Accelerated BSN at UNF and JU

JulieJaxBch · Mar 9, 2008

sftbllgirlie08- I have sent you a PM with my #.

NoleNurse08 · Mar 10, 2008

Julie: Wow why did you decide to change careers? What grade do you teach? There were many people in my program who were doing nursing as a second career so I am sure you will find many people to connect with at JU.

There were great things about JU and a few things I wish I could have changed. I have heard similar complaints about other schools so I suppose there is always something you wont like about the program.

All I can really say is that there is a lot of what I consider 'busy' work and patient care maps that take LONG hours to complete. I found myself disliking some professors more than others but those kind of personality issues are ones you will always encounter.

I have always heard that JU nurses are looked at by the staff of hospitals as "great" nurses after graduation and from some of the people I have encountered post-graduation I would agree. We are taught to critically think and for some reason the program truly 'weeds' out those who won't be excellent. The classes are hard and there is no way of getting around it except to study your butt off.

If you are applying at UNF for the accelerated program I have heard things about disorganization and working a lot on the weekends to complete clinical hours.

The best thing about JU is class/clinicals only Monday-Thursday!!!

JulieJaxBch · Mar 10, 2008

I have been in education for 13 years and I currently teach 7th and 8th grade science. With the many changes in education (county, state and federal) these days I had to take a look at my future. I would have to work another 20 years to get the full (small) retirement. I make around 41K where new teachers with no experience start out at 36K. Only a 5K difference!!!! Experience doesn't mean much in education. My contract is for 196 days a year but I have always worked a summer job. I get paid for 7.33 hours a day. We won't even go into the number of hours I put in grading papers and planning lessons (which I don't get paid for). I won't even go into the attitude of students and parents these days. I was named teacher of the year at my school this year, so they will be losing a great teacher. It was a great job to have raising a child, but my daughter will be 21 in April (a junior at Stetson University, proud MOM!)......so now it's my turn again.

So, I sat down and did some soul searching and decided I needed another direction. Nursing will give me the opportunity to use my love of teaching and science, with the ability to continue to work with people. As I see it, it will be a win-win situation. I will get a new challenging career and one day the public will get a new great nurse. One day down the road I might even become a nursing instructor at an university. With nursing I'm not looking for an easier job, I know it won't be, but what I am looking for is if I work 12+ hours a day I get paid for 12+ hours a day, and when I leave work I am done for the day and my time is my time. There are also more opportunities for advancement in nursing if you want it.

With being a teacher, and my husband is a police officer, we both know the issues that come with working with the public. We are all under appreciated and under paid. So I don't feel that I am going into this change with the wrong understanding of what to expect.

I have heard the same things you said about both schools. Did you use a PDA or recorder for lectures at JU? How many students did you lose out of your starting class? How well did you feel prepared for the NCLEX? Did you use Saunders Comp Review throughout school? What did you find worked best for studying? I am ready to lose my life to the books, but I want also to use my time wisely.

Thanks for all of you input. The more questions I get answered the more the stress level goes down.

Julie

Sftbllgirlie08 · Mar 10, 2008

NoleNurse-What were the student demographics in your class? Male/Female? Ages? How many dropped out?

Being able to talk to you has been such a help! Thanks!!!

Sftbllgirlie08 · Mar 10, 2008

I just keep thinking of more and more questions. So I will just post them on here and when you get a chance you can answer them.

Do we have to do a thesis or research project in this program? If so, what was your topic?

NoleNurse08 · Mar 11, 2008

Hopefully I will be able to answer all of your questions adequately! I actually did not use a PDA or recorder. I heard that JU was soon going to require their students to have PDA's which are most likely helpful, especially if you can buy a program for medications and such. I took notes during class by printing the slides for the lectures from Blackboard and making notes accordingly. Some people did use recorders however I felt that I barely had the time to listen to the lectures once, let alone twice!

We actually lost quite a few people throughout the program for various reasons. It is somewhat hard to say how many people we lost exactly because of the way the program is set up. We started in the summer with the traditional accelerated students and the second degree students and then in the Fall we merged with the traditional track students. I would say that the majority of our losses were with the traditional track students rather than the accelerated crew.

When I graduated I was certain I was not prepared for the NCLEX although it is one of the main focuses of the program. During pretty much every course you are required to take an ATI to test for competency of the course material. There are individual books for each subject and the ATI exam counts for a percentage of your overall course grade. You are given the opportunity to get full credit for the exam if you pass will a Level II competency. If you get below this you are given the opportunity to review the material and retake the exam for 1/2 the points. It can really make or break a grade for a class.

