Re: Nursing school

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

Calling all aspiring nursing students/nursing students/nurses!


My husband is an aspiring nursing student. He has taken all his bio coreqs, math and 1st psychology. He will take English 101(he is eligible for 101 because he has already had 102 due to "mobile" classes he took while in the army.) 2nd psychology and speech this summer. He has applied to 3 asn RN programs and is anxiously awaiting word.(aka panic mode has set in) Just wondering about other peoples experiences about applying, acceptance and different colleges guidelines/eligibility requirements. I have noticed a lot of nurses/prospective nurses on this board and would love to hear about your experiences!

 

[dislovr]

HI!!!

I am currently in a asn RN program at my local community college. I can't speak for the schools around you but it seems like he is in good shape with all the classes that he has taken so far. I know my school uses a point system with acceptance. You get so many points for each class you've taken and for the grade. And before they will even consider you for admission you need to have so many of those points. Thats all I know about that I don't know details.
He should be hearing soon don't you think? I am pretty sure all acceptance letters for next year have already gone out for my school. I know that I knew last february that I was accepted for this past fall.
BTW...my school is very difficult to get into. Each year they have to reject hundreds of people not because they aren't qualified but just because there isn't enough room for everyone so they take the top canditates each year.
Give your husband my best wishes and some pixie dust from me
Good luck to both of you!!!

 

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

HI!!!

I am currently in a asn RN program at my local community college. I can't speak for the schools around you but it seems like he is in good shape with all the classes that he has taken so far. I know my school uses a point system with acceptance. You get so many points for each class you've taken and for the grade. And before they will even consider you for admission you need to have so many of those points. Thats all I know about that I don't know details.
He should be hearing soon don't you think? I am pretty sure all acceptance letters for next year have already gone out for my school. I know that I knew last february that I was accepted for this past fall.
BTW...my school is very difficult to get into. Each year they have to reject hundreds of people not because they aren't qualified but just because there isn't enough room for everyone so they take the top canditates each year.
Give your husband my best wishes and some pixie dust from me
Good luck to both of you!!!

Hi Dislovr!

Thank you for the pixie dust and good wishes and Congrats about getting accepted into a program! How are your classes? I know my husband is already dreading pharmacology. He was a medic in the army and worked in a hospital and clinic so he's seen a lot of ins and outs. Do you know where you'd like to work when you're finished? My hubby wants to work in the er or trauma! I think he's nuts but then again this is his dream job not mine.(not to mention blood makes me squeamish so I don't think I could do it even if I wanted to) O.k. I'll stop asking you a million questions!(I can be a tad chatty.....couldja tell? ) His deadline to his 1st school was April 15th. We should hear from them soon. That one is pretty iffy because he didn't get his final grade in microbio until this past monday. The other 2 schools deadlines are June 1st so unfortunately we have a while to wait. The schools he has applied to are very competitive as well. They are all community colleges but they have very limited spots available.(40-80 depending on the school) and a lot of applicants. I am very proud of him for doing his best and going after his dream! He's always wanted to be a nurse and got sidetracked for a few.....o.k. 12 years.(Wow! Has it really been that long and am I that old?!) February of last year he told me he was really unhappy with his job and wanted to go back to school. I told him to go for it! So he maintained his 50-60 hour a week management job and went to school and maintained a 4.0 while being a great husband and an even better daddy to our 3 and 6 yr. old sons. And he officiated football in the fall! Whew! Needless to say he's my hero and the perfect example of what dedication and hard work can achieve! O.k. I'll stop gushing now! Back to the point at hand. What would you feel that your most difficult class has been so far?

 

[dislovr]

Aww...he sounds like a great husband! You are very lucky! Pharmacology was defintely challengening for me. And they just kind of squeezed it in there with a whole lot of other med surg information so its not like I was even able to focus on the meds. Right now I am in OB. Tomorrow is auctually my last clinical day for the semester however I have gotten an intership there so I will be delivering babies all summer. So far it is my favorite clinical that we've done (we've done nursing home, med surg, pediactrics, & OB) but we will see exactly how much I like it after auctually being there for 3 months working. Having clinical and having an intership is completely different.
BTW I don't mind questions at all! I am a chatter as well. Feel free to ask away and I defintely want to know his status with these schools. Keep me updated!

