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LIVE AIR DATE: September 13, 2018

00:02 Ligia Popescu: Hello everyone, welcome to the Online Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner Program Overview live webinar presented by the Carson-Newman Department of Nursing. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. My name is Ligia Popescu and I will be your host today. Now before we begin, I'd like to remind you to please refresh your browser and turn up the volume on your computer or device to hear the audio. If you're having any technical difficulties or if you have a question for our panelists, please type them into the Q&A box and hit Send. Please use the media player to control the volume if you're listening to this presentation on demand. Here's a quick overview of what we're going to be discussing during today's session.

00:53 LP: With us today is Dr. Kimberly Bolton, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director at the Department of Nursing at Carson-Newman, who will tell us a little bit about Carson-Newman University and give us an overview of the online MSN-FNP program. And she'll also go over program curriculum, the clinical practicum and discuss the residency. Enrollment Advisor Riley Sellers will then go over the online learning experience, program admission requirements, tuition and some important dates and deadlines to keep in mind. Student Support Advisor Amy Skelton will then follow with an overview of the various types of student support you can expect as an online student. We will end with a Q&A session, so if you have questions, please type them in and we will answer as many as we can. Now let's begin.

01:47 LP: Dr. Kimberly Bolton is an experienced nurse practitioner and nurse educator and has been teaching with Carson-Newman in their graduate nursing program since 1997. Thank you for taking time out of your day to join us today, Dr. Bolton. Can you share with us a little bit about your background?

02:06 Dr. Kimberly Bolton: Sure, I'll be happy to. I graduated with my BSN degree in 1988 from the University of Tennessee here in Knoxville, and I went to work in labor and delivery, in one of the area hospitals. And I decided I loved working in labor and delivery, but I wanted to have more of an impact on the health of the woman during her pregnancy or before her pregnancy. I went back to school and graduated with my Master's degree as a women's healthcare nurse practitioner in 1991. I worked in several OB-GYN offices and one high risk office, and then got into education and realized I really enjoyed that, enjoyed seeing the next group of nurse practitioners get ready. And in 2006, I graduated from UT Knoxville again, with my PhD in Nursing.

03:10 DB: Mostly, I'm a women's healthcare nurse provider. I still practice today. I have been practicing since January of '92, almost well, 20 some odd years, maybe closer to 30. At Carson-Newman [campus], I teach Health Assessment. On the online program, I teach Pharmacology and Health Assessment and a little bit of Research in the fall. In the spring, I teach Women's Health and the elective which is 518. And in the summer, if there's any nurse educator courses, then those are the courses that I teach. Otherwise, I just do administrative type stuff in the summer.

03:58 LP: Thank you. So now I'm going to turn it over to you to give us an overview of Carson-Newman and the online MSN-FNP.

04:07 DB: Okay. As you know, Carson-Newman is a Christian university, and I've been there since '97. It is a... We're a small university, we pride ourselves on putting our students first, and so we're all about the student, we're all about helping the student be successful. We're all about helping each other as faculty be successful. The MSN program started in the fall of 1997, and we graduated our first class in the spring of 1999. We had five students in that class. Since then, we have grown, we average about 16 to 20 students as a cohort that graduate together. So overall, we have anywhere from 40 to 50 students in various stages of the program. Anything else you would like to know about Carson-Newman or nursing

05:16 LP: No, I just wanted to mention that they're regionally accredited... The University is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and the nursing programs are CCNE-accredited as well. Can you give us an overview of the Family Nurse Practitioner program?

05:39 DB: First, the total credit hours are 45 credit hours, total number of clinical hours by clock time is 690 hours. Every course is 15 weeks long, looks like you do, it's a total of 32 months, maybe in the program. You have six credit hours a semester. There is a little project that's kind of part of the Capstone course, and we try to put you in clinical sites where you will have good experiences, or we try to make sure that the clinical sites you choose are going to be good experiences for yourself.

06:32 LP: Great.

06:38 DB: No, I was going to say, I am the only one who teaches just strictly in the graduate program, but other faculty from Carson-Newman also teach with me. One person teaches half in my program and half in undergraduate, and couple other people just teach a class here or there.

07:00 LP: And just to clarify, you take new students three times a year as opposed to the BSN which takes students five times a year, is that correct?

07:09 DB: That is correct. We have a fall, a spring, and a summer intake for the MSN program.

