Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) - Virtual Information Session

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll give you all just a couple of seconds to, uh, get situated. Make sure your speakers are on and you can hear us. And, uh, for those of you who are joining us live, for those of you who are joining us prerecorded, go ahead and Fast forward just a couple of seconds while we give our live audience a second to, to join the room.

Alright.

Great. Alright, looks like everyone's here. So thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Jen Radwanski and I'm the Associate Director for Graduate Admissions here at Stockton University. And I am joined by my amazing colleague, Dr. Leah Luden, who is our program Chair for our MSN program. And today we're going to share with you more information about our Master of Science in Nursing and our Doctor of Nursing Practice. We will also be joined by Doctor Laroda Roofing, who is going to be here in just a little bit.

And he'll introduce himself at the end of our presentation. But before we get started, a couple little housekeeping items.

Uh, number one, we do have a chat for our live folks. You'll notice that, uh, feature there. Uh, please feel free to drop any questions you have in the chat, but I would suggest waiting to put those questions in the chat until the end of our presentation as more than likely we will get to those questions, umm, uh, throughout the presentation today. The second thing is, is just a reminder not to put any personal information in the chat. If you have personal questions that pertain to you as an applicant, we'd be happy to take those, uh, one-on-one with you, uh, in an off session for those.

Watching the pre recording, we will also share our contact information with you all at the very end, so you can send us any questions you have as well. So without further ado, Doctor Luden, I'm going to turn things over to you. Thanks for joining us today.

All right. Thank you, Jen. As Jen said, my name is Doctor Leah Luden. I am the chair of the Masters program and Postmasters Certificate Practice program. So that is for our adult Giro and our family nurse practitioner. So let's get right into it. So for our mission here at Stockton, our mission of the graduate nursing program is to develop competent nurses.

Nurse practitioners or advance registered nurses to practice in a culturally diverse.

And rapidly evolving world, as all of you know, nursing is forever changing, medicine is forever changing. So we need to keep up with the times. The university and graduate nursing program remain responsive and to our community needs. So we think about our surrounding stakeholders, right? We think about our community, what does our community lack? What do we need to focus on? So we take that into our consideration as well. We want to develop, right?

Independent experimental learning fosters students to choose their education and.

Their future professional endeavors? We want you to start thinking as an independent practitioner, and we embrace the University's guiding principles, visions, values, and their strategic plan.

All right. Let's give a little history about Stockton and the nursing program where it started. In 1975, we went to an RN to BSN and then 1998 is when we had our first adult MP program. 2004 we started our FMP certificate, 2006 is our pre licensure and then 2014 we had a DMP. 2016 was our accelerated program. So that's someone who already has a bachelor's degree in another discipline.

They come back and they say, hey, I'm going to do nursing.

2018 we had our post BSM, post MSN DMP, what a mouthful, right? Open for enrollment. And then 2021 we had our first DMP graduates in cohorts, excuse me. And then 2023 we had our MSN FMP full program.

We'll go onto our next one.

And then now we have our broad career options. So the options that we have here at Stockton for you is nurse. And as you know, nurse practitioners can work in a variety of settings. They can assess, diagnose, treat acute and chronic illnesses. Our family nurse practitioner or adult Jarrow nurse practitioners practice in primary care, urgent cares, UMM clinics, private homes, insurance-related Wellness programs, and many more.

That is an option for nurse practitioners.

Alright, the program, so the cohort model is a more small classroom size, umm, core group of full-time faculties. We are a very small graduate program. Umm, but uh, we like to say that even though we're small, we're mighty, right? We really get to know our students. We really get to make ensure that they have the best education possible.

Program classes are held online, synchronous via Zoom.

Meaning it will be somewhat similar like this. We do a hybrid course and we will meet some of the programs meet every other week and it's usually at night time because we know folks are working, right. So it'll be 6:00 to 9:00 PM our curriculum. So we have our core courses, our program courses, and of course we have our DMP project courses, which we can get dive a little bit deeper.

What are our tracks that we have? So we have our adult JRL, right, which is our MSN and our postmaster certificates. We also have our family nurse practitioner means. So adult Gero means that you will be taking care of children that are your 12 years and older. Excuse me, I have a little bit of a cold. Family nurse practitioner conception to death, right? That is the range.

And then your doctoral nursing practice.

