Grand Canyon University RN to BSN Reviews

Nursing Students School Programs Nursing Q/A

Howdy all, I bit the bullet and after much research, I decided on Grand Canyon! Wow, I did not expect BSN schools to be like used car salesmen--hounding me by emails and phone calls. Rather impressed on how Grand Canyon sort of left me alone, but at the same time kept in touch.

Commence my first class Sept 30th, excited, yet very nervous, as I'm not a big fan of school, LOL! I did extremely well on my Associate degree, graduated back in 2009 from Northern Virginia Community College. We shall see.

Would love to hear from past and present Grand Canyon RN to BSN students.

Specializes in ICU/ Surgery/ Nursing Education.
Question on research need some help!

Does anyone still recall in 433 Research on the first assignment where you have to use the six articles for your topic you would like to research.... what are you writing about on that paper it is not clear to me. Are we writing just about the problem or are we writing about each abstract article?

Sorry I know it's Saturday so last minute but I worked all week!

Your knowledge is appreciated!

xx

My instructor specifically asked for the articles properly cited and referenced with a simple cut and paste of the abstract. I think I might have lucked out but in reality that was what the rubric asked for from what I remember. I did lose points because some of the references from the GCU library were not correct and I didn't inspect them close enough.

I wish I could remember more. Just a suggestion, on Monday look at the assignment and if anything isn't clear ask the question then. I know how easy it is to misplace time at work and with the family and be against the clock by Saturday. I have done too much of that, I now I start everything on Monday.

Specializes in UR/CM, Managed Care.
Question on research need some help!

Does anyone still recall in 433 Research on the first assignment where you have to use the six articles for your topic you would like to research.... what are you writing about on that paper it is not clear to me. Are we writing just about the problem or are we writing about each abstract article?

Sorry I know it's Saturday so last minute but I worked all week!

Your knowledge is appreciated!

xx

I wonder if they have changed this class too? I just read my assignment description and rubric for this 1st week's assignment, and we only had to include 3 articles, not 6.

The problem I had with this assignment is that my instructor decided that we should REWRITE those abstracts in our own words! Being only 3 abstracts long (short paper), you can imagine my TII was off the charts. One cannot restate absolutes (like percentages, sample sizes, locations, etc.) in any other terms than what they actually ARE. How do you rewrite a paragraph that only includes facts? This was not a happy moment for me, because the assignment description states to "include the article's abstract", and the rubric states "the abstracts of research studies". That couldn't be more clear to me; it says THEIR abstract (as in copy/paste the one the authors wrote), not make up my own!

I hope you have an instructor like rob's that simply wants the correct APA reference followed by the copy/paste of the author's abstract, and then repeat the process with them all. That's what this assignment should look like based on the description and the rubric.

Oh, and be sure to include the usual title page and headers like a regular ol' paper; a bunch of students in my class left those parts out and just submitted a Word doc with only the references and the abstracts. Didn't fly.

Specializes in UR/CM, Managed Care.
Just a suggestion, on Monday look at the assignment and if anything isn't clear ask the question then. I know how easy it is to misplace time at work and with the family and be against the clock by Saturday. I have done too much of that, I now I start everything on Monday.

Excellent advice. Historically, the assignment descriptions/rubrics tend to be unclear, so it is best to read through it early in the week so you can clarify. Also, by then, other students have figured out that it doesn't make any sense and have probably asked about it in the Questions to the Instructor forum (always read those!). Actually, I had more than one Prof write in their very first Announcement that they don't answer questions after Friday; that if you're that late to the game then you're on your own. Ouch.

I wonder if they have changed this class too? I just read my assignment description and rubric for this 1st week's assignment, and we only had to include 3 articles, not 6.

The problem I had with this assignment is that my instructor decided that we should REWRITE those abstracts in our own words! Being only 3 abstracts long (short paper), you can imagine my TII was off the charts. One cannot restate absolutes (like percentages, sample sizes, locations, etc.) in any other terms than what they actually ARE. How do you rewrite a paragraph that only includes facts? This was not a happy moment for me, because the assignment description states to "include the article's abstract", and the rubric states "the abstracts of research studies". That couldn't be more clear to me; it says THEIR abstract (as in copy/paste the one the authors wrote), not make up my own!

I hope you have an instructor like rob's that simply wants the correct APA reference followed by the copy/paste of the author's abstract, and then repeat the process with them all. That's what this assignment should look like based on the description and the rubric.