07:15 LP: Alright. Let's talk about the curriculum.

07:20 DB: Okay. You start out taking 501 which is Advanced Pathophysiology and 503 which is Advanced Pharmacology. Pathophysiology is abnormal physiology. So what you learn in that course is what deviates from normal, what the signs and symptoms are, how you could recognize it, what kind of tests you would order to confirm your diagnosis that yes, this is an abnormal physiology. In Advanced Pharmacology, you learn how to treat common things that you see, like colds, ear infections, COPD, asthma; just a variety of things. You learn what medication is the best medication to use, you learn how to be what we call a conscientious prescriber and that just simply means, you're going to give the patients the best medicine that you can give them on a budget which they can afford, in a dosage and in a time in which fits in with their lifestyle, so that they'll be sure and take it.

08:24 DB: So those are your first two courses, kind of get your feet wet. Then Health Assessment. In Health Assessment, you learn how to ask the correct questions. Students that come to us are nurses, so they do know how to ask questions. But since most of them work in in-patient settings, then they don't know how to ask the patients unique for primary care, which is an outpatient setting. So they really learn how to ask the right kinds of questions so that they can come up with the right diagnosis. They learn how to do the correct physical for the questions that they ask, again, to come up with the right diagnosis and that's what we concentrate most of our time on. Getting the physical skills down, getting their history taking to be really good, developing their critical thinking, as far as being a nurse practitioner, and working in an outpatient setting. Advanced Statistics is exactly what it sounds like. It is a statistics class, which will help you to get ready for research and help you to understand research articles that, as an advanced nurse practitioner, you should be reading as you practice. Nursing Theories or Theories of Nurse... Go ahead.

09:34 LP: Oh, I just wanted to clarify. So that statistics class is based in statistics for nurses?

09:43 DB: Yes, the statistics... Well, it's Advanced Statistics. One of our nursing faculty teaches it, so it is a nursing faculty who teaches it, and he bases all the statistics samples in healthcare.

09:55 LP: Now I've got it.

09:58 DB: He teaches you all about statistics within the realm of healthcare, which makes it much more applicable to nurses than just taking a regular statistics course.

10:08 LP: Right.

10:10 DB: And he really likes statistics, so he really tries to make it as fun as he possibly can. Nursing 513, Theories of Nursing. That's a class where you learn different nursing theorists. Florence Nightingale... For instance, you'll learn about her, you'll learn about Roy's Adaptation Theory. These are just different theories set up by great nurses throughout history who used the theory to try to help them determine how to take care of patients. So, you learn about those, you try to figure out what your worldview might be, in other words, how do you view your patients, how do you view yourself, your surroundings. And then you get to pick a nursing theory, which you relate most to, and develop a plan of care for a patient through that nursing theory.

11:04 LP: Wow, that's neat.

11:06 DB: Yeah, it helps you to get a feel of what's going on in the world and with your patient, with yourself, and your own beliefs. Great course.

11:17 LP: Would you say that theories of nursing will help you develop your own nursing philosophy?

11:23 DB: It most certainly will. It will help you to decide what is your true belief about how you take care of patients. What you truly believe about health, healthcare, prevention, and your patients. So yes, it does. The next course on the site here is Nursing 516 called Research Methods and Design in Nursing. This course is to help you to understand what is the difference between quantitative research... that's research where you might fill out a survey, they'll put the data together and come up with numbers like 75% of the population wants this versus qualitative research, where you're actually getting people's opinions or experiences, so, that doesn't use numbers when you talk about the data that uses people.

12:17 DB: And the two are different and both sides of research need to be done in nursing, and you will develop a research project. You'll just do what we call a proposal, where you'll design a research study on something that you would like to study. Then we've got the Teaching Methods and Strategies, that's the elective course. That is a course where you learn what... You get a basic introduction into what it's like to be a faculty person. Again, you will write a paper based on what is your theory of learning.

13:02 DB: There are different learning theories just like there are different theories for nursing.  There are different learning theories out there, maybe you believe in the behavioral model, which is reward and punish; that's what that models based on. Maybe you believe in cognitive learning or cognitive adaptation. Maybe you believe in multiple theories that you learn by music or you learn through... It's called multiple intelligence. So, you figure out what you learn, you learn how to develop a test, you learn how to take care of difficult students, and you will do a little short presentation and teach the class something. And it doesn't have to be a nursing something, it can be anything. I've had students teach us how to make banana pudding.