Is more of a quality improvement that you have picked because it's a clinical based doctoral program. And Doctor Ruffin when he joins, he can talk more to that as well.

Alright, next.

Let's talk about our creditors. You always want to make sure that you go to a university that is accredited, alright? And our accreditation is nationally recognized, accredited by the CCNE and then your APN certification is eligible. And it's the two main certifying bodies, which is the AAMP and the AANC.

Alright, are MSN curriculum, our MSN curriculum, we have umm, 2 routes that you can go. There is part time and full time for the adult general and the FNP umm, and if you go right onto our website, it breaks it down to all the courses. Umm, it runs in UC starts in the fall and it runs fall, spring and summer depending if you want to do a 24 month versus a 33 month umm, those are the different options that are available.

And I just would like to say it's those courses do only run that you will see for fall, spring, summer, only run during those time slots. We don't have continuous running courses like some other programs may have. So please take that into account.

Let's talk about our practice hours because everyone's very interested about when it comes to clinical, right.

So as you can see here, I'll move this slide along. I apologize. If you see here your Doljaro has 750 hours and 46 credits and then the F&P has 770 hours, right, and 50 credits and that could be either 24 month or 33 months. Everyone no matter what track you're on 24 months versus 33 months, you all catch up at the same part when it comes to clinical, clinical starts when if you look on the website, you'll see.

Adult one. That's when clinicals will start.

And you will we help you get your clinical.

Sites because I know that's a big concern with a lot of individuals. We like it to say that we are joint partnership with that we want you to go out and talk to especially your employers or individuals that you know and do networking to obtain a clinical site. But if you're unable to obtain 1, you definitely help you find one and there's no charge for us helping you find a clinical site. Other universities if you go to different.

For an online universities, they charge you a finder's fee. We do not. We spend the time, the small graduate program scours the area and looks for a clinical site for you. Knock on wood, right? We have always found a clinical site. We can't always guarantee it, but so far running we have always found it and we've really tried to find that political site for you if you are unable to network on your own.

Alright, moving forward.

On campus intensive. These are oskis. These are my favorite.

So the oskis, what we like to do every semester once starting clinical, so an adult one, adult 2, adult 3 and then your immersion course. We like to do a 2 day on campus intensive meaning is that you we have actors, real life actors come in.

And they will have a case scenario and it's in our simulation suite. It looks like a doctor's office. You will come in and you would have to be the practitioner. And we want to ensure that your skills are up to par, right? We want to we, and this is a teaching experience for you, a learning experience, I should say, excuse me for you, so that we can say, hey, you know, you forgot to ask this question or make sure that you're doing your head to toe complete. Make sure you're doing this type of format. This is all helpful and.

Students really like it. Some of our incentives that we have is a suturing course that I teach. My specialty is ER, emergency medicine and addiction. So we have a suturing course. Most universities make you pay for that. This is already a part of your program. We have interactive case studies. We have guest speaker lecturers during this intensive and they change each semester.

So we take a lot of time input into that and all mostly I want to say majority of all students really enjoy this.

All right, And this is as one of I speak of earlier, this is our on campus suturing a moon closure. So you'll learn about different basic types of suturing. You'll also learn about different derm procedures such as punch biopsies, different procedures for closures after removal of different.

Skin issues. So we really go into detail with that.

Alright, now this is talking about our DMP, umm, our DNP project initiative. So our DMP is 27 credit curriculum project may take place at the Apns primary care work or clinical site, which is an advantage.

Students receive credit for 500 clinical hours earned if they were already in an MP program and the total of DMP hours is 1000. OK DP clinical hours are achieved through the DMP course project.

And then the goal analysis for clinical hours are non APM post MSN students.

Next one Why Stockton?

Why come to Stockton, right?

There's a couple of things. Small classroom sizes means more one-on-one teaching experience, one-on-one guidance. We sometimes also, if our classroom sizes are small enough, we have tutoring sessions, review sessions.

Competitive tuition, right costs compared to other programs in New Jersey, Unique, specialized, working in diverse individuals, families and communities. New Jersey is umm, in our small little area here, we're very densely populated and very densely diverse. So you'll get a wide range of clinical experience. Supported and esteemed faculty were always available to an extent, right. But we really try to be there for our students. Umm, we do have that 2433 month.

Option.

