Virtual Open House Master of Science in Nursing: Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Transcript

Shanti Chang: As as Susan said, I’m Dr. Shanty Chang and the Msn. Division director and the Mason online program. Program director. If that’s a little confusing. And just to clarify, we do have an Msn traditional

Shanti Chang: program. That has some in seat option. So if you’re like, oh, I didn’t know. That was a thing I wanna talk to Dr. Ching about that. Let me know. But but that’s not what tonight is tonight is specific to our online program. And so for tonight agenda, we’re gonna meet the presenters. We’re gonna talk a little bit more about our program. Including some curriculum things and and things you can look forward to as a graduate of Mason, and then just some admission requirements. I think Susan will be the perfect person

Shanti Chang: to get all the details to you for that, and then we’ll open it up. This is, you know, quite

Shanti Chang: open. I hope I’m I’m a pretty approachable person, I’d like to think, and I if I don’t know the answer I can reach out to people who do know the answer for certain things, so please don’t be shy and and ask your questions, or you know. Make your suggestions, or whatever.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. So throughout, feel free to post your questions in the chat box, or actually the question box. And then we can address those either throughout or towards the end.

George Mason Online Admissions: And yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: again, my name is Susan. I’m here as an admissions representative on behalf of George Mason, and joined by the program director, Dr. Shanty Chang, who is going to tell you all about the online Msnf piece. So take it away.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, thank you. I am a family nurse practitionering myself and a George Mason alone. I did the Bsn to Dmp. Program here at Mason, and then I’ve been teaching

Shanti Chang: full time for the past 7 years at Mason. But I’m an associate professor, and yeah, I love it. I’m so glad you guys are here. This is a great place, and I’m thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the essays and hearing about all of the passions, and just literally have a smile on my face when I see various things that I think tie in really well with us as a program. So thank you.

Shanti Chang: I’m wanted to brag a little right off the back. Cause why not the Us. News and world report rankings just came out for the year, and we moved up from 49 to Number 10 as a masters program in the nation.

Shanti Chang: are also our Dmp program. If you ever want to talk about that, and are thinking about that, too, again. That’s not tonight. But you can reach out to me, and I can connect you with the right people, or at least answer some preliminary questions. But that program was ranked number 2 in the nation, and actually number one out of public universities in the nation. So public and private, it ranked number 2 combo. But we have amazing financial aid programs and lifetime access to me career services. I will also say, here we’ve got

Shanti Chang: a really active scholarship office in the college that always is looking for nursing applicants. So please, Google, Cphg and use scholarships and keep an eye on things that pop up there for you guys.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, actively practicing faculty with decades of experience and curriculum. Informed by the latest research. We are doing a curriculum update right now to align ourselves with the newest essentials. I think that’ll be happening over the next couple of years. Every single faculty in our program is active in practice as a nurse practitioner. Mostly in settings outside Mason. But then also in our free clinic settings.

Shanti Chang: That we have in Mason that we provide for patients who are medically underserved and and vulnerable, and do not have insurance. So we just went through our reaccreditation from CC. And E. This past year. It was big deal. It happens only once every 10 years and was a lot of work as you can imagine, all those

Shanti Chang: people in here. We’re familiar with Jaco and all those other kind of things. It’s a big deal for us. Right? These accreditation standards, but we waiting for the final word. But the site visitors said, no compliance concerns. They love what we’re doing. Love. The curriculum loved lot of the outcomes. And the math clinics. So our curriculum is really founded on inner professional education. Collaborative core competencies like, I said.

Shanti Chang: that’s, I think, really central, especially to the newest essentials. And we infuse those concepts and others such as

Shanti Chang: policy ethics. You know, advocacy just into a lot of what you’ll get here in the program.

Shanti Chang: So what makes our Msn program unique? I’ve kind of mentioned a little bit about the community focused evidence based curriculum in terms of the map clinics. We do have

Shanti Chang: clinics that are in the community that we go in in in person for. But then also do telehealth. If you’re not local to the area, we do target medically underserved populations. But we have a lot of public and population, health concepts and fuse in each of the courses in the curriculum. We’re actually the only school of nursing under a college of public health in the State. So I think that it’s pretty unique position to be in, and

Shanti Chang: and nursing is certainly at the forefront in our schools, at the forefront. Of that work. The flexible online format does designed to accommodate busy working students. We are very understanding that you guys are juggling a lot in life work. Kids of your family responsibilities. And now, school. So these classes are online.

Shanti Chang: doesn’t mean that it’s out of touch, or that you that it is cold. A lot of the the faculty offer synchronous sessions like, Hey, can people, you know, log on to zoom on Tuesday at 7, you know. And then, if you can’t, then you can’t. When you watch the recording. And you email your teacher and say, Hey, can I talk about XY and Z with you at another point this week. So we also have a pretty

Shanti Chang: prescribe halfway through the courses. It’s super organized. Just so you guys kinda know what you’re gonna take. And when you’re gonna take it so you can plan for life things, or you can plan for a break if you need like, for example, those that are starting classes in fall 2024. You will start clinical in summer. 25 so I’m sorry. Summer 2026. So if you know, like.

Shanti Chang: I I think I’m gonna have a crazy, busy summer that summer, and it’s not the right time for me to start in my clinicals like that’s a conversation we can all have together and and adjust your plan of study. The direct contact with the practicing faculty is again, 100% of us are in practice. And our CC, me, accreditation is

Shanti Chang: definitely the biggest

Shanti Chang: most important thing to us that drives a a lot of those standards and competencies drive what we do to make sure that we’re offering you guys the best program that we can.

George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Ching, when you mentioned the map clinic. What is that? An acronym for.

Shanti Chang: Oh, yes, it stands for Mason and partners so.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, no. Back to that kind of 1st or second slide with the inner professional and collaborative care model. It’s it started back in 2,013 from the current director, Dr. Becky Center, and any of you that are here that are maybe Mason alum

Shanti Chang: within the last 10 years would be familiar with it, but started as 2 little rooms in the back of Manassas Park Community health center and nurses and nurse register students just used to go there on Tuesdays and say, Okay, if you live in the area and you don’t have insurance, and you need to talk to a medical provider

Shanti Chang: you know. Show up. But then, as you can imagine, it was just a line down the hall around building all the time, and it’s it’s exploded. Since then we’ve now got 10 or 11 clinics. Including our own standalone structure in that location. Yeah, I’m seeing Tatiana here in the chat. That is an amazing clinic at work. There is mit as well. So now every day of the weeks got a little bit different flavor. You know we do chronic disease, Mondays and pediatrics, full physicals and vaccines.

