Ep #146: Your NP Board Prep Hub: Resources and Our New Instagram with Courtney

Welcome to the Real Deal Nurse Practitioner Club, the podcast for nurses who are ready to pass their boards and thrive in their careers as real deal nurse practitioners. I’m Anna and I’m the Director of Nursing Content at Blueprint Test Prep. Whether you’re deep in exam prep or stepping into practice, I’ve got you. It is time to become the confident, knowledgeable NP that you’re meant to be. Let’s dive in. 

Hey, hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode. You all know me by now. I’ve been around for a while, but I also want to say hi to Courtney. She’s also been on our team for quite a while now. She’s been in a few podcast episodes, so you might recognize her voice. But Courtney, do you want to introduce yourself and, you know, just kind of say your background and your role at SMNP Reviews and Blueprint?

Courtney: Absolutely. So, I earned my degree from Duke University, and I have been a board-certified adult gerontology primary care nurse practitioner for about 9 years. I’ve worked in several different settings like internal medicine, a GI hepatology specialty clinic, and I joined Blueprint right under 3 years ago. So today, I have the honor of serving as the senior editor of nurse practitioner content. So I oversee the content creation across all the NP specialties here at Blueprint.

Anna: Yes, absolutely. I started working with Courtney and it was like, Courtney, please come work full-time. Thank you.

Today’s episode is going to be a little bit different. I am going to be introducing our new Instagram page, and it’s @smnpreviewsofficial. But first, I want to talk about why we have a new Instagram page and really what you can expect moving forward. 

If you all have been following along with us for a while, you may already know that our founder, Sarah, or you probably know her as Sarah Michelle, is stepping into a really beautiful new chapter in her life, and she is doing so much amazing advocacy work for congenital heart disease. She’s really diving into her other passions as well. And so, earlier this year, she passed the reins of this amazing company to the great people that make up our team. 

And we just want to take a moment to thank her for building such a powerful and like purpose-driven brand because over the last 5+ years, she’s really laid the foundation, the vision, and the legacy that we have that have helped so many of you all become what we call real deal NPs. I think she even coined that phrase. And we are really honored to be able to continue that work while also cheering on Sarah in this new chapter. 

So, as we are stepping into this new chapter, I want to take us back in time just a little bit and celebrate Sarah’s legacy. And now, to preface, I cannot even begin to do her story justice. She talks a lot about her own journey and her mental health on her pages, so definitely check that out.

And if you’ve been listening to this podcast from the early days, you may actually know that Sarah and I went to undergraduate nursing school together. And then we went to different FNP programs, but we reconnected as we were both graduating NP school at the same time, and then we were prepping for our boards. I think we both took our boards within like a week of each other. 

And right around that time, Sarah realized that there was this huge gap in prepping for the certification exams. I remember that not one review mentioned building up confidence. Nothing talked to Sarah about managing her test anxiety. And she’s always been very candid about her anxiety throughout nursing school and while preparing for the exams. And there was one review that Sarah took that actually told her test anxiety didn’t exist. 

Sarah already loved teaching. She had already gotten her master’s in nursing education. And so shortly thereafter, I think it was May 2020, she put together this 3-hour crash course in a weekend, and that really was the start, like the very start of all the amazing courses that you all know and love today. And she really started building that review that she wished she had as a student and what was so desperately needed in the space.

Now, a few months later, November of 2020 is when I started working with her. I was teaching, I was making some content, developing our one-on-one sessions. And right around then is when we launched our very, very first live study group, which again, at the time, they were super unique, they were a new concept in board review at the time. 

And a fun fact that you all might not know is that from our very first live study group, we had one of our very first students to pass, and now they have been one of our fabulous long-standing NP instructors and they’re still teaching with us today. So it’s been really, really cool to kind of see that journey of – her name is also Sarah – become our student. She passed, she loved these courses so much she wanted to teach them, and now she’s still with us 5 years later. 

