Which would you hire

[christyrn05]

If you had an employee who had a traditional education from a brick and mortar school vs someone that received their education from an online school would you hire one or the other based on the school if they had the same background experience. Just wondering what your experiences are. Thanks

[AMN74]

The education, in this instance, would really not affect my decision. If both of them have "relatively" the same educational experience then I would decide who to hire based on the interview. I would try to find the person that's personality would fit best with the rest of my staff, the person that is dedicated and willing to get in there and get the job done, and the person that I felt was most honest and sincere. In the above case, I would not make a decision just based on education, but also life experience.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I, too, would consider the whole package -- not just the delivery method of the education. However, if everything else was truly equal ... then I would look at the quality of the individual schools. If one was better than the other, I would choose the one from that school (regardless of whether it was the online one or the brick-and-mortar one.) If I considered both schools of equal quality, then yes, I would probably lean towards the one from the brick-and-mortar school.

(And for the record ... I have taught in a respected online program.)

[catlover314]

@ christyrn05: If you mean they are both new grads with background experience in non-nursing areas, I would have to evaluate both their background references and the amount of clinical time in each program before making a decision. Purely on line would come in second, but I think all programs have an element of practicum I think. If not I would be very hesitant as nursing in books is a far cry from taking care of real people with real problems. If the question means you have two nurses with a similar nursing background/experience, the schooling itself isn't as important to me as the interview and their references.

[oldenurselady]

If it is a good school (Many of the state universities, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Regis, Cincinnati, etc), the person who earned their degree online may be more self-directed and better able to manage their time very well. The for profit, do it as fast as you can, we accept anyone who can pay the $ are probably not so good, IMHO. Many of the folks I know who went to Walden, South U, Western Govs, etc. do very little practicum/clinical time. They often do "projects" at work, while many of these other schools do not allow work time to count as school time. There is a great benefit to being exposed to "how it is done" somewhere else. I do think, U Phoenix is good as far as the for profits go.

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

All else being equal (which it NEVER is), I'd go with Candidate No. 1.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I pay little attention to where someone received their education. Work experience, work history, attitude and personality are more important than where someone was educated. I have worked with people from high-powered schools who were an absolute disaster in the workplace, and people from non-descript schools who were excellent nurses.