Shanti Chang: scenes and TV test Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our medication assisted treatment for those who are at

Shanti Chang: or in recovery, or seeking to be in recovery from opioid and substance, use disorder so, and like I said, lots of little flavors, lots of little clinics, but at the end of the day I always describe it as a win win, because it’s an opportunity for our students who are in need of real hands on training and real life patient encounters. It’s an opportunity for you guys to get that in partnership with your faculty. And then on the flip side. You’re working with populations that otherwise

Shanti Chang: wouldn’t have that access. And it’s completely free. So you’re keeping that person out of the er you know, for something that they probably don’t need to go to er for and subsequently, then, you know, text dollars and deductibles and all the things, all the systems level things that just kind of go

Shanti Chang: Wonky from there, but inner professional

Shanti Chang: for sure. Because you guys work with social workers, you work with undergrad nursing. You work with students who are getting their doctorates in various fields, like psychology and nursing. Sometimes work with Spanish majors. We’ve got health admin, and policy students on health informatic students. So it’s just a really really cool model. And we work with everyone. I would say, we’re the safety net to the safety net. We work with people

Shanti Chang: to kind of catch them where they’re at in these medically underserved communities that’s targeted on purpose. To

Shanti Chang: get them to a safe and stable place and then lift them to other existing safety net, health, safety net structures like federally qualified health centers or other sliding scale clinics like Anova cares. So it’s it’s yeah. You each will get a chance to do at least telehealth, if not in person, in math clinics. And we could talk a little bit more about that with clinical. If there are more clinical questions, and I’m sure there will be. But this is just the the curriculum

Shanti Chang: kind of at a layout. So

Shanti Chang: you take this.

Shanti Chang: you take these courses kind of in this order, as you see here, and the 1st couple of semesters. It’s just one at a time for 8 weeks. So 1st 8 weeks

Shanti Chang: again using fall as the example fall from August 26th to October 20th would be 6, 65, No. 65, and then from October 23rd to December 18th would be Gch. 500 and so on, and so forth. So, as you can see from some of the titles of this of these courses, we really work to start with

Shanti Chang: a good ethical and theoretical foundation to help give you a solid place to build from. As you scaffold your learning and journey through the program. Gch 500 is actually also taken sometimes with other disciplines. So this is a requirement of the college in public health. So this is where you would be with, you know, nutrition students and social work students, and those help admin and health it people.

Shanti Chang: so it it kind of a a cool, interdisciplinary lens and project work in that course, nursing informatics. We focus on some project management concepts as long as well as nursing informatics, which we all know is just a a huge booming

Shanti Chang: field right now. So yeah, I I think it speaks for itself in its title there, nursing research, and bio stats a little bit more back to some research and bio statistical

Shanti Chang: assignments and objectives. But with the eye of I am a nurse practitioner. If I see an issue in practice, you know, I don’t necessarily need you to do a bunch of math problems, or you know a lot of complicated things. And Spss. But I want you to know how to identify a problem. Go the evidence.

Shanti Chang: rate the evidence, look at an article, and you know, don’t stop at. Oh, well, there was an article written about this. So I’m gonna take it, you know, how do you look at multiple sources of evidence in that field of inquiry and evaluate it and judge that evidence. You know, there’s levels of different studies,

Shanti Chang: and different grades within the levels. So kind of work on that to solve some problems and clinical practice that you can bring to your work as a nurse practitioner after graduation, organization of nursing healthcare delivery systems focus a little bit more on. Just I. I think systems level thinking

Shanti Chang: with

Shanti Chang: health in our nation, which I think a lot of us would agree could be greatly improved upon. And so our our goal is to equip you guys with some of the tools that you can take

Shanti Chang: to graduate and be those leaders and and disruptors, as we call it, and changers for the better. But it starts with also kind of understanding. You know how it all works, and

Shanti Chang: so community oriented primary care, you focus on again, public and population health. But in this time specific to as your role as a nurse, practitioner and practice. And then

Shanti Chang: 6, 43. So then you’ll take

Shanti Chang: little bit aborig. You’ll do the 3 P’s ultimately which are farm cafo, and then physical assessment. So those are 3 separate 3 credit courses where you’ll do just that, and you’ll learn

Shanti Chang: the threeps. And then you move into this through some 7 13 decision making class, which is, I think of it as then, just that kind of final gatekeeper for all of us and for you to make sure. Yes, I’m ready to start clinical and start seeing patients and and doing what I need to do to transition, to practice. And it’s putting a little bit of all the above coursework into it.

Shanti Chang: and then you start your clinicals in semesters in semester 6. This program is 7 semesters. Start your clinicals in semester 6, and you take

Shanti Chang: family practicum. Don’t get confused. It is a little out order, and you don’t have to remember anything that I’m saying. Now you’ve got a student success coach who helps you register for everything. So I hope this is an overwhelming but if taken in order, you actually do. Practicum, that is, 240 h first, st and then in the second and final semester of clinical. You do 2 practicums in the same semester that equals 360 h. So clinical practice total is 600 h. And then you’re doing the didactic

Shanti Chang: hearings with the curriculum and with those clinicals as you finish up so that’s the family primary care classes that you see that accompany the practicum. There’s 1 that’s just called family primary care, and then the family primary care practicum. But they go together.

Shanti Chang: It is flexible in the sense that

Shanti Chang: yes, we have a pathway that in a specific order that we like you guys to take these things. But if you’re like I don’t know lice little crazy. I want part time, you know. I I don’t need to meet that 6. Credit a semester threshold for financial aid. I can take 3 credits a semester. That’s fine. It’s it’s an easy conversation to have with Hayley. The Student Success coach, who will be reaching out to you, I believe, shortly

Shanti Chang: after you start in the program. I think it’s someone from admissions who initially registers you for for your 1st classes. But then from that point on it would be Haley. So anything that you have that comes up that you want to adjust your plan of what you’re taking. And when that’s just a conversation you need to have

Shanti Chang: career outcomes. So I will say, super proud of this board of readiness.

Shanti Chang: If there’s a question I think board readiness wise. I just got the Ancc. Pass rates for 2023 and 97 of 1st time. Test takers passed it

Shanti Chang: from from our school for the family nurse, practitioner, board certification. So that

Shanti Chang: is, I think, a good measure of our program being able to adequately prepare you. We do also infuse other external partners curricular

Shanti Chang: pieces into our stuff like you’ll do a Sarah Michelle review course in your last didactic. And then this week I’m offering like a Barclay and associates. Pre. Diagnostic readiness test for boards for everybody all day, Thursday and Friday, just for them to take for free, just to see how they might be pacing and what areas they might need to study a little bit more.