And you also might remember Kennedy. She was just on one of our most recent episodes. She was another one of our very first instructors that we hired so many years ago. She helped us build some of our content that’s still in our question banks and our courses. And really from these early days. We just kept building.

And then in 2022, we partnered with Blueprint Test Prep, and with Blueprint, we were able to get access to so many amazing resources that we just didn’t have before while Sarah and I were in startup mode. And now we’ve been able to give you all the courses you need, these really amazing question banks. And we also started building out our content team more to include superstars like Courtney, who I have with me today, and Kaitlyn, who’s been on other episodes. And we are really dedicated to keeping all the amazing things that we’ve been doing going.

Courtney: Absolutely. And in just the past 2 weeks, we’ve received countless testimonials from NP learners across the country. So I’ve pulled a few really cool ones here. So, one learner said, “What sets this course apart is Sarah Michelle’s ability to calm test anxiety while reinforcing high-yield information. The live reviews, mnemonics, and supportive Facebook group made me feel like I had a community rooting for me the whole way through. I highly recommend this course to anyone preparing for their NP exam. It’s worth every penny and then some.”

Anna: I love that. That supportive Facebook group, it’s not going anywhere, right? It’s still there. Those really fun mnemonics, I cannot tell you all how much fun we have making those. Courtney sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and is like, I thought of another mnemonic to add in. We are keeping all of these amazing things there and all of the things that Sarah Michelle really set as the foundation of our courses.

Courtney: Absolutely. I live for those memory tricks, truly. Another learner said, “Your materials were incredibly helpful and truly made all the difference in helping me pass my exam. The way everything was explained and structured made studying so much more manageable.”

Anna: I know Courtney, you especially in this last year have really been looking at the structure of the courses and making sure things are – we’re giving you what you need to know to pass, but we’re also making sure it’s easy for you to understand and like painting that full picture.

Courtney: Absolutely. Lastly, we had one learner say, “I signed up for the SMNP Crash Course prior to taking my AANP FNP exam. It was a thorough, easy-to-use program that helped me gain some last-minute knowledge, mnemonics, and tips prior to taking my exam. And I passed with flying colors. This is a great program that I would highly recommend.”

Anna: I love it. And I love that she said passed with flying colors because we are trying to get you to go into your exam and walk out and be like, “Oh, I knew I could do that. I was going to pass.” Sarah really, in the first iterations of the courses, put in the phrase like, “You will pass. You will pass.” And that phrase has just really stuck. If you’re in our supportive Facebook community, people say that they like write that on their dump sheet. They tell themselves that and that has just stuck around from that first iteration of the course.

Courtney: Absolutely. And it really is just such a pillar of what we stand for, right? Bringing that confidence that learners know this information. They have learned this, they know it, but just having us reinforce it in a digestible format for that board exam day, it just makes all the difference. And so we still have our amazing live study group option for primary care NP learners, which is again, truly comprehensive, everything needed to pass. For learners who prefer a self-paced option, we still have our awesome video courses for primary care and PMHNP learners now.

And then in the last couple of years, the content team in partnership with Sarah and Blueprint, we’ve been able to expand our products beyond just the Primary Care Question Bank. So we’ve been able to build out other question banks for more nurse practitioner specialties, and we continue to keep our mission as Sarah always envisioned. 

So Sarah really found that secret sauce that she put into her courses, and she really passed that on over to us over the last couple of years, and we’ve continued to use that to keep our courses fresh and up-to-date and engaging and fun. And really, I tell Anna this all the time, I wish I had these products when I graduated nurse practitioner school because they would have made all the difference in not only knowing the content needed to know for the board exam, but also just feeling confident and reducing that test anxiety on that important day.

Anna: Yeah, you could have all the content knowledge in the world, right? You could ace the content, but if you can’t control that other half of that exam day anxiety, you can still not be successful on your exam. And so it really is two halves of the whole. I wish I had them too. 

I remember when I was studying, it was at the same time Sarah was preparing for her exams, and that was actually one of the things we connected over is I think I posted on Instagram, and I had made this like whole calendar for myself of like, okay, this is how long I have to study. I need some break days. This is how I want to break down my content to just kind of get everything organized and like make myself a schedule. 

