Alverno DEMSN 2021

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I've recently been conditionally admitted to Alverno's demsn program, slated for Summer unless a spot opens up in Spring. The conditional being that I finish the labs for the prerequisites and two psychology courses as I've only finished the didactic portions in a marathon 9 week section.

Does anyone have any experience with this program, or Alverno in general? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Specializes in NHP.

Oh my....? Thanks for sharing. I live in Illinois, I was going to move to WI for the program. I'm starting this Summer. It's too late for me to step back, I'll just go with the flow and get it done. I study better by myself but, I think having a small study group would help. I went to Indiana University and it was the same thing. We basically learned alone and most of the science professors were rude. Anyway....I'll just go with the flow, study, study, and the profs will be tired of me asking them questions. ?

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Specializes in NHP.

Immunology and Microbiology were my favorites science classes, I'm getting a little excited just reading your comment.  @damiorifice You're also right, med school won't spend time babysitting students, it's mostly independent study time. At my previous school,  it's the same thing even at the undergraduate level (for science & pre-nursing students), and it made me realized my own strength and weakness. ? Anyway, I'm just going to work hard and get it done. I'm not going to look back now. I need to start my family right after graduation. ? 

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32 minutes ago, Katoo said:

Oh my....? Thanks for sharing. I live in Illinois, I was going to move to WI for the program. I'm starting this Summer. It's too late for me to step back, I'll just go with the flow and get it done. I study better by myself but, I think having a small study group would help. I went to Indiana University and it was the same thing. We basically learned alone and most of the science professors were rude. Anyway....I'll just go with the flow, study, study, and the profs will be tired of me asking them questions. ?

Organize your cohort. My cohort uses GroupMe and zoom to coordinate studying, note taking, and share assignment guidance from Professors so we don’t reinvent the wheel emailing 50 times for the same thing. So far it is incredibly supportive and we are learning fast. Some of the classes have busywork, but core classes like patho and pharma are plenty filled with proverbial meat.

 

For pharma and patho they have provided lectures, PowerPoints with voice over recordings, multiple outside resources and videos for conceptual stuff, study guides that are detailed, highlighted prototype classes for drugs, MULTIPLE SESSIONS of each lecture you can attend (ie get the info twice!!), and study groups led by a student from a future cohort.

honestly, what the heck more could you ask for. 

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27 minutes ago, Katoo said:

Oh my....? Thanks for sharing. I live in Illinois, I was going to move to WI for the program. I'm starting this Summer. It's too late for me to step back, I'll just go with the flow and get it done. I study better by myself but, I think having a small study group would help. I went to Indiana University and it was the same thing. We basically learned alone and most of the science professors were rude. Anyway....I'll just go with the flow, study, study, and the profs will be tired of me asking them questions. ?

They do offer a lot of study groups, I think there’s now one for every class. They are typically student led. I wouldn’t say any of the professors are rude, more that there is not a strong presence in presenting material. We don’t even have many actual classes, it is asynchronous online learning. You will mostly be teaching yourself. 

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40 minutes ago, damiorifice said:

Disorganized? Sure a little. Lots of PowerPoint? No different than medical school in that regard. Learning nothing? I call *** there. I’ve been in the program less than 2 months and I can already explain basic immunology, raas, inflammation pathways, gsr, and a host of medications. Our cohort hasn’t started clinical yet so I can’t comment on that, but you share a very different opinion than other students I’ve heard from your cohort if you are even an Alverno student. 
 

Good for you?? People asked for an opinion and I gave mine, one that much of my cohort shares. So glad you’ve been having a great time in your mere 4 weeks of school. Most of us have a background in a hard science and already know a good deal of the patho material entering the program. And many of us are familiar with basic medications from jobs in patient care. 

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1 minute ago, bananochka said:
46 minutes ago, damiorifice said:

Disorganized? Sure a little. Lots of PowerPoint? No different than medical school in that regard. Learning nothing? I call *** there. I’ve been in the program less than 2 months and I can already explain basic immunology, raas, inflammation pathways, gsr, and a host of medications. Our cohort hasn’t started clinical yet so I can’t comment on that, but you share a very different opinion than other students I’ve heard from your cohort if you are even an Alverno student. 
 

Good for you?? People asked for an opinion and I gave mine, one that much of my cohort shares. So glad you’ve been having a great time in your mere 4 weeks of school. Most of us have a background in a hard science and already know a good deal of the patho material entering the program. And many of us are familiar with basic medications from jobs in patient care. 

I’m sure your cohort got a raw deal coming in at the influx of Covid madness. But realize that sharing your latent negativity might not be giving a fair shake to the university; you’re seeing through colored lenses.

Compared to the graduate program I was in before this, which was NOT a fit for me, this school is a dream come true. I’m not pulling 16 hour days and writing 2500 word research papers every week with 500 weekly pages of reading. Point of reference is everything. Give them a fair shake.

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40 minutes ago, damiorifice said:

I’m sure your cohort got a raw deal coming in at the influx of Covid madness. But realize that sharing your latent negativity might not be giving a fair shake to the university; you’re seeing through colored lenses.