13:47 DB: It could be anything fun. We let you pick anything you want to teach. It's a 15 to 20-minute presentation. Then, the next three courses that we're going to talk about are your clinical courses. So, this is where you're actually going to go and be taking care of patients. 531 is Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Women, so you will be working... You need to be working in places where you can have the opportunity to take care of women. And so, they can be non-pregnant women and/or pregnant women, so you could work in an OB-GYN office. You could just work in a primary place where they just have a lot of women as patients and they take care of women as a whole. That still counts as women's health. You have 180 hours of clinical in that course, so for a 15-week course, it equates to either 12 hours a week for 15 weeks or 16 hours a week for 12 weeks.

14:50 LP: We'll probably get into more of the clinical practicum detail when we get to that slide.

15:00 DB: Okay.

15:00 LP: But regarding Nurse 537, is that for the elderly adults? Is it just all adults?

15:10 DB: No, that's just all adults. If you want to look at it this way, you got women's health, which is all about women, but it's a contained body of knowledge. Then you move into pediatrics where you're taking care of children, adolescents. They're going to have acute diseases. Some are going to have some chronic diseases, but that's where you learn all your acute diseases, because children can have the same kinds of acute diseases that adults do. When you get into the Primary Nursing Care for Adults, you're taking care of adults, but most of them are going to have some chronic diseases. That's where you're going to have your high blood pressure, maybe your diabetes, maybe your COPD, but they're also going to be burdened, like most of us are, with acute illnesses like sinusitis, ear aches, the common cold. So, you're seeing patients who have a chronic illness, but they've also got an acute illness they're coming to see you for. So, it's adult, 18 to death, basically, male and female.

16:10 LP: And then, talk to us about the Capstone.

16:13 DB: Okay, Nursing 540, Accountability, that's where you're going to... Basically, in that class, what you're learning about is how to develop your resume, how to develop your interview when you go out and interview for a potential job. You're also going to learn that some different rules and regulations that have to do with how nurse practitioners practice legally, and what your scope of practice is. Although you do get scope of practice all the way through, but you get a more condensed version right here. You're also, during this program, going to have to set the, what we call a coding course, so that you learn how to hold your visit appropriately, so that you get paid adequately.

17:00 DB: Nursing 600, the second part of the Capstone Course, that's where the topic that you develop in research, you will take that topic, write what we call the state of the science paper with that. So you're going to write about what do we know about this topic out in the nursing literature. And then the last two or three, four, five paragraphs are what can you as a nurse practitioner, what can you do about this topic? How can you deal with this topic out in the community or out in your practice?

17:35 LP: Can you give some examples of some of the topics that have been written about previously?

17:41 DB: Sure. Some people have looked at nurse practitioner effectiveness out in the community or out in primary care. Some people have looked at nurse practitioner awareness with alcohol screening or nurse practitioner wellness with drug screening. Some people have looked at nurse practitioners and the pharmacogenomics, where they're looking at what's a nurse practitioner's role in ordering specific tests that will tell you what medication works best on this particular person. So those are just some examples.

18:33 LP: Great. And then they have the option to take up the master's thesis as well.

18:41 DB: Yes, the master's thesis would be that project, that research study that you developed in 13, in a research, that's where you would take that study and complete that study. It's whatever you developed. Whatever research study you develop, you would conduct that research study and then report on the results.

19:03 LP: Awesome. So let's talk in more detail about the clinical practicum break down. I'm sure there's some questions perhaps from the audience about various aspects of the clinical sites and requirements and all that. But I thought we could take the time on this slide to just talk about that.

19:23 DB: Sure. Okay, in Advanced Health Assessment, you have 60 hours of clinicals. The majority of that clinical is going to be done at your home, where you are practicing the particular skill for the week. Okay, for instance, in the on-ground class yesterday, the topic was skin and head, and HEENT, which is head, eyes, ears, nose and throat. And so in the lab, the student practice assessing those areas. That's what the majority of your clinical's going to be. You're also going to have four eight-hour days, with a preceptor in primary care, where your main job is to get really comfortable doing histories and the appropriate physical for whatever patient complaint they came in for. So that's 60 hours over the course of the 15 weeks. So you'll do the lab stuff week by week, you don't go to the preceptors 'til after you come here and done your residency, your three-day residency, which again we'll talk about here in a minute.