 

[dsanner106]

I was wondering which schools he is applying to? My wife is the Director of Graduate Nursing at a school in Georgia, and still works with the undergrad as well. I think he has an excellent chance with the coursework you list, plus schools are really trying hard to get more male nursing students. Best of luck to him.

Drew

 

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

Aww...he sounds like a great husband! You are very lucky! Pharmacology was defintely challengening for me. And they just kind of squeezed it in there with a whole lot of other med surg information so its not like I was even able to focus on the meds. Right now I am in OB. Tomorrow is auctually my last clinical day for the semester however I have gotten an intership there so I will be delivering babies all summer. So far it is my favorite clinical that we've done (we've done nursing home, med surg, pediactrics, & OB) but we will see exactly how much I like it after auctually being there for 3 months working. Having clinical and having an intership is completely different.
BTW I don't mind questions at all! I am a chatter as well. Feel free to ask away and I defintely want to know his status with these schools. Keep me updated!

Thanks! I am very lucky! I will keep you informed on his status and will most definitely ask you lots more questions! OB sounds like it would be very interesting and fulfilling. There's nothing more life affirming than seeing new lives coming into the world daily! My husband witnessed a birth when he was in the army along with other medics. He said it was interesting to say the least. I couldn't believe anyone would allow them in but he said it was a captain's wife who already had 7 other children! I think she deserves a medal! Did the hospital you did your clinicals at offer anybody jobs or be more likely to hire nursing students? Hubby would really like to get a part time hospital job so it would be in his field.

 

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

I was wondering which schools he is applying to? My wife is the Director of Graduate Nursing at a school in Georgia, and still works with the undergrad as well. I think he has an excellent chance with the coursework you list, plus schools are really trying hard to get more male nursing students. Best of luck to him.

Drew

Thank you!

I've already seen from the classes he has taken that there's not a tremendous amount of males interested in nursing. He had 1 other male in his 2 anat classes and he was the lone male in microbio! I have also learned it takes extreme dedication to choose this occupation. His microbio class was termed a "weeding out" class by his instructor. It was a doozy! He's glad it's over but he knows the most difficult classes are yet to come! He has applied to Gadsden State, Northeast, and Snead State Community Colleges. They all have decent graduate percentages. We are closest to Snead and that's where he has taken his coreqs. But we are not that far from the others. Gadsden is the farthest and it's about 40 minutes. I know gas prices are expensive but we can make it work for this! What college does your wife work at? We lived close to Atlanta when we 1st got married for about a year and we were really impressed with the schools and colleges there.

 

[dislovr]

It depends on the hospital. The one hospital near me will hire you as an aid just for being enrolled in nursing school. The one I am at now only has the externship program and there are only so many openings and you technically have to be going into your junior year which is equivalent to our second year so it works out for us. Also around me my school is the best nursing school you can get into. Even over any of the 4 year schools so all of the hospitals will take a student from my school over any other school. And another thing that is good about this externship is that about 95% of the time it guarantees you a job in the same unit after you graduate if you wish to take it. So...like I said ill just have to wait and see exactly how much I like it after I am auctually "working" there full time for 3 months.
But if he does want a part time job for experience he should contact human resouces at your local hospital. Ask if they hire uncertified nursing students as nursing aides or if they offer any other program for nursing students. Defintely good experience and it looks good on your reume when your done.

 

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

It depends on the hospital. The one hospital near me will hire you as an aid just for being enrolled in nursing school. The one I am at now only has the externship program and there are only so many openings and you technically have to be going into your junior year which is equivalent to our second year so it works out for us. Also around me my school is the best nursing school you can get into. Even over any of the 4 year schools so all of the hospitals will take a student from my school over any other school. And another thing that is good about this externship is that about 95% of the time it guarantees you a job in the same unit after you graduate if you wish to take it. So...like I said ill just have to wait and see exactly how much I like it after I am auctually "working" there full time for 3 months.
But if he does want a part time job for experience he should contact human resouces at your local hospital. Ask if they hire uncertified nursing students as nursing aides or if they offer any other program for nursing students. Defintely good experience and it looks good on your reume when your done.