Compared to the graduate program I was in before this, which was NOT a fit for me, this school is a dream come true. I’m not pulling 16 hour days and writing 2500 word research papers every week with 500 weekly pages of reading. Point of reference is everything. Give them a fair shake.

Yeah so I can tell that you're not someone I want to keep having a conversation with. I'm not interested in defending my valid experiences to a stranger on the Internet who thinks he knows better. Nothing I say is even remotely untrue or unwarranted and your experience being positive doesn't negate my experiences or the shared experiences of my cohort. 

Word of advice, if you're thinking you want to be a nurse, get out of the habit of trying to discredit others. You are going to have a hell of a time building rapport with patients with your current attitude. Also why do you keep comparing this program to med school? Nursing school is not med school, nursing and medicine are foundationally different, and the way med programs are run have no bearing on this program. 

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Specializes in NHP.

OK this forum is taking a different phase, I'm out of it ! LOL. I respect everybody's opinion. I think it's OK not to agree with someone's opinion but, it doesn't have to escalate. No drama for me. I'll see you guys in Summer cohort ! LOL

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Specializes in oncology.
On 1/31/2021 at 7:40 PM, hostilebisexual said:

Just because you don’t see these things in your specialty, especially seeing as you work in oncology and not something like an ICU, does not provide you the expertise to say that covid is the worst thing out there.

You may or not be aware that oncology patients' immune systems may be effected by the chemotherapy used to halt cancer cell division -- meaning some patients have a WBC of 0.00. That being said, in oncology we are alert and act on  the infectious agents a patient may experience who is neutropenic. We have instituted stategies that prevent COMMON infections. If we imagined our patients would be exposed to all the infections that occur on the planet in underdeveloped countries, we would be paralized to provide daily care with out hazmat suits. I do understand you are a novice in terms of health care but you do need to think in the 'real world picture' to plan and deliver care. Living in the world of reality will help when you start planning care for your patients. BTW we do have our own ICU to prevent our patients from encountering the infections from patients who are non-compromised but harbor normal flora and the common hospital infections.

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Specializes in oncology.
8 hours ago, bananochka said:

Most of your classes will be online and you will be teaching yourself. Many of the professors do not even provide a zoom class or a recording. There is very limited interaction, just sloppy powerpoints they took from the BSN curriculum and links to 20+ articles online.

I am so sad to read this as I had always heard positive things about Alverno when I lived in Milwaukee. Is the only mode of teaching an online lecture? Do you go into class at all in these Covid times. How can you learn different points of view when you only hear one via a text? When I was teaching I always was held accountable to use 3 resources in topics presented and valued this.

BTW I always have respected Alverno but knowing they take pre-reqs from some questionable online only institutions makes me wonder how they are building on those concepts and delivering a nursing understanding.

The ability to read and digest chapters and whole books without application to a field of study worries me.  Rapid reading is something that many of us are capable of.  .I too can read a textbook in record time but how can I know I am applying it to my field of study? The thought that I can move on to a midlevel healthcare  provider role after a DEMSN program makes me wonder what qualifications we hold vital in a provider and what is their true frame of reference when assisting a patient who has experienced  the  health care system (been in patient, outpatient etc) while the care provider is ignorant of the total health care systems, besides insurance reimbursement and the necessary time (visit) and documentation requirements associated with full reimbursement. The experiences of mental health patients are varied and may show a distrust of the total system. Seeing them in an office setting will not help with explaining what the patient has experienced first hand. From the tone of this you can see I am angry when the 'lived experience' of a patient is discounted by the elimination of the provider's experience with what a patient has endured. 

From early on I had been happy to be seen by NPs as I respected their experience and knowledge. Now I realize I don't want to be seen by a provider who "took a short cut" to a professional role. Do they understand my journey? My complaints here are not limited to Alverno. Any Walden, UOP, for profit and profit fits the is bill.

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I wouldn’t be too quick to knock online-only institutions, especially for prerequisite coursework. An institution con and should implement screening tests to verify acquisition of knowledge if there is any concern. Online is rapidly becoming the de facto standard and replacing the onerous system of spoon fed university education with no significant difference in results.

See "Synchronous distance education vs traditional education for health science students: A systematic review and meta‐analysis" by Liyun He, Na Yang, Lingling Xu, Fan Ping, Wei Li, Qi Sun, Yuxiu Li, Huijuan Zhu, Huabing Zhang as an example. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14364

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Specializes in oncology.
1 minute ago, damiorifice said:

too quick to knock online-only institutions, especially for prerequisite coursework. An institution con and should implement screening tests to verify acquisition of knowledge if there is any concern. Online is rapidly becoming the de facto standard

I have extensive experience in B& M institutions and online course work. Would you say a college accepting these credits from a Straighter line, etc, "implements a screening test to verify acquisiton of knowledge?" Cite that please. Online courses are not 'de facto". If so we would not have any Bricks and Mortar colleges. 

5 minutes ago, damiorifice said:

spoon fed university education

Actually this happens more in online courses.

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