Shanti Chang: so yeah, I’m seeing Gabby has a question about, is there a prep personnel prepare? Yeah. So Sarah Michelle is one of those kind of

Shanti Chang: very popular prep courses. And and and we purchase that and give it to you guys in your last didactic like when you’re finishing up clinical right before you’re about to graduate. And then also, we’re piloting this summer. These other

Shanti Chang: tests from Berkeley and associates that it’s a 2 and a half hour test. It’s proctored like I’ll be on Zoom, just watching everybody take the test. I’ve opened it up for all day, Thursday and all day Friday for people’s schedules to kind of pop in and out as they can, but but it’s 2 and a half hours, and then it’s 45 min to review what you got wrong. And then areas, it suggests that you focus your learning and studying, and

Shanti Chang: as well as I think just our regular curriculum. Very much so is, you know, the test that you take in the courses. You know. The activities that you’re doing, they will all contribute to your learning as

Shanti Chang: how to function as a nurse practitioner. But then, also, just how to also pass the board. We know that’s step one for for us. So but career outcomes here so absolutely huge demand for nurse practitioners. So so glad that you guys are here again.

Shanti Chang: there is typically a bump in salary once you make the nurse practitioner. Transition, if that’s

Shanti Chang: you know something of interest to you. I will also say there’s besides this list here that you can see these career settings. There’s just so many ways to get creative. As the nurse practitioner, I mean.

Shanti Chang: telehealth is huge. Insurance companies are hiring nurse practitioners like. So I just think this, especially with this degree as a family nurse practitioner from Mason. We just really prepare you to be able to go into almost every any setting that you could want with that said, when it comes to clinical and your training, I do prioritize you getting enough

Shanti Chang: primary care experience, you know, and focusing on preventative and health promotion matters as well as chronic disease management kind of other things like that. So, but it’s it’s it’s a little vague, and that’s on purpose. It’s just so that you guys

Shanti Chang: can make it what you need and want it to be. Maybe I read in some of your essays. Some of you are really passionate in certain areas, you know, nursing, and you already know it. And you want to go that direction. And that’s great. Maybe others are less certain. And they’re like, you know what? I don’t know, what I don’t know. I want to keep an open mind. I want to get a little bit of everything, and that works too. And and I will say you have a clinical faculty member directly assigned to you once you’re in clinical. So it’s not like you’re

Shanti Chang: floating around. We have clinical information sessions, every semester post, the recordings, if you can’t make it. Katie Benitez, little coordinator and me are always available for questions and working things out. But

Shanti Chang: yeah, once you’re in clinical, you’ll be in groups of like 5 to 6 students per faculty. I I text with my group like on a weekly basis, just anything that comes up. Hey? You doing? Okay, you know. Or hey? My preceptor saw blah blah blah today. What do you think of this? So it’s

Shanti Chang: I know it sounds like, it’s like a big program. And you’re online. And that could be a little scary, because it does require some some organization from yourself to stay on task. But it’s not like, we’re just like, okay, release you into the wild. You’re free. Figure it out like we have a lot of support for you throughout.

Shanti Chang: So went on a little tangent there for career outcomes. But it’s the world is your oyster. As far as career careers go.

George Mason Online Admissions: That’s awesome.

George Mason Online Admissions: Let’s see, Gabby’s asking.

Shanti Chang: Yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, what support, staff!

Shanti Chang: Yeah. So, Gabby, if it’s like content in a course. The faculty who teach these courses are very knowledgeable, very engaged, very open minded to have extra

Shanti Chang: sessions, or send you extra resources, or whatever during the course, if that’s something that you need.

Shanti Chang: And if it’s like a combination of things like, maybe

Shanti Chang: it’s some of the course. Work is hard. But also you’ve got a lot of life going on that’s competing with your ability to prioritize school, and you need to talk that out. And what does that look like? We do offer incomplete options for grades. So like that means if you started the class, and you can’t finish it. Then you have 10 weeks into the next semester to finish up what you need.

Shanti Chang: Before we give you your final grade for that. So there’s always flexibility here.

Shanti Chang: You have Hayley Lee, who is student success coach and we have her student success coach director. I meet with Read and Haley and Katie the clinical team, and Vicky Huff is another name. You’ll see Pop up a lot. She’s our admin person in school of nursing. We meet literally every other week, and we just talk through student situations and like, Hey, is there? Is there a need over here? Can we put our heads together and make sure we’re on same page over here, you know, we just

Shanti Chang: stay really connected with each other. So I don’t know if that speaks to Haley is usually your 1st go to person for, hey? Something’s happening in this course. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to pass or move on.

Shanti Chang: What do I do?

Shanti Chang: She will either then pull me in.

Shanti Chang: you know, if it, if it truly is just like a course problem like you’re not getting the content. The faculty are amazing.

Shanti Chang: We do have doctorate students, that we have the graduate nursing organization, which is completely open to you guys, too. It’s open to masters and Dmp students, but a lot of times there, too, they have additional support and resources. I know they have a mentorship program. Where they pair doctorate students with those that are maybe in the beginning parts of their curriculum of their program for curriculum help.

George Mason Online Admissions: That’s amazing.

Shanti Chang: Sleeping.

George Mason Online Admissions: Alright. So there’s a couple of questions.

Shanti Chang: You.

George Mason Online Admissions: Helen.

George Mason Online Admissions: do we work with Nps for our practicum? Can we work with Mds.

Shanti Chang: Yes, love that question. I don’t limit. I want you to go with everyone. I want you to get a good experience. I want you to see how everything’s done. I I mean, I love the idea of you doing at least one little sting with a nurse practitioner. Just so you can, in addition to seeing

Shanti Chang: patients that they’re seeing. But see what that role looks like in practice in certain settings. You know. Ask them about the ethics of things. Ask them about the legal aspect of things. Those are all concepts that can pop up on your board. Certification. But I’m not. I don’t require you to only be with your inspectors. You can be with Mds. Deos pas Mps.

Shanti Chang: I’ve even had some people request about certified midwives. That area is a little bit more gray if you can give me their credentials and their experience. And what

Shanti Chang: if you can give me an idea of what you’d be doing together in your time. Then I just, you know, evaluate Katie and I, Katie, the clinical coordinator, and I kind of say yay or nay, but at the end of the day, like I really am open minded, I think, to your passions in in your needs. So if that means that you’re like, like, I had one student, for example, who really really wanted to do Hospice.

Shanti Chang: and we considered Hospice prior to her, a specialty where you can do specialty like you can do inpatient oncology, sure. But I can’t let you do all your hours in inpatient oncology. Because it doesn’t meet the primary care definition that we need to meet for our program for you guys, as this is an outpatient Np program. But her.

