Algonquin/Ottawa U. nursing program

groucho · May 6, 2006

I have read many threads on this site (and other nursing sites as well) and have not seen many posts about the Nursing program offered by Ottawa U. Just wondering if anyone has taken or will be taking the Nursing program at Ottawa U ?

Hmm, since nobody has answered this yet, I'll take a stab at it. I'm not a nurse, but my girlfriend is currently taking the Nursing program at Ottawa U, and this is what she said:

It's got a fairly good reputation, insofar as their pass rate for the nursing exams are very high (apparently because the people who run the program are also involved in developing the exams?). Classes are good, but they don't sufficiently involve nursing students in their teaching methods. The workload is very high, not many electives compared to other programs, but I'm assuming you want to be a nurse.. still, that's a bit disappointing in that you're losing out on a breadth of education you might get studying something else. Her other complaitns center on the workload, the time involved, etc. Regarding the actual practical classes, a lot of the stuff that is done isn't done efficiently. The time spent learning useless things could be spent on other projects.

She's in the French program though, the english program may be different.

Also, you'll be spending most of your time at Roger Guindon campus (attached to the hospital, and not to the U of O campus), so you need to consider that. There's a regular shuttle that leaves from main campus, but that's just another thing to consider.

Something in general about Ottawa U (from me, not her): administration is famous for being jerks. You can find yourself getting the runaround for things that other people would really go out of their way to resolve. You do find the occasional outstanding helpful person, but I think they only seem that way because everyone else is so blatantly unhelpful. I can't speak for the nursing specific admins though. :)

.. I just realized that I made it sound pretty negative. You should realize that everyone in the nursing program that I've spoken to (my girlfriend and all of her friends) seem to really enjoy the program and love what they're studying. Whether it's due to the fact that they're studying nursing or due to the fact that they're studying it at Ottawa U is another question altogether.

Hope that helps?