The informational meeting was interesting. The cost is steep--about 60K, which I tend to think is excessive compared to some of the other programs I've looked into. There are a couple of advantages to Platt for me in that classes never start before 9:00 a.m. (clinicals are another story, of course) and the school is literally about a mile from my house.
All the instructors have a master's in nursing, which I thought was impressive. The school is approved by the CO Board of Nursing. The BSN program is 32 months long and consists of 201 credit hours. You start your nursing classes right away and the general education classes and science pre-requisites are taken throughout the program. I was a little disappointed with the fact that I couldn't finish the program sooner, given that I already have a bachelor's degree and can have most of my gen-ed classes transfer to Platt. The president of the school said I would still finish in 32 months but that my workload would be lighter along the way.
The clinicals are supposedly very intensive and they also have simulation labs at the school. You do clinicals throughout the program and you end with a capstone where you work one-on-one with a nurse in a hospital. They said that they are preparing nurses who are "work ready" and that the program far exceeds the state's minimum competency requirements. This gives students more of an edge when they apply for jobs and also gives them a feeling that they actually know what they're doing instead of learning as they go, although there will always be a learning curve no matter how well prepared you are, in my opinion.
Nursing classes are from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. one day a week, clinicals/labs are one day a week, non-nursing classes are one day a week, and any overflow of classes might run an extra day per week but they said that isn't what usually happens. It sounds like 3 days a week would be the schedule most of the time, with an occasional 4 day week.
They accept 15 students each new term with the next one starting in January. You have to take the TEAS test and have an interview with the president of the school, fill out the application, and have all your immunizations in process before you start. Federal funding is available as well as the alternative-type loans. I think that about covers it! If anyone has any questions, let me know, because I have an information packet but I haven't gone through all of it yet. I'm still weighing my options and am going to talk to Concorde on Wednesday.
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Re: Platt college?