Shanti Chang: the student being told she was told. Oh, no, you can only do a hundred hours in Hospice. It’s specialty sorry. But she wrote a beautiful long email to me, and I pass it on to who the person who’s the director

Shanti Chang: to before me, and she just made a great case, for why? It was primary care, and this is part of the stigma of Hospice. And this is part of the problem, like more people need to think about Hospice sooner. And and you know, quality of life matters and everything sooner. It shouldn’t be a specialty, because we’re all gonna die. Someday. So why not expand our

Shanti Chang: our curriculum and our willingness to allow our students to spend a little bit more time in that in that setting with those folks. So I was like, Yeah, that makes sense to me. Sure, so the director believe them agreed at that time, too. So.

George Mason Online Admissions: So, Dr. Cheng, so are you saying that if somebody wants to do a specialization, the minimum hours and family practice has to be 500, and they have a hundred. Okay.

Shanti Chang: They have a hundred to play around with, and those 100 could be specialty, or it could be. We also allow for up to 100 non direct, patient care, clinical hours. So let’s say that you have found an awesome

Shanti Chang: family site that sees kids and grown ups and some geriatrics. But you’re not getting nearly as much women’s health as you thought you would, or men’s health, you know. That’s oftentimes overlooked as well. I think.

Shanti Chang: using those non direct hours is a way that you can still

Shanti Chang: get credit for your effort. If you were to find some Ceos in some areas and women’s or men’s health that you felt you wanted to take to round out your knowledge. You can count those as non direct clinical hours as long as you get your faculty’s permission, we almost never say no. If you can say what you want, why, you want it.

Shanti Chang: If they’re unsure, they ask me and I kinda just asked, what do they want? Why do they want it? Okay? So you know, it’s it’s I know it’s clear as mud sometimes when it comes to clinical. But it’s really

Shanti Chang: it’s really to benefit you guys to be able to build your time in this program to be the best nurse practitioner that you can be, and another clarifying point on clinical, you do in a perfect world. Take clinical over 2 semesters. Again, if you need to break that up like th. There are options, but just for simplicity sake. It doesn’t mean that you only have to go to one site, the 1st semester, and another site, the second semester. If if you.

Shanti Chang: if you find 2 preceptors and sites that are willing to take you in the same semester, and you can divide your time and organize it between their schedules and yours and your work schedule and your family life. That’s fine, like we have some students that even go to 3 sites a semester. So don’t

Shanti Chang: don’t be afraid to kind of keep on looking for multiple places, even if you’ve already got someone who’s said yes to you. It’s not a bad idea to have another option.

Shanti Chang: or maybe they say yes, but I can’t take you in the summer. I could take you in the fall. You could say, great, yeah, I so it just it’s all the game of

Shanti Chang: puzzle piecing together. But again we go a lot more into clinical in our clinical information sessions, too, which

Shanti Chang: we’ll have one in about a month. Actually.

Shanti Chang: So.

George Mason Online Admissions: So does it have to be at least 2 different sites, though.

Shanti Chang: No, so that’s a good other side of that point. If you are at a family practice.

George Mason Online Admissions: Are you?

Shanti Chang: I feel like they do everything. I had an amazing family physician preceptor when I was in school, and she used to deliver babies, but she didn’t do it anymore. But she did. Small babies. She did kids. She did adolescence. She did haps. She did, you know.

Shanti Chang: simple gynecologic procedures. She didn’t do prenatal visits, but you know she did. Sti testing family planning, counseling. She did.

Shanti Chang: you know, substance, use treatment, anxiety, depression, regular just like kind of chronic care, management, diabetes, hypertension. She did some jerry and dementia care like she did it all, and so I went to her, my 1st semester clinical at the time in my program, clinical 3 semesters. And then I went back in my 3rd for her again. So there’s no like minimum hours that you have

Shanti Chang: have to spend, or in any one population in primary care, like people often ask me, well, do I have to get 100 h and 100 h in women’s health. We don’t define it like that again. It’s clear

Shanti Chang: clinical faculty to make sure that as best as we can that we’re helping you get a well rounded experience. And again, our map clinics are good ways to round that out like, let’s say that you really want to do peeds, but you’re having a hard time finding a pediatric, you know, or add a lot of adolescent medicine site.

Shanti Chang: we can then get you into our pediatric and adolescent clinics in the map clinics we’ve got, you know, our Manassas on Tuesdays, and then we’ve got one clinic that’s co-located in the largest central registration building for Fairfax County schools, at their Central registration center in dung boring in Virginia. So and they just do all peeds. They do all shots. They do all TV testing. We do ton of sports disciples. So there’s a lot of ways that again, map

Shanti Chang: clinic can kind of help you. We’re doing now, Sti, testing HIV, testing they’re not doing, perhaps, right now. But that’s another reason that we stand for Mason partners because we’re always trying to make more connections with other people, to to continue offering as

Shanti Chang: as many and as many best services as we can within Lucen. So.

George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful

George Mason Online Admissions: Jessica’s asking, Is there assistance with clinical placement? Has there ever been any issues with students securing sites.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, good question. So,

Shanti Chang: this is

Shanti Chang: a very commonly asked question.

Shanti Chang: Again, with finding clinical site, we start the conversation early, so that you know what you’re getting into as soon as your courses start and some strategies for success ultimately finding the site is up to you. But again we have support and the math clinics to fill in and supplement as needed.

Shanti Chang: So I I start with kind of giving you guys, Katie and I start with to giving you some tips and tricks.

Shanti Chang: in your 1st couple of semesters. Hey? Here are ways to talk to people. Here are things to say. Here’s how you can ask. Here’s a ultimately, if you’re like, yep, I’ve tried all that. Nothing’s happening. Can’t find anyone. Katie will give you a list of people in the area that you live in. If we’ve had a student in that area before, she’ll give you a list of some sites that people have gone to. So you can target those sites to say, Hey, I understand you took a George Mason University student before. Also in that same program. Would you be willing to take me on but

Shanti Chang: I wouldn’t say, we’ve never had anyone, not finish the program for lack of clinical sites, military hospitals. Yes, we can do that. And I think there was another question about State Department and other countries to just keep in mind with like state department, military sometimes on their end. They have additional contractual needs and eligibility criteria that we all need to pull together and speak to. So just give.

Shanti Chang: If you think that that’s the way you’re gonna go. Communicate that to us.