Our own course intensives. Not many universities have that.

Our online synchronous and asynchronous classes makes it easy for those to continue working and study from home.

And then we have our 18 month post MSNDMP.

All right, I'm going to give it to Jen.

Yep. And just to piggyback onto that, 1-2 items that when I'm speaking with individuals who are interested in these programs that I'll add to this slide is, umm, sometimes people look at the 24 and 33 month and they're like, what does that mean? Basically different terminology for part-time, full-time, right? Umm, that's a little bit of an easier way to look at it. So, uh, part time would be 33 months and 24 months would be, if you're going full time, umm, most folks choose the 33 option just because they're probably also working full time, but umm.

Some folks are able to manage both and so just keep that in mind. The other thing that you know, Doctor Luden alluded to, but I would like to emphasize is, is the faculty component and how absolutely wonderful our faculty are. And that really should be your main reason in looking at this. They are the most dedicated individuals and they are, they're there for their students. They know each of their students, their cases, their stories, you know what they're trying to achieve and they're really there for them in that small.

Academic environment and so I I'm going to I'm going to.

Toot your horn just a little bit and and and emphasizing the importance of that and and and the value. So thank you for that.

The other reason that you may want to consider is because most of our folks do work full time, umm, is that there are a number of, uh, partners that we have with hospitals and, and health agencies that allow for a 20% discount. Umm, this is really critical because we know Graduate School is really, really expensive. Umm, I'm going to drop a link that gives you a full list of all of the programs, uh, that are currently in partnership with us, but we are constantly adding to that. We expect to see a few more hospitals being added to that within the next year, although I can't make that announcement.

Officially, I know there are some things in the works which makes us very excited. We currently have four partners and again, I'll drop that link in the chat in just a moment. The other things that I dropped in the chat were the MSN web page and the DMP web page. So all of the items that you see here are on there. So you know if we're talking about the the cost of this knowing that the 20% discount. So there are two other pieces that you want to keep in mind. There's a 20% discount if you're employed at one of these agencies, but also a lot of employers.

A tuition discount or tuition remission, tuition reimbursement, whatever that institution calls it. And so it's really important that you reach out to your HR department of your employer to see if they offer anything like that as well. And the combination of the two does really make our MSN and DMP programs even more affordable than some of our other graduate programs here at Stockton. And I think that that's really something to that that is a of great value. Like I said, Graduate School is very expensive right now and anything we can do to make that a more.

Common. More cheaper.

For you to do that, make it easier for your everyday life. We try to think through those items. So, so with that being said, you know, another great reason is, is our pass rate. So Doctor Lewin, you want to talk about that a little bit as well.

Yes. So our pass rates are 100%. Every student that has come through our program has passed their boards, no matter which one they take the NCC or the AAMP, right. It depends on which one. And I feel as though a lot of students say well, which one should I take, which one should I do? It really it depends there's it fluctuates throughout the years, the trends, right. But no matter which one that our students have taken, they've all passed.

We've had, I will say this disclaimer, we've had only one student.

Once at the end of the years that I've been here and I've been here.

Seven years now, eight years almost. I forget. Feel like it's been a lifetime, right? But fun. But we've had one student not pass, but she retook it again and passed so.

So we have a very high percentage of a pass rate and and I credit that to our intensives. I credit that just because what we do on our own is we make you take a pre and post test. So we do a pre comprehensive testing to see where you stand at and then we take that analysis and we build a plan. We help you blend a plan to make sure that you pass and then you do another post test. So we already build that into our curriculum to.

Forced to make sure that you pass on the program and I think the next ones are for you, Jen.

Yep. So let's talk about how you can actually apply for the program. Um, again, all of this information is on our website, both the MSN and the DMP page respect respectively. So no need to take feverous notes. But just to give you a general idea and give you a little bit more background information of what would be required. Number one, you do have to, for the, for the MSN, have a BSN already. So have your bachelors degree and your nursing degree.

And then for the DNP there are different options for that as far.

But also must have BSN as well.

Uh, for those who are interested, there is a direct entry application option. The details of that are on our page as well. Those would be for Stockton students who have left another program within the last year. Typically, umm, these would be students who have graduated from our accelerated nursing or our nursing program at the undergraduate level and are looking to jump right into doing their masters degree or doctoral degree, umm, after their BSN. Or for anyone in the M SN program who's looking to go straight on to their DNP program.