20:33 DB: The 180 clinical hours for women's health and for pediatrics is like I said earlier, you're working with a preceptor who provides care to those populations, either they provide care to women or they provide care to peds. It's 180 hours, which equates to about two eight-hour days per week for 12 weeks. And while you're there, you get to do the whole thing, you do the history, you do the physical for the patient, you decide what may be the diagnosis is, and you come up with the plan. Now you need to talk to your preceptor about the diagnosis and the plan, and if the preceptor needs to adjust it, they'll do so. But that's your role, that's what you're doing the whole entire time that you're there.

21:22 DB: And then the last one, 537, it's 240 clinical hours. So it's two eight-hour days for the whole 15 weeks. And then you're just working in a primary care clinic, taking care of adults, whatever their complaint may be. It may be an acute problem, it may be a chronic problem, it may be a combination of the two. You're taking their appropriate history, you're doing the appropriate physical, you are their providers. The safety net is your preceptor. Your preceptor's not going to let you come up with a diagnosis and give them a treatment plan that is not what they need. So you go in, you see the patient, you come out, you say, "I think this person's got acute otitis media. I want to give them ampicillin." If that is indeed what the patient has, then the preceptor is going to agree with you, if it's something a little different, then the two of you discuss it, and you come up with the right diagnosis and the right plan.

22:21 LP: Got it. So then, regarding clinical locations, what are the requirements for finding a clinical location, and how long does it take usually to get a clinical location approved?

22:36 DB: It's best if they do clinicals close to where they live as possible, that way they're not traveling long distances. If you're asking how long is it going to take me to approve, yes, they can use that place for clinical, that's not going to take me very long at all. But it does take time to find a preceptor. When I hunt for preceptors for the on-ground students, I might spend 60 to 80 to 100 hours per student. So it does take a lot of time. You do have to make a lot of phone calls. You just need to be patient. You just need to be polite. Explain what it is that you're trying to do. Your preceptor can be a nurse practitioner, a physician, with an MD, a physician who's a DO. The only rule is they all must have been out practicing for at least one year before you can use them as a preceptor.

23:41 LP: Do you happen to have any preceptors set up for online students yet?

23:48 DB: No, all my preceptors are set up for the on-ground students. And even at that, they help me get preceptors, so every year it does get a little bit harder to find preceptors, but it's not been so hard that we haven't had enough preceptors for anybody, so I don't anticipate the online students having difficulty. I can certainly and will certainly give them some suggestions and some guidelines, but I don't have to do the set up for them.

24:18 LP: Okay, great. Do you offer any help with selecting clinical sites? That's a question from Monique Ross. Just came in.

24:29 DB: I guess I'm not sure what she means. This is going to be all out-patient clinicals, so you're going to be in physician's offices or rural healthcare clinics or in the health departments in their primary care clinics. That's where you'll be. Those are the areas where you'll be working. You could be in a primary care office, you could be in OB-GYN for women's health, you could be in the health department in the Family Planning Clinic for women's health. For peds, you could be in a pediatric office or in a primary care place that sees at least 30 percent of their population is pediatrics. For the last one, for adult, primary care places, rural healthcare clinics, the primary care clinics at your area health department.

25:19 LP: Got it. Okay, let's talk about the residency. Oh, we have one question that just come in. Can you do a clinical in a gastric department of a hospital?

25:34 DB: No, ma'am, you cannot. That's a different kind of medicine. That's not primary care's, unless that particular hospital runs a primary care clinic. Now then, that's different. But it can't be the actual ER-based medicine that we normally have.

26:00 LP: Alright, let's talk a little about the residency requirement. So, we briefly talked about Nurse 507, it's the third course, and that's when the residency takes place. Can you just describe a little bit more about that experience?

26:13 DB: Well, they'll be on campus for three days. The first day that they are there, they'll have a lab quiz that they have to take, but they've been taking lab quizzes every week, so this one just happens to be, instead of being online it's going to be during their residency. Then we're going to have a lab because we're using a bunch of models. We're going to show you how to do pelvic, testicular exam, breast exam. We don't use people for that, we use models, and so they'll be working on the models. Then we'll take a break. A couple hours for lunch. Then they'll get to come back and they'll start practicing with somebody else, and I'll pair them up where they have partners, and they'll start practicing how to put the whole exam together from head to toe. And me and some faculty will walk around, watch them, see what techniques we need to correct, and we'll correct those techniques for them. The next day, they come back, they start with the practicing again. We'll continue to help refine techniques, so that they're doing the techniques correctly. And then starting that afternoon of the second day, then we'll pair 'em up again and they have to come in and they have to do a complete history and physical while they are being watched and graded. So for one hour, they're the provider and for one hour they're the patient. Actually that would be on the third day.

