Nursing School: NCLEX Prep or Clinical Focus?

[willowita, ADN, RN]

Hi everyone,

I was accepted to two nursing schools with vastly different approaches in teaching and focuses. So I wanted to get the opinions of current students or nurses who might have some words of wisdom for me.

The first school is at a public community college so there is access to more types of financial aid. They also have a lot of resources set up for nursing student retention like tutoring, counseling, and a student advocate. Their focus is mostly on NCLEX prep and they coddle you more through clinicals.

The second school is run through a county hospital and their focus is on strong clinical experience. Financial aid is more limited, student retention is low, and it's more cut throat. But, if you survive, you come out with so much experience and are considered the best of the best.

Both of my parents are nurses at the county hospital where the second school is run from. So they're pushing me to go there because I'll see everything and be better prepared when I enter the workforce. I'm just not sure if I can cut it since I have no previous healthcare experience. I might be getting in over my head tackling that much as a student. My thinking is that I can build stronger clinical skills on the job and through a new grad program. Or is that already too late?

Also, both schools have good reputations and both have high NCLEX pass rates. The tuition at the community college is a lot less than at the county school.

So what should I really get out of nursing school (NCLEX prep or clinical focus)? What am I not looking at?

[Katie71275]

I think you should get both and I feel my school offers both. Our NCLEX prep comes from utilizing ATI and from modeling test questions like NCLEX. Also, whenever they(instructors) see something that has been seen on NCLEX often, they will mention it so we can remember. We have skills labs, and we are encouraged (forced lol!) to practices these skills as much as we can.

[decembergrad2011, BSN, RN]

I agree that you should look to get both components in your program. For a comparison, rather than heresay, you should look at both programs' clinical hours compared to lecture hours and their NCLEX pass rates. While I do agree that clinical is important, you are correct in that you will have the rest of your career to hone in on your skills. However, I feel like if you go to a program that does not adequately prepare you to sit for NCLEX, you are in a world of trouble when it comes to take the exam. It's not an exam you can just cram for, and even if you know all of the material front and back, it's still a way of thinking that you develop over time. If you can't pass NCLEX, it won't really matter if you're great at starting IVs or putting on a pair of sterile gloves because you won't have the license that says you can do it!

If the county hospital has good pass rates, I would go with them, depending on if "cut throat" means "hard" rather than "we try to make students fail". I don't think the latter is a good learning environment. Ultimately you should go with where you think you will be most successful. And if paying for college is a concern for you, then it might be a good idea to go the route where you can get some financial aid at the expense of less clinical preparedness because student loan debt SUCKS.