
• Are there any schools you have a personal preferance for (or against)?

With these things in mind the following posts will explore various areas that I wish I'd had at my disposal earlier on. Namely:

• School Databases
• Accreditation
• Funding for Grad School
• Modality Options
• Practice Acts

Oh yes, and before I forget. Start studying for the GRE now. I mean it... now. If you are like me the only math you have done in the last 3+ years is med calculations (want-over-have times whatever...) Not all schools require this but in the survey of schools that I have done in my dazed confusion it seems like about half do. The school I obtained my BSN from has a GRE prep course. There are of course self study guides and other pograms. Also, know that if you take it early and don't do well some schools average your test scores if you repeat it hoping to get higher. So seriously start studying now...