27:41 LP: Can you tell me how long each day of the three-day residency is? Is it like an eight-hour thing, or a four-hour thing?

27:47 DB: It looks like right now, including the break for lunch, it's going to be closer to an eight-hour day, but that includes the time we're going to take for lunch. So actually doing is probably about six, six-and-a-half hours, maybe.

28:06 LP: Okay. I know you haven't actually had the first residency for the first online cohort yet, but do you know if it's going to be scheduled on a weekend or during the week days? Do we have any of that information?

28:25 DB: Yeah, the first one that were scheduled that's starting this summer, it's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So that hopefully, they don't have to miss as much work. But most of the people that are currently going to be taking that course, they live in the state of Tennessee, so they can drive in on Thursday, they don't have to fly in. So, the days will probably change based on how the population for the class changes, but it will always be three days in a row.

29:00 LP: And can you give us any details about what the students should be wearing for this residency? Should they be wearing scrubs, the white lab coat? What are the standards?

29:14 DB: Yes. They need to, when they are the provider... Okay, when they're doing the first two days, they can wear whatever they want to. They can wear shorts, they can wear whatever they want to the first two days, because they're just going to be students practicing and doing some lab stuff. The day that we do the physicals, they'll need to dress. They casual dress, so no blue jeans, no Crocs. And when they're the provider, they'll wear their lab coat over their clothes. And when they're the patient, they'll be in a hospital gown, so they'll need to bring maybe some shorts they can wear under the gown. They get to keep their bra on, of course. They don't have to take it off.

30:05 LP: Alright. I did have one question come in from Alissa Dawson regarding preceptor. She wanted to know, preceptors are chosen by the students or pre-selected by the faculty? And I...

[overlapping conversation]

30:25 DB: Okay.

30:26 LP: Go ahead.

30:26 DB: They are selected by the students.

30:30 LP: But they have to be approved by the faculty?

30:34 DB: Yes, they have to be approved by the faculty.

30:37 LP: Okay, wonderful. So thank you for all those excellent details. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to our Senior Enrollment Advisor, Riley Sellers, who, if you are listening in, you probably talked to her. She is going to describe what the online learning experience is at Carson-Newman for nursing students.

31:00 Riley Sellers: Thank you, Lig. Well, with online, it makes it a lot more flexible. Flexibility is a big part of online. So, you can log in anytime from any internet connection. The online learning platform is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while courses are in session. And you can complete the coursework whenever it's most convenient for you. There's also the ability to still connect with classmates. You will get individualized attention from faculty and develop close relationships with fellow online classmates as you interact with them through creating a professional network. You'll also be able to post, to respond to message and discussions with classmates and faculty by submitting assignments on the required due dates, so even though you do get to work on it when you want, you do have to make sure you turn your homework in on time. The curriculum is relevant curriculum, assignments and discussions encourage you to share specific issues you deal with at work, allowing you to apply lessons and be able to learn from each other at the same time.

32:01 LP: Yeah. I bet you could probably take what you learned in that class and apply it immediately the next day. So now I'm going to turn it over to Amy Skelton to talk about what you can expect in terms of student support as an online nursing student at Carson-Newman.

32:20 Amy Skelton: Thank you, Lig. The online MSN program, students are going to get a lot of support from their professors and the faculty at Carson-Newman and our community as well. They'll also interact with their professors and the other students which is going to allow all the students to really be able to network. They're also going to get to meet each other during their residency, allowing you to really connect a face with a name who you've been interacting with throughout your class.2l  Since they're going to have a student success advisor who will assist them with their degree, and we're going to work together from their initial intake as a student, all the way through graduation. I'm going to be their main point of contact and their liaison to all the other departments. During our first call, we'll discuss the 12 classes that the students are going to get registered for throughout the entire program, and I'll assist them with getting registered for their first-year classes. And then on the first day of classes, what students can expect is for us to schedule a call where I'm going to walk them through the actual online platform that they're going to be using for their courses.

33:25 LP: So like a demonstration?