Umm, within one year of completing that degree.

This is a great opportunity to not have to pay your application fee. You don't have to do letters of recommendation. All we need to have is your updated certificate as well as your resume and your.

Essay so But before we dive into that, we are joined by Doctor Rufin, who is our DMP program chair. Do you want to do a quick introduction before I continue on with the application process? We're glad you could be here.

Yes.

Great. Thanks for being here.

All right. So the next part for both the, the next few items are things that are for both applications. We're going to talk simultaneously about them both. First is the application fee. There is a $50 application fee. In many cases you may be eligible for an application fee waiver code. If you're provided one of those, you can utilize that as well to waive your $50.00. But what will happen is the $50 or the application?

Promo code is going to help you submit your application. You're not submitting it for review, you're just submitting it.

To begin, sometimes people get confused by that submit button. It simply means to move on to the next stage of the application. Once you do that, you are going to be able to see the essay prompt. You won't be able to see it before that. So just know a lot of people give us a call and say, I'd like to prepare my essay in advance. Nope. You have to submit your application 1st and then you'll be able to see the essay prompt. In that space. You'll also see a checklist of items that you are either able to load or that you are required to have sent to us. The essay is one that you can load yourself and you'll do so as a PDF.

Format next is you are also able to upload proof of licensure and you can do that in the system with through our checklist and then also proof of your current CPR certificate. Again, those should be loaded as PDFs. The system likes those best so if you can you just save those as PDFs and you can load them to your application yourself. Now the next item you will need to have a little bit of assistance with which are your letters of recommendation. There are two letters of recommendation required but.

So you need to submit is the e-mail address for your recommender, their name and their title. Then we will send them an electronic form to complete. But here's what you need to know. 2 items. Number one, you should always reach out to your recommenders before including their name on your application. Let them know your deadline, let them know you're applying and I would always suggest giving them a copy of your resume to refer back to as they're writing your recommendation. The second thing is is to copy and paste their e-mail address into your application. Don't free type it. I can't tell you how many folks.

Only write coninsteadof.com or things of that nature, and we want to make sure that your recommender gets the information that they to complete it for you. But the other thing is that these should be professional or academic references. So these should be either be faculty that you've had in coursework before at the undergraduate level, or if you have any other degrees, someone who's taught at the collegiate level or someone who is supervising you in the field of nursing.

So again a supervisor or someone again in the field.

Field of nursing, who can speak to your ability in that area? So either academic references or professional references. So even if you have a really wonderful next door neighbor, you have known them for 20 years, you take in their trash cans, mow their lawn and everything else and they be a great character reference. Umm, we're looking for professional and academic references. So in this case, they would not be the best recommender.

Umm, lastly, uh, or two last items, uh, you can also load your resume again, that'll just be, be a PDF copy that you upload to your checklist in the application portal. And then lastly, uh, transcripts. So we need to receive transcripts from every institution that you attended. So if you, uh, went to Community College for your associates and, and uh, in nursing and, uh, you can, we need to see that we need to see your bachelor's degree, any courses in between if you have transferred.

Dual credit, if you have another master's degree, another doctoral degree, all of those things have to be sent to us and we must receive them as official transcripts. Now, the only caveat to that is if you were a Stockton student, we will pull your transcripts for you. Um, so we do have access to those, but all other transcripts outside of Stockton would need to be sent to us in an official transcript format. We also strongly recommend that you have those sent to us in electronic format versus having them sent via the mail. It's just a much quicker.

Your process to have them attached to your application, you also get a receipt emailed to you when it's completed. And so it's just a little bit easier of a process. So that can be sent to either sent to Stockton or it can be sent to the registrar. Sometimes they require that from Parchment or the different application sites.

So let's talk a little bit about deadlines and I'm going to make sure that Doctor Lewin and Dr. Ruffin jump in at any point if I miss anything. But this isn't a crucial part to to keep in mind. There are many different options and umm, this specifically people ask, well, how come I can't start at any term? Well, because there is a specific course sequence. Umm, if you're looking to start a term that is not listed here, we can have a one-on-one conversation with you. Umm, I know that there are some folks in the audience. We've started beginning having those conversations. We'll continue those.

