Does anyone know anything about the PCT course at Everest Institute? I already know Everest is a good tech school so I'm not too concerned about the thoroughness of their training, but I am curious about cost, length of the course, and what their class schedules are like. I know I could just contact the school myself but I'm not ready to enroll yet and so would rather not have any Admissions people calling me every other week....

i would advise against it, but that's just me. i don't care for that school. i attended once when they were a different name and was lied to over and over again about costs. ...... $10,000 lesson learned and that was only for 2 classes! don't ask ..... but lets just say they had me sign my checks for the entire year of classes, i dropped, they never refunded my money to the loan company, i didn't know, i HAVE to pay ..... so, i would avoid that school like the plague!

i've found a job you may be interested in applying to ....job fair is coming up on it as well. it is thru morton plant hospital in clearwater .... not sure if you are in that area or not, but worth taking a look at ..... they will train you, pay you a salary and employ you ..... you, in return, only have to promise to work for them for one year .....

here is the link: http://www.mpmhealth.com/workfiles/nursing assistant.pdf

Thanks for answering. I've had bad experiences with tech schools as well which is why I am trying to do my homework before signing on any dotted lines. I still don't know how much Everest costs, but I'm told that most of these big tech schools charge $7000-$9000 for a PCT course. That's just way too much money since most PCT's wind up working as CNA's when they first start out. For less than that you can go to a CC and become an LPN or an RN. So I don't know where these tech schools get off charging so much for a PCT course.

i agree with you on the cost -- but some of us do fall for it i guess, which is why they stay in business --- and change their names every couple of years

if you are in pinellas county, have you tried pTEC? they have a PCT program and are much cheaper than Everest. www.myptec.org

i'd check them out before spending that kind of money .... or check into the job opportunity at baycare (link in above post) that is how i am trying to go thru LPN school right now.

Actually, I am in Miami-Dade County but I would sooner take a regular CNA course before I paid thousands of dollars for a PCT course. My goal is to moonlight as a CNA since a lot of LTC facilities have flexible schedules. I would like to earn extra money in order to improve my financial situation; going $7000-$9000 in debt for a job where I will start out earning $8-$10 an hour is not going to improve my financial situation.

why not just take a cna prep course? i just completed mine and will be taking the state exam soon --- you can actually start working as a cna before receiving the state certification, depending on the nursing home you work at ... i did mine on a fri/sat/sun - hours were form 8am-6pm, but you can also take part-time hours. i paid $250 for the course and take the state exam as a "challenger." in florida, the state does not require you to have any formal training to take the cna exam. you could also pay a little bit more and go through the red cross, but again, it is only a challenger course, with the exception of theirs allowing you to do a few weeks in clinicals.

here is a link i found helpful in studying .... it is from the state of wisconsin, but all skills are basically the same anywhere you go. http://deptets.fvtc.edu/nursing/index.htm

you can find more info on the florida state exam at prometrics: http://prometric.com/nurseaide/fl.htm

florida department of health also has some info as well.

I've heard about taking a prep course but I've just been concerned that I might not be really comfortable with all of the necessary skills if I took a run-through course instead of one that was more thorough.

yeah, i felt that way too, until i finally said, "what the heck" and decided to take one. it's really not as hard as you might think .... the skills are all pretty basic and at least at the course i took, i feel well prepared for the state exam. check out those links i posted too .... helpful/useful info for the skills.

Trying to warn people - yes.....beware of Everest. Unfortunately a person doesn't find out how bad it is until they are in and stuck with the debt. After financial aide a person will owe about $14k-$16k and their reputation is NOT GOOD.

I know several girls that made the mistake of choosing Everest because they offer night and weekends and some are stuck owing and couldn't return because of unprofessional behavior from staff and violence and threats among students that the staff does NOT control.

If you have another choice or option choose it. You think you can buck up and get through it but it really is as bad as you have read.....worse than what you have read.

I posted on another forum here as well. I feel compelled to reinforce it from what I learned. I also learned that the hospitals that they do their clinicals in do not tend to hire their students. Usually clinicals is a good place to get your foot in the door but when the school is your road-block.....what then?