33:27 AS: Right. I'll demonstrate and make sure that they're able to navigate it, see all the resources that they have available, because there's tons of resources available. They have access to Hoonuit, which has a lot of tutorials and videos on different subjects such as Microsoft Word, writing your research paper, updating your resume, SmartThinking, which is online tutoring, and also access to our Writing Center.

33:51 LP: Awesome. So that's Amy Skelton, and if you have applied and trying to register for the program, I'm sure you've talked to her. So regarding the admissions requirements, I'm going to have Riley speak to that.

34:09 RS: Alright, well I know I see a lot of you on here that I've already spoken to and that have applied, so welcome. And a lot of you that I've talked to that haven't. So just so you know, with the online admissions requirements, we do require that you have at least a 3.0 GPA. Maybe your GPA's under 3.0, you would need to take the GRE. You must also have an active, unencumbered RN license, a bachelor's degree from an NLN or CCNE-accredited program. You would need up to three letters of recommendation, those being one professional, one character, and if you have finished your BSN in the last three years, you would then also need an academic. You need to write a letter of personal goals and aspirations, and then we would also need official transcripts from all previously-attended universities.

35:03 LP: And I also believe that there are few requirements before they begin clinical. There's a drug screening, I believe, something like that.

35:13 RS: Yes, you do need to do a background check, Amy will assist you through that whole process.

35:17 LP: Okay, wonderful. But you don't need that to enroll; you just need it to be done before clinicals begin.

35:23 RS: Exactly.

35:23 LP: Okay, cool. Now here's a little bit about tuition.

35:29 RS: Yes, our tuition here is $650 per credit hour, so the total tuition is $29,250. We do have a technology fee of $20 per credit hour and an annual malpractice insurance fee of $80 per credit hour. We do not charge for the application, so there is zero application fee. And if you wanted any transcripts evaluated ahead of time, we're happy to do a tentative evaluation also at no charge.

35:56 LP: To get a tentative evaluation you would need to just apply, that's all you need to do, right?

36:00 RS: Or just send in your official transcripts to me, I can have those done before you apply.

36:05 LP: Wow! How quickly do you think that can turn around?

36:07 RS: It's usually about 24 hours...

36:09 LP: Wow. Oh, sure, yeah. So we have as an upcoming that start on January 14th, that's the next start date. The application deadline is January 4th, so please reach out to Riley if you are interested in that term.

36:41 RS: Just so you know that January 4th deadline is actually the deadline to have all required documentation in to us. Although I do want to put out a reminder there that come the holidays, it's going to be harder to get transcripts from your previous colleges...

36:54 LP: Right.

36:55 RS: So I do recommend doing that before Thanksgiving then.

36:58 LP: So early November is the time. And so now we've reached the Q&A portion of our presentation so some... Some students, potential students, have already submitted a few. One was from Nicholas West submitted some questions, and he wanted to know what have future and former students, how have they handled working full-time while working, while also studying in this program? Riley, I'm going to... I'm going to, do you mind if have Riley answer this?

37:42 RS: Well, what I say with that is here, we have the program already set up with that working nurse in mind, so you are not taking too many classes at a time. I feel like Dr. Bolton said earlier, you only start with two classes at a time for your first three semesters and then after that you do one class at a time. And also when it comes to clinicals as Dr. Bolton broke it down, it's really minimal hours a week because each class is 15 hours a week, so it's definitely set up for that full-time working nurse. Did you have anything to add to that, Dr. Bolton?

38:14 DB: I'll just want to say, the students in the on-ground program seem to manage work and school responsibilities well simply because, as you said, we do set this up because we know you're working and we try to work with you as much as possible. So if you work Monday through Friday and you're off on the weekends, try to find a clinical place that's open on the weekends. And a lot of primary care places are.

38:49 LP: Got it. I have another question here. So, because we really try to bring the students in to really teach them all they need to learn in a very concise way and not cram a lot of information. So for those students that, you know, when it's time to be taking two courses at a time, will they have the same professor for both courses?

39:17 DB: This semester, and this is the first semester that we started this program, they do have the same instructor for both courses but that won't always be the case.

39:28 LP: Okay.

39:28 DB: But they will have instructors who are used to working with each other and who are used to teaching these courses together.  So they are used to working and managing the schedule so that the student doesn't feel overwhelmed.

