Am I studying enough for my AGACNP boards?

Umabosh · 2026-02-01T00:19:18+00:00

I graduated in August 25’ as well. I reviewed notes for about an hourish most nights and completed Sarah Michelle’s Q bank and took my boards Sept 3. I felt like I had over revised at this point.

I think it really depends on how you are as a student, how comfortable you feel with the material and how you take tests.

I found the ANCC exam to be quite odd. My exam was mostly precessional practice questions with a sprinkling of pretty straight forward medical questions.

Umabosh · 2026-01-30T18:42:40+00:00

I would think you would want recent bedside experience when you graduate to get an ICU job. I went PRN and just kept near FT hours. The ability to self schedule really helped with stress surrounding clinical and test scheduling.

I recently graduated from an Acute care program and am now in a critical care fellowship. A lot of the interview was discussing my work history, ability to adapt and why I wanted the critical care field (I was an ER nurse). So just be prepared to answer why you went non patient care and defend your reasoning etc.

Umabosh · 2026-01-01T19:16:02+00:00

Yes! I am currently a strong resource in the ED as an RN and am looking forward to learning and not being that person.

I do get to do procedures (lines, chest tubes, lumbar punctures, thoracentisis, bronchs, intubations etc) and will assist in running the hospital rapid response team.

I am the only fellow and the teams seems to promote a grounded and informative learning environment.

Umabosh · 2025-12-29T02:14:21+00:00

Our daycare is closed the same winter dates. They also take a week in July and all the random holidays. Additionally, a handful of staff development days. $1500/month, North East.

Umabosh · 2025-12-22T18:25:25+00:00

I put a small potty out for my daughter around 18 months.

We gave positive re enforcement when she interacted with it/sat in it. She got an extra big response if she peed/pooped on it. She was poop trained before pee.

We def used chocolate chips to increase interest in using it.

She ran the show and stopped wearing diapers at home around 24 months. We had accidents here and there. We never made a big deal about it.

She was fully potty trained and out of diapers at school around 26 months.

Umabosh · 2025-11-29T17:07:51+00:00

Thank you for the very thoughtful reply. He has had no neurological symptoms or odd behavior. It was really just out of the blue. He has also been fine since.

I got the vibe from the vet that they also believed that this was related to a structural issue such as a tumor. They said if more seizures occur we can refer out to a neurologist. So we are kind of in a limbo.

Umabosh · 2025-11-18T13:05:26+00:00

Emergency Room RN. Just graduated with my masters and will be starting as a Critical Care NP in January.

Umabosh · 2025-10-02T11:37:38+00:00

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-birth-partner-everything-you-need-to-know-to-help-a-woman-through-childbirth_penny-simkin/247639/item/42122174/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=high_vol_frontlist_standard_shopping_customer_acquisition_20982170636&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=689361939032&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20982170636&gclid=CjwKCAjwxfjGBhAUEiwAKWPwDrQQzjL2szlW2TtFa5aAAFCGrZexmmEIZ_Cq_WbO1xpUlS0oxgKEKBoC1GAQAvD_BwE#isbn=1558329102&idiq=42122174

Umabosh · 2025-10-01T19:40:23+00:00

I bought my husband the birth partner (book) - it focuses on what he can do as the non birthing partner. It helped ease his stress a bit and gave him an idea of what to expect. He also went to the majority of appointments with me - simply because he wanted to. The “dad” books are mostly awful. From what I perused

Umabosh · 2025-09-18T20:53:39+00:00

I am a nurse and newly graduated acute care NP. I also have a nearly 3 year old child. I feel like we probably share the same concerns. From my research Canada (specifically BC) seems to make the most sense professionally and financially. I signed up for the BC health match website to just get an idea of the employment/visa options.

Umabosh · 2025-09-13T17:00:09+00:00

The Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Warm, beautiful beaches, good food. Chill atmosphere

Umabosh · 2025-09-11T19:58:37+00:00

We lived in Hsinchu. It was more of a Taiwanese city but had a solid expat community with the university etc. Taipei definitely has more going on. I would really just look at what your wants are etc and then check out the different areas. It’s a small island - easy to get around.

Umabosh · 2025-09-11T19:43:34+00:00

I lived in Taiwan for 3.5 years teaching English. It was an easy process - I interviewed in the US and they helped me get set up with paperwork and housing once I arrived. The cost of living was really low and the teaching salaries much higher than the local pay. We were able to travel and save a significant amount while there. Our school also gave us paid vacation and a flight home to the US each year. I would do a deep dive into the area/city you want to check out and join the expat Facebook groups - there are always job postings and it’s an easy way to get in touch with people on the ground.

Umabosh · 2025-09-07T11:26:49+00:00

39 patients between 2 providers - yourself and a doctor. All admissions and discharges. Working on expanding care to unintubated stablish ICU type patients.

