Quote from johnny depp23
I was always told- as long as you have a degree it wouldn't matter what school you got it from... but after talking with several employers, they all said the same thing- "it does matter where you go to get your degree." Now, I'm not saying everybody is like that but most people in my area are very particular on who they hire and they look closely at what school they (the student) went too.
I have decided to go to a private university- because it has one of the best nursing facilities in my state. The state schools in my area are horrible- and people look down on you if you get your degree there because of all the gossip that goes on. It's sad- I know! After it's all said and done, I'm going to be 50k in debt, but I have the luxury of living at home and not having to pay any bills... So, I will pay off my debt before I even think about starting a family. Should take me less than 3 years.
IMHO it is all relative.
There are great private nursing programs, and there are excellent public/state college or university nursing programs. However it is worth saying that in this market you have graduates from such famous schools such as John Hopkins equally having a hard time finding work as those who went to a local community college.
It is also worth saying that facilities vary in their value different things in new grads or recently licensed nurses . Quite allot of this will depend upon how the nursing service is run and even then that may vary by department.
Certain places want persons with maxim proficiency in clinical skills. Others value leadership, management, theory and so forth.
Had always heard that here in NYC that Hunter-Bellevue (part of the City University system) was the creme de la creme of nursing progams. Only to read a post elsewhere in this forum that a local hospital let several grads of that program go because they were deemed not up to the job. Go figure.
IMHO shouldn't go into vast amounts of debt to obtain a nursing degree, especially not in this uncertain employment climate. Find a school with a decent board passing rate (hopefully one that does not reach that goal by kicking out >1/2 the incoming class so the actual numbers taking the NCLEX is rather small but all pass), and that has a decent enough reputation in the community for producing quality graduates. That is really all anyone can hope for, and hope it works.
When one hears of people going into debt >$40K or even >$60K for a nursing degree one really just wonders *why*. Those whom are adding all that debt on top of the student loans already taken out really need to be sat down. There are people out there with nearly $100,000 in debt for a nursing degree. That is just maddness.
The debt issue should and must be addressed before this BSN push gains more steam, or you are going to find more joining the ranks of "Occupy Wall Street". As such students who rank the Kool-Aid about a nursing shortage and so forth find themselves saddled with massive debts but no or little employment prospects, things are going to get ugly.
Jun 28, '12 by DoGoodThenGoQuote from newtinmplsNot wishing to cause offense but NP programs and medical school are most always no where near equal. Indeed there was a thread not long ago in the New York Times from an article regarding advanced degree nurses (IIRC it was about the switch from NPs being masters to doctorate), and some physicans pointed out that students at Columbia's NP programs which supposedly is one of the best in NY if not the country all scored badly on some standard exam (the name escapes me so early in the AM) all med students (or was it post grads?) must take."NP school was started because nurses already had the skills to do some of the general practice work needed for children. All these people needed was some extra knowledge and class time to hone and focus their already gained on-the-job skills.