Thanks for the info. It's kind of funny because he has applied to positions in the hospitals in the larger cities around us but never the ones in our county. He even had an interview at one and got offered a job but it didn't fit into our budget at the time. If he gets accepted he will either step down to part time at his job or hopefully take a hospital job. He can't wait and is counting the days. Do you think working(even part time) and attending nursing school is too challenging or doable? We are saving like crazy but are worried about finances and whether we should get a student loan. He has a pell grant that takes care of most of the tuition but we pay for the rest and his books. I don't mind penny pinching and I already am an extreme saver and extremely cheap but with 2 growing boys I just don't want to stress.(which is kinda a moot point with me because I am a worrywart!)

 

[dsanner106]

She has been at emory and others, and is currently the Grad Director at Clayton State Univ. in Morrow.

Drew



What college does your wife work at? We lived close to Atlanta when we 1st got married for about a year and we were really impressed with the schools and colleges there.

 

[LadyEMT]

How awesome! Kudos to him! I am currently in paramedic school (have worked on the street as an EMT-I for 2 years this month), and my plan is to go to nursing school in about 2 years (my employer will pay, woot).

Yeah for emergency (and all other) medicine!

 

[bsusanmb]

I am enjoying reading this thread...I am an "old" RN...I started out of high school at Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing and left after the first semester...I was so homesick...got married and had a child. When she was in kindergarten, I applied to our local community college and finished with an AD in 2 years. I finished my BSN at Penn State at the age of 50!

One thing about your husband who is a veteran....I work for the VA and veterans get preference in VA's. They have so many programs for schooling and for helping pay off your education. When I went to work for the VA after my BSN, they paid my school loans. They have a Debt Reduction Program and will give you cash back for all payments made at the end of the year for your school loans tax free. They also will pay for RN going for a BSN. We get 5 weeks vacation a year to start which is awesome and 11 paid holidays. My DH has worked for the VA for 36 years!

I have worked in every specialty there is over my years, and after serving as a Nurse Manager, the VA paid for me to go to school to be a wound, ostomy and continence nurse specialist. I now have my own clinic and treat patients independently. I love what I do.

It is sad that we have such a nursing shortage and not enough schools to educate nurses. I remember when I went to the community college we started with 75 and only graduated 36. It is tough, but if you really want to succeed, you will.

Best wishes to you. Nursing is the best career ever.
Susan

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

My fiance is also trying to be an RN. The schools here have a 3-4 year waiting period for the RN program, that is so crazy!

 

[emh1129]

Good luck to your husband!
The nursing programs in general are really tough to get into, but it sounds like he's off to a great start.
My school doesn't do a waiting list, they start fresh every year and it's based on a ranking system. GPA makes up for most of it in addition to the number of co-requisites already completed. They tweak that system each year, though.
Last year they had 300 apps for 80 spots (we are a small school), so it was nervewracking to say the least.
This year they only have 40 seats this fall because they will take the other 40 in January.
I really think they need to up the number of available seats, especially in response to the nursing shortage. Almost all of the people who applied were qualified (GPA was above the minimum required, already took the pre-reqs).

 

[dis75ney]

I'm not planning on applying for nursing school until September of 2009 (which means I'd start the program in January 2010 if accepted). My program states that students must have completed all pre-requisites (which I'm still working on, hence the delay), have at least a 2.0 GPA, and have attended the Nursing Education meeting within the previous two years, and the Admissions team will make sure all of this is done before moving on in the process. However, the ONE AND ONLY thing that the admissions team looks at for admission into the program is the score on the Nursing School Entrance Exam. They will offer spots to those scoring the highest on the exam and work their way down until all 60 spots are filled. Everyone else will be wait-listed according to their score, and the scores do not carry over to the next semester. If you don't make it the first time, you have to retake the test each time until you do.