Shanti Chang: usually. Maybe when you start, patho and farm is a good time to just make sure that we’re super clear. And again, there’s there’s a very clear process. You submit a pre separate data form. There’s a checklist where you can see. Like, okay, I submitted my form. Where am I at in the process? Like, has the contract been signed? Okay? Has my hassle branch stuff for my own TV and immunizations, and all that been approved like there’s a

Shanti Chang: really transparent place 1st communicates you ultimately, worst case scenario. If you’re like, yep, due to start clinical since summer. Couldn’t find a site. Don’t live in Northern Virginia. Can’t get myself to the map. Clinic.

Shanti Chang: we’d probably say, Okay, just take a pause for this semester then and keep working on it and jump in on fall, and then it just pushes your graduation semester.

George Mason Online Admissions: And what would you say to people that are applying outside of Virginia and Maryland?

Shanti Chang: Yeah. So same thing. We have students at this point. We’ve been around for a few years. So we do still have lists in other regions of the country we have at this point. I feel like we’ve had students in clinical. Oh, you know what no New Hampshire, New Hampshire has been tricky sorry, but I think I was looking at the list of admits for fall, and most of you guys are from Virginia. But

Shanti Chang: there is a couple of Georgia, maybe a couple of North Carolina like we had a fair number of students in those States as well. So the process is the same.

Shanti Chang: regardless of what physical location you’re in geographic location. You’re in you know you do your best. Oh, I will also say minute clinic counts as well, if you want to do some like minute clinic or some other thing like that. So just Google, Cvs minute clinic, nurse, practitioner piece of ship, and it’ll have. It’ll pop up like

Shanti Chang: careers, you know something. It’d be the 1st thing. Click on it and scroll down in the middle of the page. It’ll say, nurse, practitioner, practicum like, and eligibility. Criteria gives you all the dates, and they take people on 3 times a year. We have a very good relationship with them. I I know the Amy Wagner, the director of like the placements and everything for minute clinic. She always tries to get our Mason students, and and that’s all around the country.

Shanti Chang: you know. So keep things like that in your mind open to and get that, maybe all of you Google tonight, you know. Minute clinic. When is my application due? Again, if you guys are starting clinical, if you’re starting courses in fall, then you’ll be in clinical summer 2026. So you just want to make sure. Then headed into that summer 26 semester. You’ve got your application everything you need in for the minute clinic.

Shanti Chang: just as like a safety.

Shanti Chang: So but, Katie, yeah, Katie has lists of of places in others, other areas, too. But we request, just because of, you know, volume and everything. Just support that everybody just do do their best to put in a wholehearted effort. And that doesn’t mean that you’re alone in your efforts. But,

Shanti Chang: We can talk about other options if it’s not playing out the way that you want it.

George Mason Online Admissions: But that also allows you to be placed where you want to be placed.

Shanti Chang: On the floor.

George Mason Online Admissions: Side of it right? It’s not like you’re being placed in a place that you don’t want to be, you know, or super far away.

Shanti Chang: Right? Yeah. And we’ve had a lot of students recently. I should probably bring this up to ask about the pay payment. services. There’s a lot a lot of those popping up that are like, hey? If you pay us 4 grand, you can get 200 h of clinical with the preceptory

Shanti Chang: we don’t forbid it by any means, because, hey, it’s you your money, if if you want to, and need to go that way. That’s fine, Mason, contractually and legally. We can’t be the ones to pay for that or have that in our contract language for you. But, I do know some students who have done it, and they’ve just paid on their own, you know, on the side. And it’s been okay. Sometimes that is really a situation, though I bring this up to Susan’s point.

Shanti Chang: I mean, honestly, more than not that many students end up needing to go down that road. Quite honestly, but the the couple that have, and they said, I’m exhausted. I’m just gonna do it. I’m gonna try it. But more than half of them have not been very happy with the experience that they’ve gotten so. And but then they also feel like they can’t walk away because they’ve just spent thousands of dollars on this placement. So

Shanti Chang: we do have like they said. The map clinics. We have like telehealth options, too, and for that substance use clinic that mit there’s telehealth for that. We’ve got pnhps running that with peer recovery specialists and family nurse practitioners so interdisciplinary team telehealth all day on Wednesdays and then we’ve got evening telehealth clinics at least

Shanti Chang: 2 nights a week. It’s 2 nights a week this summer, and the spring of 3 nights a week, so there’s also options for you. If you’re not local, to the area for us to help you get clinical hours and and experiences in.

George Mason Online Admissions: So Katherine is asking, is there a specific guide that states how many hours are needed in specific fields

George Mason Online Admissions: relating to clinicals.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, I’m sorry. This is yeah. One of those. It’s a great question that I get asked all the time. It’s 500 h. This is. This is why it’s so ambiguous when you take boards, and when I’m signing your form, saying, Yep, they did what they need to do to be able to be eligible to take boards. You know what the eligibility, eligibility, language says

Shanti Chang: that I’m verifying that at least 500 direct, patient care hours have been spent in time with populations that you will serve. And I’m like, Hmm, that’s big. Okay? So I look to the standards for nurse, practitioner criteria and within different populations. And I look at some of the competencies and skills that you need to get.

Shanti Chang: I don’t personally think that skills and competency are a number thing like, I think that you know better, and your clinical faculty, who’s got 5 of you in their group, is going to be able to come to a better decision on what you need and where you need to focus on to round out better than I can tell you, black and white at this point.

Shanti Chang: Some of you guys have amazing school nurse experience and or lot of peeds outpatient experience already, and maybe you don’t want to spend much of your 500 h as a provider in that setting, because you already feel like, yeah, I got a pretty good idea. I do triage nursing for a pediatrics office like I don’t need to do 120 h of pediatrics. I want to see how I like

Shanti Chang: you know.

Shanti Chang: medication assist treatment, you know, or I like, I wanna see how I do with folks, you know, who’ve got longitudinal chronic care issues. I wanna go to a clinic where I know I can go there most days of the week, and I’ll be able to see the same patients over and over again to to learn about the management of something over time longitudinal. So it’s just

Shanti Chang: there are no clear cut numbers other than 500 direct, patient care hours in what I define as primary care and women’s health and pediatrics doesn’t count as specialty. That’s primary care. So you can go to an internal medicine. You can go to a fast track. Er you can go to urgent care. You can go to health department. You can go to Minute clinic and go to family practice internal medicine.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, he’s gonna tell all of those are primary care settings, and you just need to get 500, and then your clinical faculty will work with you like, I look at my students case logs. Every week. And I say, yeah, looks like you, just, you know, especially if we’re headed into the second half like, looks like you’ve been focusing a lot on.

