If you’re considering going to Nurse Practitioner school, you’re likely wondering – is Nurse Practitioner school hard? Today’s post is all about answering this very common question. My quick answer is: yes, Nurse Practitioner school is hard. The way it’s hard and the challenges it presents changes as you go through the program. Most, if not all, of my classmates and friends would agree that no matter who you are, you’re likely to be challenged. It’s not only academically challenging but also because of often being older when you start NP school, you have more commitments in your personal and professional life.
My background: I attended the University of Washington DNP, Family Nurse Practitioner, full-time, and in-person program. I worked part-time and did not have any children or a family to take care of.
Let’s start with how NP school is different than nursing school and then we’ll talk about the different parts of NP school. For most DNP programs, your first year is going to be all about the DNP-specific courses (leadership, research, health economics, etc.). Then, you’ll move onto your core courses and finally, your clinical rotations and a DNP project. Each of these parts of NP school provide different challenges.
How it’s different than nursing school
- When you start NP school, you’re typically older (at least mid-20s but often 30-40s) and given this age, most students are likely to have a family and a full or part-time job.
- Courses are usually consolidated into 1-2 days per week. Compared to your BSN, you’ll be spending less time on campus and in class. Usually, you’ll have classes 1-2 days per week instead of daily as you did with the BSN.
- Higher expectations with regards to writing quality. Now that you’re in a doctorate or masters program, expectations for the quality of work are higher. Especially, in your first year DNP-specific courses and your DNP project, you’ll be writing a ton. For a lot of us, it’s been a while since we’ve been in school and produced academic-quality writing.
- Courses and content are more challenging. The level of knowledge you’re required to have as a Nurse Practitioner is a huge step up from a RN. You’ll take a lot of the same courses as you did with your BSN, but will go into each topic with a lot more depth because you’ll be diagnosing and treating health problems soon.
- When you start nursing school, you typically have little to no experience in healthcare. Everything you’re learning is from scratch. In NP school, there is an assumption that you have at least some background and foundational knowledge. This definitely works to your advantage! Having patient care experience is a huge help too.
- NP school has higher stakes. Both RNs and NPs have hugely important and critical roles in patient care. As an NP, your new role gives you a whole different level of responsibility and liability. Most students feel the gravity of this and desire to learn as much as possible in order to be the best and safest provider possible.
DNP-specific courses
These are the courses, usually taken at the beginning of your program, that are not clinical but are on the topics of leadership, evidence-based practice, evaluating research, quality improvement, etc. These courses are usually not academically challenging, but they can be difficult to get invested in. When you decide to become an NP, you typically don’t get excited or even think about these courses beforehand. It can be hard to see the value of these courses early on. By the time, you start your DNP project you may begin to see the value in some of these courses. But honestly, the first year of the program is challenging because you’re not really learning about the topics that made you interested in becoming a Nurse Practitioner.
Clinical Courses – Health Assessment, Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, Primary Care/Adult Management Courses
These classes are difficult not only because of the content but also because of how much content must be learned in a short amount of time. In most programs, these classes are grouped together so you’re often taking multiple important and challenging courses at once. The credit load per quarter or semester in this portion of the program is often high. This is definitely stressful and requires a lot of organization and prioritization.
For more tips, make sure to check out my pharmacology study template and 3 strategies for studying for primary care/adult management courses.
Clinical rotations
Clinical rotations are simultaneously one of the most exciting, challenging and humbling parts of your NP education. After all the classroom time, you finally get the chance to get hands on experience and practice everything you’ve learned. We’ve become experts in our RN jobs, and in clinical rotations, we’re a novice Nurse Practitioner student. This is a hard and humbling experience. It can definitely be uncomfortable to be in the student role again. You may feel like a fish out of water, especially at the beginning.
As you get more clinical experience, you’ll begin to feel more comfortable being in the student and learner role again. By the time you finish all of your clinical hours, you’ll have made so much progress in your learning. This part of the program can be challenging because it can be emotionally and mentally exhausting to be in clinical rotations. You may have a commute to your clinical site while also juggling classes, work, and family life.
DNP project
Every school is going to be so different in this regard. In my program, the projects were already laid out and all I had to do was sign up for one. We completed our DNP projects over 6 months with consistent guidance from faculty. I’ll admit, completing the project and all of the writing associated with it was not as hard as I expected. This was because of the huge amount of faculty support I had. The difficulty of your DNP project will really depend so much on where you go to school and how it’s laid out.
Studying for boards
Congrats! You’ve graduated and are starting to think about your certification exam and first job. Most of us put a ton of pressure on ourselves to study and do well on the ANCC or AANP exam. Everything you’ve been working for rides on passing this exam. For me, this process was not difficult, but it was stressful. There’s no structure to this time period. Everyone in your program will have a different timeline for taking the exam and different study strategies. It can be hard not to compare. Check out this post for my study strategy for the FNP exam. Overall, I thought studying for my certification exam was a nice review of everything I learned in NP school. It’s also great preparation for your first job. It can also remind you of areas you may need to review prior to starting your job.
Is Nurse Practitioner school hard? Summary
Yes! But you can do it! We’ve chosen a challenging but rewarding and exciting career. Each step of the way you’ll be facing new challenges but I know that we’re all more than capable of thriving and succeeding.
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