Just to give you an idea of how competitive our school is...the highest score one can receive on the Entrance Exam is 99. For Spring of 2008, all sixty spots were filled by the time the scores reached 92...and no one from the wait list has been bumped up in the past five years...

 

[dislovr]

bsusanmd,

Your near hershey! I am in the Wilkes-Barre area and go to LCCC. Don't know if your familar or not. If my Dfi stay in the state after im all done with school we'd like to move either towards Hershey or Danville. I'll have to look you up if I come towards you! As soon as I saw where you were from I just had to say HI!

 

[seanandkaitsmom]

I have an assoc.degree in nursing, they are all a little different. My advise is just give them a call, and ask admissions how the admission process for nursing(i.e. waiting list, point list, etc) I had a waiting list but the school where I live now has points so you could be on the list forever! Also, have him ask about his status for admission. One other piece of advice, call the board of nursing for your state and ask if they have pass rate for NCLEX exam for those schools. Our state will do this and it is a great bit of information. If it is low, reconsider. I have a friend got her degree with a's and b's and after 5 attempts has not passed . We found out the pass rate for the year before was 42% and her class was 30%.. that is a bad school not a bad student!
And I worked 32-40 hrs a week passed with A's and B's, so it can be done!!!Good Luck to you both

 

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

How awesome! Kudos to him! I am currently in paramedic school (have worked on the street as an EMT-I for 2 years this month), and my plan is to go to nursing school in about 2 years (my employer will pay, woot).

Yeah for emergency (and all other) medicine!

Yes, we're very proud of him! Good luck in school and how great is it that your school will be paid for. One less thing to worry about!

I am enjoying reading this thread...I am an "old" RN...I started out of high school at Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing and left after the first semester...I was so homesick...got married and had a child. When she was in kindergarten, I applied to our local community college and finished with an AD in 2 years. I finished my BSN at Penn State at the age of 50!

One thing about your husband who is a veteran....I work for the VA and veterans get preference in VA's. They have so many programs for schooling and for helping pay off your education. When I went to work for the VA after my BSN, they paid my school loans. They have a Debt Reduction Program and will give you cash back for all payments made at the end of the year for your school loans tax free. They also will pay for RN going for a BSN. We get 5 weeks vacation a year to start which is awesome and 11 paid holidays. My DH has worked for the VA for 36 years!

I have worked in every specialty there is over my years, and after serving as a Nurse Manager, the VA paid for me to go to school to be a wound, ostomy and continence nurse specialist. I now have my own clinic and treat patients independently. I love what I do.

It is sad that we have such a nursing shortage and not enough schools to educate nurses. I remember when I went to the community college we started with 75 and only graduated 36. It is tough, but if you really want to succeed, you will.

Best wishes to you. Nursing is the best career ever.
Susan

I'm glad you're enjoying it & I'm glad I'm getting responses! Wow, it must've been exciting going to Johns Hopkins! I'm glad you decided to go back and it just goes to show it's never to late to go after your dream. It took my husband 12 years of marriage and 2 kids to decide but he is so much happier since he started back. I wish we had VA hospitals near us but the closest one is about 60 miles away. Who knows what the future holds though. The benefits sound awesome! How wonderful to have your own clinic and enjoy what you do! So many people(like me) have deadend unfulfilling jobs so it's wonderful when someone truly enjoys their occupation! Seeing my husband so happy has made me reevaluate my life and I'm going to use the next couple of years figuring out what I like and when he's done it's my turn!(much to the elation of my mom!) Our local community college has a very small nursing class as well(last year was 40 students) so it's very competitive but I guess that happens a lot with small towns.

My fiance is also trying to be an RN. The schools here have a 3-4 year waiting period for the RN program, that is so crazy!

Oh wow! That is crazy!! I think hubby might lose his mind if he has to wait that long! Good luck!

Good luck to your husband!
The nursing programs in general are really tough to get into, but it sounds like he's off to a great start.
My school doesn't do a waiting list, they start fresh every year and it's based on a ranking system. GPA makes up for most of it in addition to the number of co-requisites already completed. They tweak that system each year, though.
Last year they had 300 apps for 80 spots (we are a small school), so it was nervewracking to say the least.
This year they only have 40 seats this fall because they will take the other 40 in January.
I really think they need to up the number of available seats, especially in response to the nursing shortage. Almost all of the people who applied were qualified (GPA was above the minimum required, already took the pre-reqs).