Shanti Chang: you know geriatrics thus far. Do you think you’re gonna have any opportunities to see any peeds or adolescents, and they’re like, not really my thing. I’m not really interested. I might say, okay, fair enough. But you are being certified as a family nurse practitioner. So I have a responsibility, and making sure that you’ve got at least some level of comfort and safety with those populations, and we’ll be able to pass boards.

Shanti Chang: For those populations. So why don’t you? You know? Let’s let’s let’s get you into our math clinic next Wednesday, or do you want to go do that? Sports physical event on Saturday with

Shanti Chang: another faculty? Who’s doing sports with equality or something like that? Just just like, so you get at least little flavors of things.

Shanti Chang: To round yourself out.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, thank you so much.

George Mason Online Admissions: Jessica’s asking a great question. Can you explain a little bit about what we should expect out of our clinicals? Is there something we provide the clinical site to show what we should be learning and seeing.

Shanti Chang: Great.

George Mason Online Admissions: Do we shadow our clinical instructor, and by the end are we seeing patients on our own.

Shanti Chang: Yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: etc.

Shanti Chang: Really getting into the nitty gritty here.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, wow, yeah, yeah.

Shanti Chang: Is a good

Shanti Chang: yes, so like, for example, I’ve got a clinical group right now that I’ve just started clinical this summer. I’ve got 5 of them I meet with them. I get all of their preceptor contact information, and as soon as I know they’re starting clinical, I send a message that preceptor saying, Hey, my name is Shanty Chang. I am the clinical instructor working with Student

Shanti Chang: A. Here are some resources that you might want to use to help you, you know as well as the course objectives. You know. It’s like a little preceptor packet. It’s got little pearls on like one to 2 min precept or tips on how they can phrase feedback for you. And this is all evidence

Shanti Chang: based. This packet is because when you ask people their main reasons for not wanting to precept. Obviously a high reason is time that it takes a lot of time to do it. But that’s actually the second biggest reason. The 1st is they wanna make sure that they are adequately prepared and and going to do a good job in their role. So this preceptor packet is structured to be able to give them that knowledge, and or they have my number, and they can talk to me. And we can

Shanti Chang: figure out some strategies on how to best give feedback and work with their students. You use a system called Typhon

Shanti Chang: to document your hours and your case log. So I asked that you document one to 2 patients an hour, and within those case logs you specify the level of autonomy you had in that patient encounter. So in the beginning, sure, I absolutely expect it to be a little bit more observation observation like you’re not gonna show up the 1st day and be like I’m here. Let me do everything with you for your patience. But over time I would hope that I would start to see that that observation

Shanti Chang: would turn into like, okay, yeah, I I did like 25 and then 50. And then I did it mostly by myself, and just reported back. I mean to be super clear. You guys are never allowed to be with any patient without adequate supervision from a license provider, and then also

Shanti Chang: on the other end. Observation only experiences are not allowed like it’s gotta be, you can observe in the beginning at the clinical site. But then at that site with that pre sector, you have to be able to

Shanti Chang: speak with a patient, and or even if you’re not the one conducting a lot of the encounter. Like at least thing your presenter needs to ask you about the differentials or the treatment plan and pick your brain with that patient, you know, prior to going back into that room. So it’s still got to be a learning experience where it’s not just a person talking to you, telling you what to do all the time.

Shanti Chang: as you can imagine. That wouldn’t make you a very good nurse practitioner.

George Mason Online Admissions: And y’all have very good pass rates, too, on board. So yeah, yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. So Alyssa’s asking. I know you said there was an option to go part time if needed, what would be considered a part time student? Do people often start full time and transition to part time.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, so good question. So I’ll be honest the part time and full time thing always throws me a bit. And I know you guys are all asked to choose which one you want. When you apply the courses are offered

Shanti Chang: 3 times a year. Every course is pretty much offered 3 times a year. So for you, part, time can be defined. How you want it to be defined. Like, if you’re like, I can only take

Shanti Chang: a course in the beginning of the fall semester.

Shanti Chang: you know. Then you’re just gonna take 665, and then you might wait to take Gch 500 the next course in line until the following is free.

Shanti Chang: You know, till spring, 2025 second half of the spring semester. So

Shanti Chang: it. It doesn’t have to be like

Shanti Chang: super black and white because we offer the courses so often.

Shanti Chang: So I think that that’s a nice thing that gives you guys a lot of flexibility with that said, most people do it pretty much

Shanti Chang: one course, a session, because we purposefully organize this program in mind, keeping in mind that you guys are really busy and juggling a lot of things. So we, for the most part, especially in the beginning, only offer one course at a time. So up until you’re in patho and farm, you’re only ever focusing on one

Shanti Chang: one class content

Shanti Chang: every 8 weeks. If that makes sense.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, cause the semester is 16 weeks. So what you’re doing is.

Shanti Chang: Stretch.

George Mason Online Admissions: The 1st class, the 1st 8 weeks, and then the second class, the second 8 weeks. So even though you’re completing 2 classes, a semester. You’re just focusing on one at a time.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, put.

George Mason Online Admissions: Can I hear?

Shanti Chang: Actually a plan of study that I could even bring up and show if that would be helpful. But

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, that’s.

Shanti Chang: I know we’re also kind of running over time, too, and I want to be mindful of people’s time. But were there other questions, too. Maybe we can loop back to it.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah,

George Mason Online Admissions: it?

George Mason Online Admissions: Well, I just wanted to know. I just wanted to clarify for the students. So a a lot of students are working full time. And then some aren’t. But when they get to practicums, is, what would you suggest.

Shanti Chang: If I’m being really honest, is very hard to work full time while in practicum. And that’s that’s because usually you’re at the mercy of the preceptor schedule. That’s not because, like we’ve put so much on you, it’s because you’re trying to juggle your own life and work.

Shanti Chang: plus this other provider, or 2 or 3 providers schedules which has to be a priority. So really, when you’re in those practicum semesters like, if you needed to space out the didactics like, you’re like, I really can’t do the classroom part of this semester

Shanti Chang: But I’m gonna try to focus on the practicum. But can I do the classroom part after like again, we can break them apart if we have to. But when you’re in that practicum semester you have that semester to do those hours. And then, if absolute worst case scenario, you need to take it incomplete and take 10 weeks, which is 3 fourths of the next semester into the next semester to finish it up. Then then that’s what we do. So I’ve never had anyone fail or like not finish the program for

Shanti Chang: clinical drama. Do some people take a break in between clinical semesters, or maybe a break prior to just starting the last 2 clinical semesters. For sure, once they realize. Like, oh, actually, yeah, if I’m to space this 600 h out, evenly, between the 30 weeks. Roughly, of that, I have to do this. That’s about 30 h of practicum a week.