At any rate, I was more prepared than I thought. I took the Kaplan Review Course and studied that book only. I truly did not study very hard but I passed on my first try.

As far as studying goes, it is sort of an individual thing. It is hard to study for applied exams. Most of the questions asked of you will not be straight forward definition type questions. They will be situational and you will need to use critical thinking to answer them. All I can say is that is it important to understand the concepts not just purely what something means.

The ratio of male/female was greatly in favor of females. However there were more males in my program than I expected when I entered. Lets say there was probably a 6:1 ratio. There were also varied ages. There were young 20 year-olds all the way up to people in their 40's and 50's.

There was no thesis involved but definitely lots of projects involving research. You will take a research class involving what is called a "Review of Literature", so much fun!!! There is a group project that you will complete during your community nursing course that is a community health overview of a particular zip code in Jacksonville. Also a blast! At the end of the curriculum you are required to put together a portfolio of all of your completed work which is suppose to show your growth throughout the program. Those are most of the major projects you will complete in the program, besides the patient care maps.

I know this is long but I hope I answered your questions. It is a lot to take in but I think it is helpful to know what is coming, even if it is a little overwhelming!! Don't worry, you won't have to do it all at once!

hama2403 · Mar 12, 2008

I just recently found this forum and I too applied to the accelerated programs at UNF and JU. I was accpeted to JU and I have an interview with UNF fri. :nuke: I was wondering, I know that JU is more expensive but I have heard that they offer a lot of financial aid and scholarships but all the scholarships I found on their website is for first degree's only. Has anyone had any experience with JU's finanacial aid department?

Sftbllgirlie08 · Mar 12, 2008

Hama2403-that is great! Congratulations on your acceptance and good luck with your interview on Friday. What is your first choice? This is my first time at JU so I have no previous experience with their financial aid. However, for my undergrad I did go to a small, private university similar to JU and there is a lot of financial aid available.

Do you live in Jacksonville right now? What was your first degree in?

hama2403 · Mar 12, 2008

I am a Jacksonville native. I actually got my first degree in Psychology from UNF. I am a little torn on schools. I like the organaization that I seem to get from JU, UNF can be a little chaotic when you need something done. But I like the pricing at UNF better. I was so focused on applying to schools I haven't even started to look for student loans yet :bugeyes:

Sftbllgirlie08 · Mar 12, 2008

I am sure it is a tough decision. JU was my first choice because I really enjoy the environment of a smaller university. The bad thing is the student loans that you can walk away with but there are a lot more scholarships at private schools than public schools.

I am actually from North Carolina and I will be making a quick transition at the beginning of May. So if you happen to know of anyone looking for a roommate for the summer months please let me know!

NoleNurse08 · Mar 12, 2008

I can offer some insight into the financial part. JU is super expensive. The cost alone of fall/spring for me was around $20,000. I am sure this has gone up since I left. I was awarded a scholarship of around 8,000 for academics and another 4,000 scholarship awarded to the top two students entering the 2nd degree program. So after everything was said and done I ended up with 12k worth of scholarships. This didn't go very far. I ended up with around 35k in loans to pay for the program (after 16 months). I have heard the tuition for the tradition students totals around $60k. Anyway this is definitely a consideration when choosing a school.

According to the JU website...tuition for the fall/spring of 2007-2008 tuition costs 11,250 (everyone pays the same tuition as long as they are taking between 12-18 credit hours)

See here: http://www.ju.edu/unmanaged/tuition_traditional.aspx

During the summer you will pay by credit hour...the rate for Summer 2008 is $493 per credit hour...that means you will most likely pay around $5900 for the summer courses alone...

So alone for the summer of 2008 and fall/spring with the numbers that are currently available the total is around $28,400. I am sure the tuition for Fall/Spring 2008-2009 will either stay the same or go up.

If you are a 2nd degree student you will pay to take 25 credit hours in the summer of 2009. If the rate stays the same that is somewhere around $12,300. For those accelerated students who will take the summer off and return in the Fall you will pay another $22,500 (or more) for that time.

Totals:

2nd Degree students: $40,700 (or more)

Accelerated Students: around $50,900 (or more)

The only info I could find about UNF's tuition is info for the Spring-Summer of 2008. It states that for Florida Residents the tuition is $120.23 per credit hour. For non-Florida residents it is $508.30 per credit hour.

I was surprised to see that out-of-state students have to pay more to go to UNF than a private school like JU! Of course it is much less expensive for Florida residents to go to UNF, as most of you probably already knew.

Hope that helps a little...

Sftbllgirlie08 · Mar 14, 2008

Have you guys received your information packet from JU yet?