Any Info. about USN

pogi · Apr 26, 2008

hi all -
i was just wanting to know if anyone has heard about usn? i have talked to some people about it and they pretty much have not heard about it... only maybe two people. i submitted my app. today so hopefully i hear something soon. if anyone does know about it can you give so info. on it i.e. the interview, the clinicals, the faculty, and the students perhaps..? please!
thanks

hi femflores1 & everyone,

i am currently a student at usn. i started in august 2007 and will be graduating in march 2009. i am happy with my education at usn. i was also accepted to nsc's bsn program, but when i went to usn for my interview i was so impressed with the campus technology and staff. the professors are so knowledgeable and go to great lengths to make sure we learn the material. we are the only nursing program in the world that has a block curriculum. for example, we spend a month in the classroom learning the material for maternal newborn and afterwards we spend a month in the hospital for clinicals. i think this is a great because we are more prepared by the time we deal with actual patients. we also have a great laboratory with sim dummies that are great to work on. another thing about our clinical rotations is that we do three 12-hour shifts a week which will better prepare us for when we are rns working in the hospital. our instructors are with us for the whole 12 hour shift and never leave the floor without us. every assignment and exam we take has to be passed with a 90%. if we don't score a 90% the first time, we are given one more chance to remediate by taking a 2nd exam (different questions) after we review the material. i personally have not had to remediate, but others have told me that the professors spend a lot of time with the students to help them prepare for the exams. they even meet up with the students on the weekend, etc. the technology at the school is great. every student has a laptop to follow along with the powerpoint lectures. our classroom is arranged in a huge hexagon with a jumbo screen for each side. we are all connected to wireless internet and they just implemented new software so that when the professor asks us a question during lecture, we all key in our responses and the results show up on a bar graph. it makes class fun. since it is only an 18 month bsn program, there is a ton of material to cover in a short period of time. you must be a self-motivated student in order to survive the program. i am a total procrastinator but learned early on that i needed to change my study habits. people do fail out of the program. we started with i think 92 students and are now down to 76. however, if you keep up with the material, there is no reason for you to fail. the nursing school is only about 3 years old, but we have already been granted full accreditation by the nln. we had our site inspection a few months ago and the reps from the nln were very impressed. i am excited because this means that i can continue on to pursue my masters after i graduate. i hope this information helps. sorry it is so long but i wanted to give you as much info as possible so that you can get a better picture of what usn is like. best of luck to you and anyone else pursuing an education here.

femflores1 · Apr 26, 2008

oh my gosh, thanks for all of the great info. i feel better about my choice! i do hope my interview does go well and i get accepted into the program this fall.

again thanks

HikingNinja, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN, NP · Apr 27, 2008

I'm not at USN but did get to the point of interview with them last year and I have to agree with Pogi. Basically, you get what you pay for. Ultimately I decided on NSC's 12 month accelerated program for two big issues; money (its less than 1/3 of what USN costs) and time (12 months). I have alot of preexisting student loan debt and needed to be able to get back to work quickly so NSC was the right choice for me. I do love most of our instructors and even though the program can be kinda disorganzed and stressful at times I think I made the right choice for me. Good luck with your application to USN!

D

oxojoyoxo2 · May 11, 2010

POGI-i know you got in 3 years ago but i could imagine that the interview process isn't any different. i will have an interview with them next month and wanted to see what questions they specifically asked you. is it a panel interview? group interview? did you have to write a short essay before? how long is the interview? was it as bad as you thought it would be? is it really competitive to get in? what are some good questions to ask them at the end? thanks in advance!

cnwaps · Jun 16, 2010

i just got called for an interview at usn, i just wanted to know if i can get advice on what to expect during the interview process at usn, my interview is in 3 weeks. thank you guys your suggestions and advice will be really appreciated.

mmt4 · Jun 16, 2010

Good luck! I thought there was another thread about USN on here that talked about interviews. You might try looking again - it did not have interview in the title but there was a discussion somewhere in the thread about USN interviews. I think I remember them talking about there being a few people (faculty, current student, and someone else?) and they got to tour the school as well. I think...

I have a telephone advising "interview"(?) next week. I think its more of an appt? I have to give them my unofficial transcripts to review. Did you do one of these advising sessions? The man who set my appt told me to set aside one hour for it. I have no idea what is going to take up the entire hour as my transcripts are being faxed for review this week so they can look at them ahead of time. Any idea?

Mine is for the new ABSN but I am not sure if I would prefer that or if I would rather do the 18 mo program. I am mostly hoping to find out what, if any, pre-reqs are left that they need, and the general format of the program (since it is part online and compressed I am assuming it is a little different from the 8-3pm M-F classroom hours of the 18 mo block program, though still retaining the block format).

1macSD · Aug 6, 2010

mmt4 - how did your interview go? I have an interview on campus for the New ABSN at the end of the month

mmt4 · Aug 7, 2010

Hi 1mac - It was not a full interview. It was more of a screening at first - she wanted to know why I was interested in the program, how I felt about the online format for the didactic portion, etc.... Once I gave logical and intelligent answers (LOL) to the questions, she moved on to reviewing my transcripts with me and letting me know what else I needed to apply/enroll. She also answered my questions about the format/schedule and the clinical hours. I suggest if you are given the opportunity have them explain how they get clinical hours for their students. It sounded to me like it is difficult to get slots so they take what the hospitals can offer them (and remember nurses work 24 hours/7days), which makes it somewhat unpredictable for the students (I think you may get a month notice before your clinical block starts what the hours will be...I don't know if that is going to work for me at all unless I get a nanny, and I don't know if I want to pay for a nanny esp paying the tuition for the BSN on top of it....

I really like the block/hybrid format. I am applying to their Pharmacy program as well. PharmD is my first choice. I want to eventually work in epidemiology/public health so either way at some point after getting the health science degree (of nursing or Pharm or something else applicable) and working in the field, I will add an MPH to it.

I just took the TEAS today at the pearson testing center downtown. I would suggest taking it at USN or another school if you can. It is more expensive to go to Pearson. I was trying to get in to take it before I moved to Las Vegas,and no schools where I lived before administered it, but there were no test dates available before I moved. If you do take it at Pearson downtown, parking is free on Saturday, and the test center is nice, air conditioned, and well set-up with carrels for each test-taker. I went to an 8am session and traffic was fairly light and parking was a snap in the garage attached to the building.

The commute down to Henderson (Im going to live up on the base) is not going to be fun at all but I have been learning the commute to anything in Las Vegas is not quick and easy.