Shanti Chang: Once you’re in those semesters. So keep that in mind. Maybe you take a break for a semester or 2 prior to jumping into that. And you work a lot to build up some cushion, you know, for you to financially be able to take that on so that you don’t have to have

Shanti Chang: such competing priorities. I mean, obviously, we’ll have to have food in the fridge and moves over our heads. So there’s no judgment there. That that’s why it’s flexible like. If you need to take a pause from clinical to get everything in order to be able to do clinical.

Shanti Chang: then we can work with that for sure.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. And I did want to mention that we do allow up to 6 years to complete the degree.

Shanti Chang: Yep, yep, exactly.

George Mason Online Admissions: So, okay, so how can I improve my chances of acceptance into the program with an undergraduate? Gpa of 2.7 9. I have 10 years of experience at a level one trauma hospital.

George Mason Online Admissions: Are there any successful precedents of applicants with a similar Gpa. Being admitted? And what steps can I take to strengthen my application? Considering the minimum Gpa of a 3 point. O, additionally, how effective is a Gpa addendum in such circumstances.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, I love that question. I was just telling Susan. Actually, earlier, I struggled through my Bsn program. But I also feel like I was a different person. Back then.

George Mason Online Admissions: Sure.

Shanti Chang: Grown and matured, and in some ways I’m still working.

Shanti Chang: But right. But

George Mason Online Admissions: Love it.

Shanti Chang: I think my bachelor program is probably the time that I like, cried most in life, and was so confused.

George Mason Online Admissions: My goodness.

Shanti Chang: No? Yeah. So personally, then, and because the binding review does come to me for decision, what I like to see in an application. If your GPS was less than you’d want it to be less than you know we put we put 3, but we don’t prohibit anyone from applying was lower than that, and for good reason. If you want to make your application

Shanti Chang: I guess, speak to a level that would be enough for me to say, like, Yeah, care about. That is kind of what you just put in that prompt like.

Shanti Chang: yeah, I acknowledge that it wasn’t as great as I wish it was, but I’ve grown, and I’ve worked 10 years, and that includes time in a trauma one, and I’ve really had time to mature and hone in on, you know, different studying practices, or whatever, just even my passion for nursing you know, really propels me, and I know that I’ll do well, I think a lot can be

Shanti Chang: just

Shanti Chang: justified. I guess I don’t know if that’s the right word, but a lot can be justified and described in your essay. Use that as if there’s something that you’re not proud of on your transcript, or like. Maybe something happened in life. You started out of school. You didn’t do well there, and you had to stop, and you had to go to another school like, does you have a lot of life going on. If you’re comfortable, it’s no pressure, either, but like, if you’re comfortable and you want to speak to it. Even generally like.

Shanti Chang: use your essay as the space to speak to your resilience and ability to rise above and be better and just kind of state. Why, you want to be a nurse, practitioner and make this work, and why you think you can.

Shanti Chang: So we don’t

Shanti Chang: have any official caps on our admission numbers just Fyi currently. So that’s good. We do still maintain small class sizes, though I like to keep it at like 24 per class students, so that you have a real, you know, connection with your faculty and those other students in your class. But I think that’s always nice to know, too. So you know that you’re not like competing really hard, I guess, against other people, because I think we really

Shanti Chang: prioritize, we, we recognize the need for more primary care providers to get out into the world so that a great program we’ve got the resources and the support to be able to get you guys out there in a successful way to do what we all need to do. And that’s our goal.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yup, that’s wonderful. Okay, let’s see admissions.

George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Ching and the Admissions Committee. Look at the person holistically. They look at your work experience. Just submit strong supporting documents but

George Mason Online Admissions: myself and my fellow enrollment counselors or representatives are very happy to assist you in the application process. I usually tell my students that I’m your personal assistant along the way. So but the application process is super easy. We do accept unofficial transcripts. We will attempt to order official transcripts on your behalf.

George Mason Online Admissions: Course a resume.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, 3 letters of recommendation. I thought it was just 2. It’s 2. Yeah.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, it.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, too.

Shanti Chang: It’s 2. Yeah.

Shanti Chang: Sorry I missed that.

George Mason Online Admissions: Into the application portal. They receive an email that takes them to a link literally takes them 10 min

George Mason Online Admissions: to do this questionnaire. If they want to add something in writing. They can do that as well. And then, like Dr. Shang said the personal statement, that’s really where you tell, you know, speak your truth, and why you want to do this, and why you’d be a good candidate.

George Mason Online Admissions: And of course you have to. You do have to have a Bsn

George Mason Online Admissions: and an active Us Rn license, and at least one year of experience as an Rn. And a current Cpr card.

George Mason Online Admissions: So, yeah. So the application process is very easy. And I’m just gonna if you don’t have an admissions representative feel free

George Mason Online Admissions: to reach out to us. And there you go. There’s the information.

George Mason Online Admissions: and we’re happy to assist. That’s what we’re here for.

George Mason Online Admissions: Any questions. Oh, do the letters of recommendation need to be from people in the medical field.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, that’s a great question.

George Mason Online Admissions: That is an excellent question.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, I think we usually ask that at least one be from someone who is in a supervisory position to you somehow. So yeah, ideally, clinically, would be great. But maybe some of you haven’t been at the bedside in a long time. That’s another thing. Then, then fine, if it’s your supervisor, and you’re in an administrative position currently. Then that’s fine, too. But then use your personal statement to

Shanti Chang: Tell me, then, to like acknowledge again, like. I realize I haven’t been at the bedside in 5 years, but this is why I want to get back into it and become a nurse practitioner. Cause. Sometimes I read these essays, or you know, I I see certain things. And sometimes it makes me think like, Oh.

Shanti Chang: okay, yes, I want them for this program. They they’d be great, I’m sure, but also given what they’re saying, maybe they should go to like our leadership dmp, program. So I just sometimes, also, I’ll take notes myself. Given what you’ve said and what you’re writing down and and I might reach out to be like, Hey, you got your application. But also, you know, once you accept. If you want to talk about transferring over here, or you don’t want to learn more about that, let me know. So we do have a few programs and and

Shanti Chang: and pathways in our school, and we all work super close together.

George Mason Online Admissions: Great. Now, Gabby’s, hey? Do we have an application fee waiver! I wish.

Shanti Chang: You know. Yeah. So no, not right now, unless.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, I don’t think there’s any like official one right now with that said, like, if you’re like.

Shanti Chang: Look, I wanna come. But finances are an issue. I really wanna apply. But $75 is $75 is like.

George Mason Online Admissions: $35.

Shanti Chang: So yeah, it’s not like a little amount like, I I wish they would just go away altogether.

