University of South Alabama

STAY AWAY! Psychiatric DNP program is 100% trash. All "instruction" is self-taught. Material is outdated (modules that contain due dates from 2021, instructions that were clearly developed for previous cohorts because now they do it differently). Exam questions that are impossible to answer, Eg. "Antipsychotics target which neurotransmitter? A) Dopamine B) GABA C)Dopamine D) no text provided for this answer". There are far better programs out there. There is a reason that they have a high drop out... Read More rate. Stay away from USA!

The Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program was a disaster. The student does all the work and the program seems to work very hard at tearing it all down. They had little flexibility when it came to COVID. I had a 9 year old child as well as an 85 year old babysitter. Many programs allowed students to do online precepting. My clinical advisor wouldn't take the time to figure out if we could or couldn't so just told us not to. They also told us 100 of our hours could be made up via class room type... Read More of courses and the very last week of my program, my clinical faculty, Dr. Linda Hammonds, told me it wouldn't be counted and casually told me I would just need to finish another semester. I checked with the head of the program who clarified she was wrong. I ended up doing more than 600 hours because my clinical advisor wouldn't accept hours that I was told they would.

Overall USA has a good nursing program. Some of the instructors are great and really want to see you succeed. The school definitely has some policies that need to change compared to others. Do yourself a favor and research other schools first, talk to others that have gone to other schools, and ask about things including assignments and preceptor/clinical rotation placement. Some things at USA are ridiculous. The school has clinical affiliations that are no help. You still have to find your own preceptors.... Read More Many of the places where the school has clinical affiliations still don't take students. The school has certain rules about clinical rotations that other schools don't require such as having to rotate through BOTH internal medicine and family practice rotations for the FNP program. Many other schools give you a choice because both are still "primary care". This requirement makes it that much harder to find preceptors. There are also some courses where it doesn't matter what your overall course grade is, if you make less than a certain grade on an assignment, you can't continue in the program. Just some things to think about. There are many other programs that don't have these requirements...

I attended South for my BSN and it was a great experience. The college of nursing was still located on Springhill when I graduated in 2004. I did not study for my NCLEX and had no difficulty passing the first time. When I started work I was much more prepared than other new nurses who went to other local colleges, except Springhill. It was a lot of work and it was hard but I'm glad I was at South. In 2017, I went back for my MSN, FNP online through South and had a really good experience. The writing... Read More classes were a shock to the system because they are so strict but once we got to clinicals and learning about how to manage diseases it was awesome. Prof. Herf held online, live lectures on material for each section and really made things make sense. The power points were excellent except for a very few instructors. Dr. Turnham absolutely makes this program along with Prof. Herf. Dr. Turnham is the kindest, funniest instructor and I wish I could carry her around for pep talks. Almost immediately available by email. There are so many excellent instructors that I learned from. You do go to school twice for simulation lab and OSCE which is fun. The process for getting paperwork turned in for clinicals was a little ridiculous but only because of the person in charge but that did not impede on my education. I graduated December 2019 and I would never go anywhere else. I definitely recommend South.

Overall, my USA experience was very good. I'm sure my complaints would be common to many other most-online MSN programs. The online classes and the format of the online classes were easy to follow, some instructors more organized than others. The degree plan was a very good roadmap for graduation and I followed it to a "T". After graduation, no problem passing both Acute Care and Family boards, thanks to the preparation of USA MSN program. Will this program guide you through to be prepared to pass... Read More boards? Yes. Can some nursing programs change? Yes. If you are self-motivated, and a hard worker, you'll do well at USA and it will get you through to your goal of being a nurse practitioner.