Oh, and be sure to include the usual title page and headers like a regular ol' paper; a bunch of students in my class left those parts out and just submitted a Word doc with only the references and the abstracts. Didn't fly.

I went back and looked.....In the instructions for my class..Spring 2014....it stated 3 articles.....Which I did....but if u look at the rubric, it stated at least 3, no more than 8! Ya the rubric for this assignment doesn't really state a great deal. Keep in mind some profs won't answer questions on the weekend...so best to take Robs and Prisms advice and get asking the prof questions early in the week....For example, my prof just wanted a summary of those 3 articles, which is different that what others here posted. Best of luck

I got it together after I made my comment I think I was really overthinking it. I know I try not to work the beginning of the week on purpose. Thanks for your comments!

Specializes in Women Services-L/D.
I got it together after I made my comment I think I was really overthinking it. I know I try not to work the beginning of the week on purpose. Thanks for your comments!

If I remember right I started overthinking it too. Easy to do when a good portion of the paper you are doing a cut/paste. Glad you got it done! :up:

I like the KISS theory---Keep it Super Simple.....well that is the nice version,lol Yes many times, one looks at the assignment and starts to overthink it. I tried to keep things simple, made sure I answered the Rubric and made sure the writing/grammar was correct.

Oh my goodness. Just finished my second class last week, and spent literally hours fixing other people's APA citations. I thought you were just being hyperbolical Tokmom, when you said you and Pandora had spent hours doing that. And when I explained to the girl whose citations were the worst what I had done and why I had done it, she said that that is what she had been going the whole class and she hadn't gotten marked down! I wanted to ask her what her definition of "not marked down" was, but I didn't.

Specializes in ICU/ Surgery/ Nursing Education.
Oh my goodness. Just finished my second class last week, and spent literally hours fixing other people's APA citations. I thought you were just being hyperbolical Tokmom, when you said you and Pandora had spent hours doing that. And when I explained to the girl whose citations were the worst what I had done and why I had done it, she said that that is what she had been going the whole class and she hadn't gotten marked down! I wanted to ask her what her definition of "not marked down" was, but I didn't.

I don't think that all instructors are particular about APA violations. I had the same thing happen to me on one of the first CLC projects and it took me 2-3 hours to fix them all. It really isn't hard, they just do not want to take the time and were not forced to throughout their education.

Specializes in Women Services-L/D.
Oh my goodness. Just finished my second class last week, and spent literally hours fixing other people's APA citations. I thought you were just being hyperbolical Tokmom, when you said you and Pandora had spent hours doing that. And when I explained to the girl whose citations were the worst what I had done and why I had done it, she said that that is what she had been going the whole class and she hadn't gotten marked down! I wanted to ask her what her definition of "not marked down" was, but I didn't.

I have to agree with Rob, it is instructor dependent, and laziness on the other students part. I have had the same in group projects. I purposefully make a thread for corrections required, and post them in there. If I have done my due diligence in getting the student to correct the work and they do not, it is on them and not me, as long as they have been made aware. I have on one occasion in dealing with a similar situation made the instructor very aware of the request to the student to redo her work in the correct format and her refusal. Comes off on her grade, not mine then.

I'm a team player, but I was working towards my BSN....not working for others to earn theirs! I think 1 advantage of taking the lead in group projects is the Profs see the leader communicating a great deal and they know that person is very involved! I posted the GCU "How to"PowerPoint..many APA guidelines..so the information was all there for everyone.....not my job to babysit. I made or recommended changes to fellow students..but I sure was not going to spend hours doing so.....sorry if u write like a 2 yr old, that is on you. As well my grades were always high, so a lower grade on a group project wasn't going to cause that much harm.

I like the idea of making a "Corrections Needed" thread! Our threads were getting out of control. One of the girls changed our formatting to something with poop brown headlines with black text and green hyperlinks along with our blue bullet markers, so I changed it all back to black and blue when I posted my changes. Then she reposted it again, left out one of my slides, and put the poop brown back on, and asked us all to use that format. I let the formatting go cause I had so many other battles to fight, but wouldn't you know, we got marked down for slide appearance.

Any other tips for keeping group work under control? So far, I've learned to 1) take charge early 2) break everything down semi-equally and let people choose what section they want to cover. 3) Require early turn-ins 4) make myself the person responsible for turning it in and 5) make sure people are checking in often at the end so they can quickly make corrections.

It's weird, I think I used to be laid back, but nursing school, life, and age have made me much more of a control freak! :nailbiting:

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