George Mason Online Admissions: Am into that Amen. To that.

Shanti Chang: Send me an email. I can always have a conversation with my directors in the college and say, like, Hey, is there something we could do about it, I mean, I guess I should cautiously say that, because now I don’t want, like everyone emailing.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, my goodness!

Shanti Chang: You know. Yeah, I mean. So I don’t know. And I say that.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, my!

Shanti Chang: I have whatsoever. But so we do not have interviews at this active time. At this time. Currently we’re waiting the interviews for applications, and then 2 supervisor letters are fine. You do not have to have one from a professor. I would just say again, like seeing if if you could use it in a way to, I guess.

Shanti Chang: look at it as like diversifying your application like I really do love holistic applications that I want to see like after, just like math greater up, or whatever like this is my favorite. I’m totally biased. But I want to see kind of your experience. And yeah, letters from a supervisor. And then maybe someone who’s worked with you clinically, or maybe in another setting. You know that. You didn’t get to speak to as much. So

Shanti Chang: just use it as an opportunity to kind of showcase yourself if that makes sense.

Shanti Chang: One year bedside experience. That’s fine. We define the one year as one year at the time of starting classes.

George Mason Online Admissions: Which is great. Yes.

Shanti Chang: But with that said.

Shanti Chang: We want you to have some good nursing foundations under you as an Rn. Because it is. It is a rigorous program. You know, you’re getting a nurse practitioner degree to be an advanced level provider like you’re gonna have

Shanti Chang: scribing and treating all these things, you know, expectations on you. So we just wanna make sure that you’ll be the best and safest respect issue that you can be so. But again, I don’t think that time. Always like numbers. Don’t meet that definition always. There’s other ways of demonstrating that. So.

George Mason Online Admissions: Now, Tatiana wants to know she could email you about the Bsn, dnp program.

Shanti Chang: Yes, if you are interested in Vs entity dmp, program. And you want to email me, I can pass you on to that program director. It’s Dr. Andrea Landis, also throwing out there. We do have other Np programs besides fmp, so we have a Bsm to Dmp fmp, but then we also have an adult Jeroen, Psm to Dmp, and we have a psychiatric mental health nurse, practitioner vs. And a Dmp, and I actually just

Shanti Chang: finish that postmasters psych certificate, and I will be taking my psych boards this summer. So wish me luck. It.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, wonderful! That’s so cool! Alright, so. Somebody. Tatiana says she loves Dr. Landis. So there you go.

Shanti Chang: Amazing. She, she definitely, this is the program director for the Fmp and Agmp Dmp program. Whereas I’m your Msn.

Shanti Chang: Especially, based on online person we do have an Msn hybrid program. If any of you decide like, you know what I don’t know. If this 100% online thing is for me. I think I would benefit from from some face to face time. Our hybrid programs

Shanti Chang: online, most of it, I would say. But

Shanti Chang: it’s a little bit of a different layout, and it is more, you know. You come to campus every once in a while for something, so we we could always talk about switching over to that one. If that’s something you’re interested to just send me an email. And you’re like, Yeah, I like this, and I’ll connect you with the right person.

George Mason Online Admissions: Can I clarify? So you’re saying the campus? F. Msnf P. Is a hybrid.

George Mason Online Admissions: is it? Can’t.

Shanti Chang: This Msn. Fmps is a hybrid.

George Mason Online Admissions: Good to know.

Shanti Chang: It’s not fully in person. So a lot of those classes, the level ones are all online.

Shanti Chang: Half of the level twos are online. And then the other half are half online and half the person. And then for the level 3 is they go in on campus every other week.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay.

Shanti Chang: It’s really not too much. But then, you know, you’ve seen people face to face. So any on campus intenses we do not require on campus intensive right now. I’ve heard some feedback for some people that that’s something they’d be interested in and and want the opportunity to which I would always love to talk about. This came up at a faculty meeting last week. Actually, so we’re considering it. We kind of gotta get our ducks in a row to see what that might look like. I think

Shanti Chang: an alternative to that, honestly, is that we’ve almost kind of got a built in version of that already with our math clinics. So if you’re like, I want to go and be with faculty and be in the clinics and see patients in real life with someone at the school or multiple people at the school and see what this looks like. Like. You could fly in or drive up, you know, for a couple of days in a row. We could get you in clinics. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, back to back, and in a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, at Manassas you could see

Shanti Chang: chronic disease care. Then on Tuesday you could see pediatrics analysis, and then on Wednesday you could see substance, use disorders all side by side with, you know, faculty at mason or spectrum or faculty, and then that would be a nice time for us to assess and give you pointers on some, some skills and assessment things. If it was of interest to you.

Shanti Chang: but not required.

George Mason Online Admissions: Cool. That’s great.

George Mason Online Admissions: Alright! So

George Mason Online Admissions: I think we are at that bewitching hour. Am I? Yeah. 8. 0, 3.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you.

Shanti Chang: We always could talk forever and ever. So my email is S. Chang [email protected]. If anybody else has any other, follow up questions for me. And like, I said, if I don’t know the answer, I can at least hopefully point you in the right direction. But yeah. Your admissions counselor also is obviously a great 1st person to go to as well.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yup, we’re happy to help. Thank you so much. Now you see why they’re rated. Number 10 in the name.

Shanti Chang: Yeah.

Shanti Chang: Oh, I can’t take.

George Mason Online Admissions: Sure you can.

Shanti Chang: No, yeah. Yeah.

Shanti Chang: I was seeing, of course.

Shanti Chang: cool. No, honestly, when we do those reports, I was just talking to some about this. It’s it’s the students. I love the student, the student information that we get to brag on about who our students are coming into us and then who they are when they’re leaving us, and just everything that they do in the program to get there. And and the experiences that you guys bring into our program, and and that we all share with each other is just really, I think, what makes this unique and special and excellent. So thank you, guys.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, thank you for joining us. And Dr. Cheng, you’ve been so in informative, and this has been wonderful. And thanks thanks, thanks for all your great questions. So again, Dr. Cheng just shared her. Em, email.

George Mason Online Admissions: be sure to reach out to your admissions representative, and we’re happy to help, and thanks again for joining us.

Shanti Chang: Yeah, thanks. Everyone.

George Mason Online Admissions: For now.

Shanti Chang: Has.

George Mason Online Admissions: Bye.

Shanti Chang: I’m great.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much.

Shanti Chang: Thank you, Susan. Talk to you.

George Mason Online Admissions: Bye.

Shanti Chang: Reach out. If you need anything.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much.

Shanti Chang: Bye.

George Mason Online Admissions: Bye, bye.