A new FOR profit ASN program in Jacksonville

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On my way out of the store I grabbed one of those job papers since I am looking for a CNA position and am having the worst time ever finding a position in Jacksonville. Despite the fact that I have been a professionally certified teacher for six years and am almost complete with my LPN program, everyone here wants a minimum of 1 year experience. Sounds like a Catch 22, but I digress....

I thumbed through the magazine and came across Cambridge Medical Institute. They are offering an Associate Degree in Nursing to the tune of almost $27,000.00. Is it me or does anyone else find it interesting that all these FOR-profit schools are popping up everywhere with Nursing Programs? There is no nursing shortage in Jacksonville, for a matter of fact it takes people awhile to find employment, some up to a year. We have SRJCC, FSCJ, UNF, JU, Keiser, Concorde, Sanford-Brown, Chamberlin, and now CMI! It is just so over satuated in the hopes of getting people to jump on the nursing shortage in Jacksonville Band wagon.

Just my two cents.

... I picked Virgina because I do not have two years to wait for former FCCJ to decide to let me into their nursing program because they have such a long wait list. I have a friend that did all of her pre-reqs there and got a 4.0 in all of her classes and has been waiting over a year to even be allowed to take the TEAS test to see if she can be added to the waiting list. I am sorry that you all have had some bad experiences with for-profit student nurses, but if you are going to bad mouth a school, then you should at least make sure that you know something about the school other than how much their tuition is for the program.

  • There is no TEAS entrance exam for FSCJ. (The TEAS is a requirement at UNF.)
  • The entrance exam at FSCJ is the "NAT": Registered Nursing School Aptitude Exam. The NAT is offered five days a week on every FSCJ campus. You can schedule it virtually any week day you want that campus is open.
  • There is no waiting list at FSCJ in any sense of the word. The application deadline for the ADN (RN) program for Fall 2010 term at FSCJ was 5:00 pm on Tuesday, June 1, 2010. I took the NAT exam at Kent Campus at 10:50 am that day. Completed my exam and received my scores around 1:00 pm. Drove up to North Campus and submitted my application at 2:00 pm. Received my acceptance on July 28, 2010. 58 days from application to acceptance - a total of less than two months. No waiting list. I am in.

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  • There is no TEAS entrance exam for FSCJ. (The TEAS is a requirement at UNF.)
  • The entrance exam at FSCJ is the "NAT": Registered Nursing School Aptitude Exam. The NAT is offered five days a week on every FSCJ campus. You can schedule it virtually any week day you want that campus is open.
  • There is no waiting list at FSCJ in any sense of the word. The application deadline for the ADN (RN) program for Fall 2010 term at FSCJ was 5:00 pm on Tuesday, June 1, 2010. I took the NAT exam at Kent Campus at 10:50 am that day. Completed my exam and received my scores around 1:00 pm. Drove up to North Campus and submitted my application at 2:00 pm. Received my acceptance on July 28, 2010. 58 days from application to acceptance - a total of less than two months. No waiting list. I am in.

I am glad you got lucky. My research has shown differently. I am not sure why we have conflicting information, but it is a fact.

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The previous poster is 110% correct. None of the public or JU have waiting lists. For a matter of fact Florida universities do not have waiting lists the majority, if not all of them, now have a point system. This poisnt system is the ranking that is used to offer applicants admissions. It's very clear to me that you have been mis-informed, have research issues, or would just rather not accept documented facts before trying to negate what someone is trying to tell you.

Allnurses is a great place to find localized information. Why don't you try searching for information on the local schools first. If you don't want to do that then Google is your friend. If that still isn't good enough contact the Nursing Department at the schools. They are for the most part very good at answering questions. They even have Application Packets that has all the information that is need to apply.

Again no one is knocking the fact that you chose to go to Virginia College, however, posting mis-leading/incorrect information is the exact thing you wanted to point out that other posters where doing to your school. You can be Pro Virginia College without being Anti every other college.

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I am glad you got lucky. My research has shown differently. I am not sure why we have conflicting information, but it is a fact.

There is no such thing as LUCK when applying to NS. I have no idea where you did your "research", but you definitely have YOUR facts incorrect!

I graduate Aug 23 (pinning). There is not now, nor has there ever been a waiting list at FCCJ/FSCJ. You get accepted if your points are high enough. You CANNOT get "A's" in "ALL" the pre-reqs and 'pass' the NAT and fail to get accepted!!!!! I did NOT, and I repeat...did NOT get all A's, I scored well on the NAT (it is not a pass/fail test) and ended up with 217 pts. This current class (Fall 2010) had a "cutoff" score of 201.xx which means if you got less than that you did not get accepted. In my class it was "only" 198.

You resent what you feel is a "generalization" of the for-profit schools yet you generalize through your "father" who "has been a nurse since Vietnam" (which puts him about the RETIREMENT age!) that "students from UNF, UF, and former FCCJ that do not know how (or do not want to) do their jobs" and you won't be one of THEM!:uhoh3:

Well, my dear, good luck on the NCLEX because THAT is where the rubber meets the road. You can attend any school of your choosing and you can have the most supportive instructors in the world, but it is the NCLEX that makes you a nurse! If the UNF, UF, or FCCJ/FSCJ nurses didn't know how to do their jobs, they would not have passed the NCLEX and been awarded the designation you seek: RN.