Thanks! He's worked really hard. The schools he has applied use the compass reading score in addition to a point system for the bios.(A=30,B=20,C=10) and 11 additional points for either other coreqs or extra points for taking the classes at that school. The total points possible to achieve is 200 and he's in the 190's range. I hope it's enough, but you never know. It's extremely competitive. His schools start from scratch each year as well. I agree that there should be more availability especially due to the shortage of nursing.

I'm not planning on applying for nursing school until September of 2009 (which means I'd start the program in January 2010 if accepted). My program states that students must have completed all pre-requisites (which I'm still working on, hence the delay), have at least a 2.0 GPA, and have attended the Nursing Education meeting within the previous two years, and the Admissions team will make sure all of this is done before moving on in the process. However, the ONE AND ONLY thing that the admissions team looks at for admission into the program is the score on the Nursing School Entrance Exam. They will offer spots to those scoring the highest on the exam and work their way down until all 60 spots are filled. Everyone else will be wait-listed according to their score, and the scores do not carry over to the next semester. If you don't make it the first time, you have to retake the test each time until you do.

Just to give you an idea of how competitive our school is...the highest score one can receive on the Entrance Exam is 99. For Spring of 2008, all sixty spots were filled by the time the scores reached 92...and no one from the wait list has been bumped up in the past five years...

Wow, that is competitive! I've never heard of the nursing school entrance exam. I know that the compass reading only offers up to a 99 but it doesn't seem like it's anything comparable to that. What does it consist of? I'm glad they list your courses as prereqs. I think that's what they should do here because even though they're listed as coreqs there's no way anyone's getting in without the bios! Good luck!

 

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

I have an assoc.degree in nursing, they are all a little different. My advise is just give them a call, and ask admissions how the admission process for nursing(i.e. waiting list, point list, etc) I had a waiting list but the school where I live now has points so you could be on the list forever! Also, have him ask about his status for admission. One other piece of advice, call the board of nursing for your state and ask if they have pass rate for NCLEX exam for those schools. Our state will do this and it is a great bit of information. If it is low, reconsider. I have a friend got her degree with a's and b's and after 5 attempts has not passed . We found out the pass rate for the year before was 42% and her class was 30%.. that is a bad school not a bad student!
And I worked 32-40 hrs a week passed with A's and B's, so it can be done!!!Good Luck to you both[/QUO


He knows what the complete admissions are from 2 of the schools, #3 is a little fuzzy. They're not volunteering complete info on their point system like the other 2 are(and believe me he's tried! ) We have a compass reading test here where the score counts for half(the highest you can get is a 99) and for your 3 bios you receive A=30,B=20 and C=10. At one college you get 11 points for your remaining coreqs and the other 11 bonus points for attending that school. The total possible is 200 and he's in the 190's. Your poor friend! It sounds like the school really dropped the ball. I believe the pass rate he was telling me about was the NCLEX and they are good at these schools. They are all 90% and above. Thank you for the working advice. He will only be working part time(and officiating football on Fridays and Saturdays)but I don't want it to affect his grades.

 

[Rita1965]

I am in nursing school, and have one more semester for my ADN in nursing, then I can sit for my RN. I'm probably going to continue on to my BSN in January as my school offers that.

The schools in my state, and my state's board of nursing is excellent at putting their information online. If you google nclex pass rate utah you get a list of all the schools in Utah, and how well their students did on NCLEX. If you google the school name and nursing requirements, you are very likely to get the required information. My school even put's on the site what the GPA was for the students that were admitted the previous year.

One webforum that has a ton of information is allnurses dot com
One of the tab's on the top is for students, and you have discussions with current students, former students, and future students.

I love nursing, and for me it is a second career. After working with computers for 20+ years, I am ready for a change. I did take the LPN and became a LPN/LVN in February, and can't wait to get my RN after next semester.

Good luck