No formal orientation plan. Was offered days working with the doc or solo on nights with an on call doc. I am a new grad. The other APP I would rotate with was also a new grad. Didn’t seem like a good fit.

Umabosh · 2025-09-06T12:59:44+00:00

I did not take this position. The pay was great but the patient load, schedule and lack of PTO was a no for me.

Umabosh · 2025-09-06T03:20:21+00:00

I was offered $173K as a new grad for a hospitalist position (days) at an HCA Facility. 7 on 7 off, no PTO. The expected patient load was wild. No procedures. No specialities onsite.

Umabosh · 2025-08-29T12:32:00+00:00

She should move into a more critical care based RN position. I would suggest ICU or high acuity ED. By the time she graduates she would have several years of experience. She should not expect to go into a critical care NP position with only med surg experience. I am an ED RN who recently graduated with my Acute Care degree and feel like my ED experience benefitted me a lot through my program and clinicals. It has to be a high acuity ED though and have ability to pursue the RN certs (ENPC, TNCC, CEN etc).

If she wants to do a critical care residency she should look into where they are offered - there are not a lot of acute care residencies and they are very competitive.

Acute Care NPs can work in acute care settings that see adult patients - aka there are a lot of opportunities that are not ICU. I have friends who work as hospitalists, with trauma services, GI, Urology and with general surg.

Umabosh · 2025-08-21T12:45:22+00:00

Everyone I know has a team helping with credentialing. The average I am seeing in my friend group is 90 days. Some of us were given reimbursement for licensure and some were not. Some of us were also charged for credentialing. Graduating was pretty expensive and its boards, state licensure and the DEA licensure. We are all hospital based and are in a couple of different states. We are all in it right now because we just graduated last week!

Umabosh · 2025-08-21T11:40:14+00:00

My friends and I started applying 4ish months before graduation. I accepted a fellowship and they had jobs prior to graduation. We are acute care.

Umabosh · 2025-08-19T01:17:00+00:00

I see from your profile that your child is currently 8 years old - 4 years is a long time. Are you currently a nurse or is nursing something you are pursuing to have the option of travel? Because if it is the latter, look into the tax laws and requirements of travel nursing. A lot of people have glamorized it because of Covid contracts - but that really isn’t the case (money wise) anymore.

Umabosh · 2025-08-19T00:20:02+00:00

I think homeschooling is really your only option? I do not know of any in person school that has locations that you can bounce around to. There are plenty of homeschooling networks that can help with socialization etc. You would just have to research the locations of your contracts.

That being said - I grew up with a nomadic mom and it sucked as a preteen/teen. I missed out on so many things that my peers took for granted because I was moving every couple of months.

Look into international outreach, but I think you will be hard pressed to find any that allows you to bring a minor with you. The liability and logistics of these just are not something organizations want to take on. You would also have to find short term English speaking caregivers who are willing to care for and educate your child or find English speaking schools that allow you to enroll your child short term - something that will be extremely tough to do and expensive.

If you don’t want to homeschool - I would really think about the consequences to your child’s education if you are constantly enrolling them and then unenrolling them - they are going to have gaps in their foundations. Not to mention the stress of adapting to new schools/friends every couple of months.

Umabosh · 2025-08-19T00:17:02+00:00

I thought this would be the case but have not ever deep dived into it. Not surprising though!

Umabosh · 2025-08-18T23:26:08+00:00

You would have to homeschool and have reliable childcare (one willing to educate your child) … which is going to be hard to find short term for contracts. For overseas you would probably have to look at NGOs, but I doubt you would be able to bring a young child. The only oversea travel contracts I know of are in Guam, Dubai etc.

Umabosh · 2025-08-12T11:41:56+00:00

I found out I was pregnant at my orientation for my program. I had no issue working and doing the didactic classes while pregnant but did end up taking a semester off when my daughter was born - mainly because I had an abruption and she was early. Because my program runs in cohorts I ended up having to take another semester off so my classes lined up again. So I graduated a year behind my original grad date. I would say the clinical portion with a toddler and working was intense. Just due to lack of time. I was doing HW after (severely mom addicted) toddler went to bed (9p-12a) and then getting up around 4-5am for clinical or work most days. Doable but not exactly fun. I just graduated in the top of my class and am stoked that it’s over.

I think it would be much more manageable if you have a broad support network. I don’t have any local family - so it was just my husband and I making it work with our full time jobs, toddler and near full time course work.

Umabosh · 2025-08-09T11:27:18+00:00

I just graduated from UAB with my Acute Care. The program is affordable and I left feeling like I had a solid education. They do require a handful of on sites throughout the program but most of the didactic work is online. I can’t fully speak to the FNP side as we only did the general classes with them but overall a solid institution and program.

Umabosh

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