Difference in Programs

Nursing Students General Students

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I am from a small town in SC, and when anybody around here decides to be a nurse they know exactly where to go. (Greenville Technical College) I am new to this website, and I have noticed that most of your programs are completely different from mine. At GTC, the nursing classes are five weeks, and each five weeks 30-45 students are put into a class. In other words, every five weeks we have a new graduating class. They have set up the program so that you can take most of your prerequisites with your nursing classes. The program works like a staircase----after fifteen weeks you get a certificate for CNA, then after a few more weeks you are a PCT, then after one year you can take your LPN boards, then at the end of two years you can take your RN boards. You are allowed to drop off at any level, and re-enter at that level later if there are openings. It works out great, because you can get a job while in school for extra experience. We do a lot of work online, which makes it easier for me. Our testing is computerized and set up to be like NCLEX testing. If you fail a class you don't have to wait a semester to re-enter, you can just fall into the five week class behind you. This program was implemented right about the time that I started, so my class is the fourth five week class to go through the program. I was a little worried about the NCLEX pass rate due to the fact that so much information is packed into such a short period of time, but the first group to go through had a 98% pass rate. I'm pretty excited about that. Does this scenario sound familiar to anyone else?:confused:

Specializes in ER.

It doesn't sound familiar at all. I konw I haven't heard of one around here that does things like that because if they DID...I would have gone THERE!

To me it sounds like a really cool set-up. Having those little stepping stones in place probably helps keep the motivation going!

wow, what a great program! i've been looking around st. louis for something like that. we have a few little tech schools like sanford-brown and "missouri college of health careers" where you can get a diploma as a medical assistant. i didn't even consider it as they seem pretty expensive to me, and i want to be an rn, not an asst. my plan is to work as a cna first, then get my assoc. degree (rn) then complete my bsn. it would be so much easier if i had a school that took those steps with me! the only other program (besides the university bsn and a few actual nursing schools) is the community college asn that i plan to attend. has anyone else heard about the program she described, that's exactly what i want to do! if anyone has any info, please share

;)

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

My only concern with that setup is that I live in a fairly small town. Population of the three nearby towns together is under 100,000 and there's only ONE hospital. A program like that would totally saturate the area with graduate RNs, making it VERY difficult to find work. The ONLY school here used to just enter 100 students every fall. This semester they've just started turning out a new class each semester instead of once a year. But to have essentially a whole new class of graduate RNs every 2 1/2 months (90 students - 10 weeks). Our local job market couldn't handle it.

But if it works where you are, that's great!

We are very fortunate in upstate SC to have a number of healthcare facilities. I can think of 4 hospitals within 45 minutes of my house, not including the outpatient care facilities that go along with those hospitals. The shortage of nurses in my area is unbelievable, even with the technical college I attent pushing out 30 to 40 graduates every five weeks. On top of that, we have other state 4 year programs in the area----Clemson(go tigers!), Spartanburg Methodist, Lander University, USC, etc.....:)

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