39:47 LP: So, I know Carson-Newman has a lot of accolades because of all the outreach and the community work they do and helping to serve the underserved, and I know that the students on campus have opportunities to take international trips to work on special projects like that, they can be a part of. Is this anything that maybe our online students could participate?

40:15 DB: Yeah, there's no reason why they can't participate and depending on where they, if they want to go to one of these mission trips, usually they just come back and they've gotten 80 hours of clinical just on this mission trip. So we do work with them, we do try to count that clinical. And so there's no reason why they can't go.

40:38 LP: Okay. And there's... We had this question come in from a student that Riley was talking to on the phone a couple days ago with regards to when you earn your MSN does that automatically qualify you to teach or do you need a nurse educator certificate to be able to teach in nursing. What does an MSN exactly qualify you for in terms of teaching possibilities?

41:13 DB: You don't have to have a specific nurse educator courses or a nurse educator certificate to teach. When I started teaching, I just had my BSN degree and my master's degree, and a desire to do so, so you don't have to have anything special. Usually teaching if you have a master's degree and that's all you have, in the bigger universities, you're going to end up teaching in an undergraduate program. In a small university, like us, you might have to do both. Teach some undergraduate courses and some graduate courses. But usually most universities or colleges like for the people who teach in graduate programs to have a terminal degree, so for us nurses, it would be a DNP or a PhD, but you don't have to have any special nurse educator courses, but if you took some then that does set you apart from other applicants that might be coming.

42:07 LP: Mm-hmm, it could really also prolong your nursing career. Can you tell us what you feel sets Carson-Newman's FNP program apart from other programs?

42:26 DB: Yeah, I think it's because we set high standards but doesn't mean everybody doesn't, but we set high standards, we keep the high standards. We teach when talking, deal a lot about compassion and caring and respect and the faculty demonstrate all that to the students, the faculty, we care about the student, we are compassionate with the student, we try to work with the student however we possibly can, to make sure that they are successful. If you're going to start in this program, we want you to succeed and to graduate, so we get to know you as a person not just where you're sitting in my class, so I think that is what really sets us apart from other programs.

43:18 LP: Mm-hmm, and I... There is also one more question that has come in from Michelle Rivas, she would like to know, like during NURS 507 Health Assessment, does she need... Would she need to travel to campus towards the beginning, middle, or end of that course.

43:39 DB: It's usual. It's going to be somewhere around the seventh or the eighth week of that course...

43:47 LP: Okay, we got it. Mm-hmm and two more questions. So, number one, what are you seeing to be the most common sub-specialties, for family nurse practitioners. I know family nurse practitioner is a specialty, but are they doing any further certifications or specializations? And then what do you think has the most impact on job satisfaction when you are a family nurse practitioner?

44:23 DB: Okay, first question first. Sub-specialty. Family nurse practitioners can work in any field, so if I want to take my FNP and work just with women or just in primary care or just with pediatrics, I can do that. Some FNPs go on and get more education, not necessarily at a university, but they just go and take, and it's not really courses, it's more like they just get more specialized training in how to do something else and so they'll do that in addition with their FNP. For instance, I've got nurse practitioners that work with us that were also certified lactation consultants or also certified to deal with urinary incontinence or certified to do a little bit of physical therapy on the side. So those are things they did outside of an education, a formal educational system. So those are always open and available. As far as the second question, it was what makes your job... What was it about... Your job again?

45:31 LP: Yeah, what part of being a family nurse practitioner has the most impact on job satisfaction?

45:39 DB: Well, I think... Well, based on personal experience, I think it is just the care and the compassion you have for the patients and the desire to see them well taken care of. I think that gives it the most satisfaction. It's also satisfying when you work with the physician who has your same philosophy of how to take care of patients. And if you... And develop those relationships that work. I think that also helps play into your role of satisfaction.

46:18 LP: Alright great, thank you. So, for anyone that submitted a question that we weren't able to answer during this presentation, we will be following up with you to answer those questions. We're also going to send an email with the recording of this presentation, in case you want to hear it again. If you have more questions about the program or ready to apply, just need additional information about Carson-Newman, just give Riley Sellers a call, there's her phone number and she also receives text messages. We both, we know nurses are very, very busy. So, texting is fine, but just be sure to use the text number and of course, email is always an option. And that concludes our webinar today, so thank you so much for everyone who joined us. And hope to hear from you again soon. Thank you very much.