Nurse Practitioner Requirements

[maximus]

Hey guys, I have a question about requirements for Nurse Practitioner schooling. I know you need a 4 year nursing degree, and 2 years of related work experience afterwards, but generally what GPA would be required for

 

A) your original undergrad in order to get to Nurse Practitioner degree/diploma

 

and

 

during your Nurse Practitioner degree or diploma to graduate.

 

Also, are there any additional things you need, like for instance volunteer experience.

 

Thanks for any info you can provide!

[leijona88]

prob depends on the program.. I've heard at Lakehead about 1 in 10 applicants get into the NP program. In terms of specific GPA I don't know

[cupquake]

Hey guys, I have a question about requirements for Nurse Practitioner schooling. I know you need a 4 year nursing degree, and 2 years of related work experience afterwards, but generally what GPA would be required for

 

A) your original undergrad in order to get to Nurse Practitioner degree/diploma

 

and

 

during your Nurse Practitioner degree or diploma to graduate.

 

Also, are there any additional things you need, like for instance volunteer experience.

 

Thanks for any info you can provide!

 

I think it depends on the school. For U of Windsor, you need a B (but I'm pretty sure its higher than that if you actually want to get in)

Good luck!

[leijona88]

 

during your Nurse Practitioner degree or diploma to graduate.

 

From the NP programs in Ontario that I've looked at, most say you need a 70% average to stay in the program, and practicums are satisfactory/unsatisfactory. That being said, I have no idea how difficult it is to get 70s I would assume more difficult than in BScN classes.

[medisforme]

Re: question a: When I was looking into UBC several years ago, you needed 75% average from 3rd and 4th year courses (nursing undergrad), things might have changed since then.

And just to clarify, it's not 2-3 years work experience, it's 2-3 years in an acute care setting (ie. med/surg, emerg, pacu, icu). You can't apply in canada if your experience is in psych, public health, home care etc...

You can do NP psych in the US but as far as I am aware, not in Canada (I briefly pursued this option awhile back).

[leijona88]

Re: question a: When I was looking into UBC several years ago, you needed 75% average from 3rd and 4th year courses (nursing undergrad), things might have changed since then.

And just to clarify, it's not 2-3 years work experience, it's 2-3 years in an acute care setting (ie. med/surg, emerg, pacu, icu). You can't apply in canada if your experience is in psych, public health, home care etc...

You can do NP psych in the US but as far as I am aware, not in Canada (I briefly pursued this option awhile back).

 

are you sure about acute care? I have looked at requirements of all programs in Ontario and a few in other provinces. They have all said "direct nursing care", none have specifically said acute care.

[medisforme]

are you sure about acute care? I have looked at requirements of all programs in Ontario and a few in other provinces. They have all said "direct nursing care", none have specifically said acute care.

 

No, I am not 100% sure, but when I was pursuing this option several years ago, a representative from UBC program specifically told me that experience was necessary in an acute care setting. This also makes sense, since if one were to be accepted with a background in psych or public health (for the family or adult specialty), they would be way, way behind the eight ball in terms of acute care knowledge (which is an important focus of the program). Furthermore, given the number of applicants, even if one were allowed to apply from a non-acute background, I don't think you would be overly competitive applicant (ie. much like medicine, I would think nurse practitioner programs want applicants who have some experience in what they are getting into - for example, many (most?) grads from the ADULT program stream end up working on an acute care unit of some type).

[leijona88]

No, I am not 100% sure, but when I was pursuing this option several years ago, a representative from UBC program specifically told me that experience was necessary in an acute care setting.

 

To be honest your evidence seems a little weak.. lol But yeah I can see that acute care would be a big part of the program because it covers a lot of the general stuff, but a lot of NPs work in LTC and even ACT teams and other mental health/addictions community practice areas, so I think RNs with experience in those areas would be better off than someone who's only worked med/surg.. so I don't think you can exclude anyone and try to predict where people will work after, nurses change fields all the time and a lot of skills (communication, assessment, etc) are transferable.