With you, but these are our traditional priority deadlines and terms for starting specific programs. Um, what you'll also note is again go back going back to our previous slide, the 24 month is your traditional full-time status as a graduate student and 33 months is your part-time status. Umm, priority deadlines does not mean that we don't still review after that point. It just means you may not be considered for scholarships or graduate assistantships, things like that some.

Additional funding options. So we really encourage you to stick with those priority deadlines as much as possible. So anything I missed on those?

OK.

What's the Oh, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, Doctor Ruffin.

Perfect, yes.

I do want to say about transferring credits in that if you do transfer credits in for, umm, certain courses, we may ask for a course description. We need to make sure that the course is aligned with our curriculum. So please try to maybe work on that on your back end. So if you're already thinking you want to, maybe if you took a research course or you took a certain informatics course, we're definitely going to need to see the course description. There are some courses that we do not allow to be transferred in.

Health assessment is one of those and I believe, Doctor Ruffin, please correct me if I'm wrong, Pathophysiology.

Are the courses that we don't allow to be transferred in. So that given said, if you have courses to be transferred in, try to get the course description on the back end so that it makes your process if there's no delay in your acceptance.

Yes, thank you. That's a great point. Yes, umm, you will load all those materials for transfer, umm, uh, evaluation to your application at the point of application. We don't review prior to applying, umm, and we, we, it needs to happen at the time of application review. And so you could have two options for upload. Again, you want to upload everything as a PDF, but you can take umm, a screenshot of the uh, bulletin or the course descriptions from whatever institution you took those at and upload.

That or we would also be happy in taking a full copy of your syllabus from the course that you took. Either one of those would be acceptable or you can give us both, whatever you know is easiest for you, but we must have one or the other in order to review. The other item that we get frequent questions about is would any of a bachelor's courses be counted as transfer courses? And they would not. This would only be for graduate level coursework either at the masters or doctoral level that those would be considered. So please keep that in mind.

But that was a yes, a really, really great point, so.

Oh sorry, I got those two mixed up. I know it's one with the page.

So how advanced health assessment and pharmacology, those are the two that cannot be transferred in? Thank you, Doctor Efron for the clarification.

Thank you. Perfect.

All right, so before we dive into Q&A, I'll encourage you all to start thinking about if there's any questions you want to start formulating to put in the chat. But I know that Doctor Lewd and Dr. Rufin want to tell you a little bit more about their alumni and what they're all doing now and how they're utilizing their degrees.

Do you want to jump in Doctor Ruffin?

Yes.

So with that said, that concludes our part of the presentation. We want to turn things over to you all in our live audience. If you have questions to please feel free to drop those in the chat at this time. And then for those of you who are watching this prerecorded or live, I want to make sure you have all of our contact information. We are happy to answer any questions that you may have and are happy to assist you with the application process.

To, you know, make it as simple as possible for you to to be here at Stockton.

Again, our faculty are really attentive to being able to work with you, to meet with you, and to answer those questions.

Umm, with that said, I am not actually seeing any questions, uh, posted in the chat. So any other concluding items? Doctor Liu and Doctor Rufin? Oh no, we have one all right, uh.

I was going to say, don't be shy. Come on and ask this question. Get us where you can, right?

Uh it says I took a research in informatics in nursing for my MSN. Can they be used for the DNP? Uh also what does the curriculum look like for the DMP? Is there are there tests or is it all writing? Great question.

Great. Alright with that. I don't. OK, one more. Umm.

Yes Susan, we umm, I'll talk with you uh offline. We, we doctor Ludin and I spoke before the session and I'll be reaching out to you this afternoon with more information so.

Good. All right, with all that being said.

No, no, we. Yep.

No, yes.

Yep. We, we, we chatted yesterday and then Dr. Lewd and I spoke today and we'll, we'll follow up with Susan directly. Thank you. Great.

Don't be shy.

Awesome.

Perfect. Well, thank you all so, so much. I want to thank our audience for joining us and for, you know, looking more into this program. I want to thank Doctor Luden and Dr. Rufin for joining and Co hosting with me today. Again, our faculty are the real reason why you should consider this program and their expertise and and how much they really care about our students. And I know that that's not the case at every institution and it's something that we do quite well and that we're very proud of. So thank you both for taking the time. Thank you to our audience and I wish you all a wonderful day. Take care. We hope to hear from you all soon.

Thank you. Bye.