I have worked with RNs (during clinicals) that are UNF, UF, FSU, FCCJ,and Keiser graduates and found them ALL more than competent. I have also worked with Nurses that were educated in the Phillipines and THEY were good nurses as well. In our current Role Transformation Clinicals, we (FSCJ) have been complimented as the BEST group of students that they have seen to-date.

If you don't want others to use generalizations to insult your school, then I might advise that you take your own advice.

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And you guys did not like when I generalized. I cannot speak for every school listed, and I have seen some crack pots in Jacksonville when it came to schools, but I happen to attend Virginia College and I find that it is an excellent school. Yes they may be slightly more expensive than say what former FCCJ is but unlike some of the traditional college, Virginia (again, I cannot speak for the other schools) actually wants their nurses to succeed. And no it is not a line I was fed, I have seen it first hand. The PD (program director) is a nurse that has been in the field for over 35 years and finally retired to take the job at VC. I have checked their accreditation and they hold the same ones for their nursing program that former FCCJ holds for theirs.

The laziness of a nurse is not from the school, it is from the person. An uneducated nurse could be either the school or the person. However, generalizing and saying that all career colleges (or for profit colleges) are bad because a few people are not learning what they should from them, is as wrong as me saying that all nurses are mean. My father is a nurse and has been since Vietnam. He is all the time getting students from UNF, UF, and former FCCJ that do not know how (or do not want to) do their jobs. It is higher education. There comes a point where you have to teach yourself and be responsible for what you learn. I am a very hard worker, and should I ever get the chance to meet any of you in the hospital setting, I can tell you that I will be johnny on the spot with the help. I know that I will not come in there knowing everything, but if I can be shown how to do something, then I am willing to do it. No matter how small. I picked Virgina because I do not have two years to wait for former FCCJ to decide to let me into their nursing program because they have such a long wait list. I have a friend that did all of her pre-reqs there and got a 4.0 in all of her classes and has been waiting over a year to even be allowed to take the TEAS test to see if she can be added to the waiting list. I am sorry that you all have had some bad experiences with for-profit student nurses, but if you are going to bad mouth a school, then you should at least make sure that you know something about the school other than how much their tuition is for the program. And for the record, my tuition is higher than the school that the OP posted about, but I do not have to pay for anything else, everything is included, so for me this just works out better. Plus I like going to school with other people my age instead of going to school with a bunch of fresh out of high school students who do not have a family that they have to work their school around.

I am not trying to be controversial, nor do I mean any disrespect to anyone. I am not even trying to start a debate about which schools are better. I am simply stating that it is not fair to classify a school as bad just because others like it are bad. If you assume that all for profit schools are bad then what happens to those students that come into the hospitals where you work? If they get assigned to you and you already have your mind made up that they are not going to know anything because of the school they attend, how is that fair to them? I know I would be highly disappointed if I did not learn anything in clinicals because my assigned nurse assumed that I knew nothing and refused to let me do anything just because I attend VC. I want to learn. I want to work, and I cannot wait until I get to clinical.

First, I wanted to say that I was the 3rd youngest person in my graduating class at FSCJ a year ago. I was 21 at that time, with only two girls younger than me.

I have not made my mind up about schools, as a new batch of students come around each semester change. I let my student nurses do everything they are allowed to do, from dressing changes, to med passes and I go out of my way to do it because I was a student once. In fact, most of the students I get are CNA or PCT's somewhere else and are so much help when it comes to cleaning up patients and helping me do little things like get water for my patients and they are eager to do so. But those are usually the students that are from public colleges. As I mentioned before, I had some wonderful students from Keiser that were so eager to help and go out of their way. They would come find me. Their teacher would find stuff for them to do. So it comes down to the school, especially if the teacher does not care enough to ask for a list of PICC dressings that need to be changed or ask every nurse if there is a foley that needs to be placed or blood that needs to be drawn. I do not think students realize how time consuming they are to teach, especially ones that come unprepared, but I am always patient with ones that are willing to learn and help. I do not have time to find a student and when I don't have a student my med pass is usually done by 0930 and that includes my charting. But when I have a student, I am usually down to the last minutes so that they can help and I go over each and every drug. I should not have to do that as it is the patient you are assigned to, nor do I have to go out of my way to let students pass my meds with me when it is not their day to per their instructor. I simply stated that the students I see that are from private schools (I have yet to see JU students at my facility) are often the ones that are sitting around in the chart room looking up stuff on the computers or cannot be found. From my experience as a nurse, the public school students are more productive.

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Another day, another school...ITT Tech College in Jacksonville...RN Program......I guess I am just going to have to leave the area since it is way to saturated.

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Frogger,

Thanks so much for your detailed post regarding Virginia College. It was refreshing to hear positive comments about a program that is provided by a private college. How was the Accuplacer and TEAS? When are you scheduled to graduate? :yeah:

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