And now in our courses today, I mean, we do that for you. We give all of our learners like an amazing adaptable study planner where you can schedule days off. You can see exactly how much work to do each day. And that was something that Sarah and I were like, why don’t we have this? And one of the things that we’ve reconnected over. 

And so I cannot say how helpful this would have been if I didn’t have to do all that myself. I was like using multiple different reviews, figuring out what videos to watch or like what review I was going to go to because I tried to do one of those like lectures that was 3 days long, 8 to 10 hours a day, and I can tell you I retained nothing.

Courtney: Exactly. I lived that life. And just having the ability to lay it out, make it make sense, by for example, primary care, by body system, right? Like that’s breaking it down a few days study cardiovascular, a few days, study respiratory, and really having those moments where you can quiz yourself at the end with learning module quiz questions or our question bank. It just really solidifying that content to work through those questions that you’ll see on your exam day.

Anna: Yeah, and using those two to really just like tie it all together so you can see how certain things then interact with each other once you’ve laid that foundation by body system. And really, our mission is remaining the same. We are going to continue to help you manage that test anxiety. 

We want to build up your confidence and let you know that you can do this. You absolutely can pass this exam. And we are going to get you fully prepared to become a real deal NP with the amazing quality content and the products that you expect from us. And really from the early days of this brand till now, we have been committed to supporting your journey. That is not changing, that is not going to stop here. 

I am going to continue to host this Real Deal NP podcast. I’m going to continue to have awesome guests join me like Courtney and other members of our team and even people outside of Blueprint to continue bringing you valuable content and to bring you real life advice.

And if you want to follow along with Sarah and her new journey, she is still on all her social media pages. So our old Instagram page that we’ve had, that is going to be fully Sarah’s and you can keep watching all the things she is doing there. 

And then very exciting news for us, SMNP Reviews, now has its own official page on Instagram that is just dedicated to all the things of NP prep and this whole journey that we’re going on together. So you can follow us @smnpreviewsofficial to stay connected. And really, I’m just excited to keep going into this new season together. It is the same exceptional prep that we have been giving you, but just a new home base as we’ll call it. So again, make sure you’re following @smnpreviewsofficial and just join us as we continue to carry Sarah’s torch forward.

Our supportive Facebook community that we’ve mentioned, that is remaining the same. That is not changing. If you are there, you are in the right place. Our TikTok that we have, that is staying the same. Again, nothing changing there. And for Instagram, that is the one changing. So make sure you find the one that is that new name. 

I will also make sure it’s linked in the show notes, but there are a lot of fake pages, a lot of fake groups out there. We are working on getting our new page verified, so it’s going to have that blue check mark for you. If you are at @smnpreviewsofficial, that is the right place. 

And just remember, we’re never going to ask you to like send us money via direct message or WhatsApp. Anything like that is definitely a scam. Everything that we offer, all of our courses are found and purchased on our website, npreviews.com. And so just make sure you’re like watching out for those fake pages because they definitely sadly exist, and we work tirelessly to get them taken down. But we cannot control those groups just popping up every day.

Courtney: Absolutely. And we really look forward to seeing you in our Instagram, Facebook, and other communities.

Anna: Keep following along and listening to this podcast. We have some really cool new episodes coming up. We’re going to be dissecting some practice questions together with another fabulous member of our content team. And we have a lot of other fun podcasts planned, both if you’re in school, if you’re in clinicals, if you’re prepping for your boards, or if you’re also a new NP and you’re really doing this transition to practice or in your first year, we have a ton of helpful things coming. 

So, make sure you follow us. Follow us on Instagram, follow our podcast, and we’ll talk to you next time.

Thanks for listening to another episode of the Real Deal Nurse Practitioner Club. If you want more information about the different types of support that we offer to students and new nurse practitioners, you can visit npreviews, with an S, dot com. We’ll see you next week.