Anyone Starting At UPMC Shadyside School of Nursing?

U.S.A. Pennsylvania

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This thread is for anyone who is trying to get into, currently at, or graduated from Shadyside School of Nursing in Pittsburgh!

Hi. Im new to this site and have a lot of questions. I recently applied for the chatham university school of nusing which is connected with the shadyside school of nursing. I was accepted into chatham university, but i have to take the entrance exam next month for shadyside. I wanted to know about the difficulty of the test. Im not so much worried about the critical reading and math, but the science section scares me. I've been out of school for a few years. If anyone can give me any insight as to what i should focus on studying, that would be very helpful. Thanks!!!

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I've heard from a few of my co-workers that the math was pretty easy. No one has mentioned the other sections to me. I'm going to take the PSB exam soon, but I'm really nervous because I've been out of school since 2005. And I'm TERRIBLE at math. :( Guess I will be studying pretty hard until then! If you read some of the other Shadyside nursing school threads, some people talk about the test. Good luck to you!

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I got 99% on the math and I had a very hard time with math back in high school. It really never went beyond pre-Algebra and very, very basic geometry. Since there's no book out there geared strictly toward the PSB, I used a few of the test prep books and would say that any one of them will prep you more than adequately for the math. Good luck!

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Good luck, but beware...I was in this school and am no longer in it. Don't fall for the hype and the name as i once did. With the right connections, any administrator can have their school be acclaimed an NLN favorite. I had a much (100%)better clinical experience at CCAC and for about 1/3 of the price. They are a private, for-profit organization, and never forget this. Therefore, they are playing a numbers game to make a profit and pay their wages, they do not give a rat's ass about the students or about graduating skilled knowledgeable nurses. You will be performing PBL, problem-based learning, which basically means-teach yourself because the teacher is too lazy or unmotivated to (now if i knew all this material, why would i be in school?) Also, the teachers will spend the first 15 minutes of class time yelling at the class even if it does not apply to the whole class, so they don't have to use this time to teach. I wish you luck, however, I suggest you turn and run as fast as you can lest you have your ambitions, hopes, and dreams crushed and broken by a greedy corporate machine and administration and faculty who were downright nasty,unfair,and irresponsible.

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Specializes in Tele, Stepdown, Recovery.

To the above poster, you're way off base. I went to Shadyside and I have close friends and family members that went to CCAC at the same time that I was at Shadyside. The clinical experience you will get at Shaydside (and Mercy for that matter) is much better than CCAC. You get more clinical hours at the time of graduation than any other diploma school in the area. My instructors were wonderful and beyond knowledgeable about everything that they taught. I know that the instructors are at least 95% (if not more) the same now as when I was there and they were great. They want you to learn the right way and they push you to learn too. There was NEVER an issue with an instructor being "too lazy or unmotivated" the entire time I was there. I have never encountered an instructor that was "nasty, unfair or irresponsible" at Shadyside, just because some instructors push you to push yourself and some can't handle it doesn't mean they're any of those descriptions. Shadyside has the recognitions they do because of the amazing people that work there and the nurses they produce, not from some "connections". This is not some school that is a "corporate machine" and I can tell you from personal experience that CCAC's administration is far worse than anything I have ever experienced. Everyone's experience is individual and maybe the person who posted above me just doesn't do well in an environment like Shadyside which is fine, but don't bad mouth something that you didn't complete, it's "irresponsible". Sorry to anyone that I offended but I can tell you that of all of my friends and family members that went to CCAC for nursing (which is a perfectly fine nursing program) they all had less experience, clinicals and knowledge than I did while we were both in school and now working. Hope this helps!

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

Merner1012, thank you for your post. I am also a Shaydside grad (class fo '08), and I truly believe I received a top notch education while at Shadyside. I don't know what letayknow meant by saying the teachers just scream at you and don't teach, I never had that problem. All of my teachers were nothing but professional, and did everything they could to help prepare me and my classmates not only for passing the class, but also for preparing us for future as nurses.

I also find it interesting that letayknow would pick CCAC over Shadyside. While CCAC is cheaper than Shadyside if one is paying out of pocket, Shadyside excels in other areas. All one has to do is compare the NCLEX pass rates for the two schools and will see that Shadyside consistently has higher first time NCLEX pass scores. As I found when I looked on the PA board of Nursing website, CCAC's pass rates have been in the 77%-83% range, while Shadyside's pass rates have been 90%-95%. While I do not have the numbers, I do believe that Shadyside students also get significantly more clinical hours.

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To the last two posters, No, I am not way off base. If you knew the things that happened to me at this school and things that went on while I was there you would not have such rosy comments. I am glad things went well for you and you graduated from UPMC shadyside. My experience was much different. If the school has all of their "good clinical experience" in the final semester before graduation, well I would say that is a bit ridiculous, there is clinicals every semester, and I would think the quality should be there every semester, not just the last one. My clinical instructor spent all of 5 minutes (NO LIE!!) with me in a patient care setting during the entire second semester. I, however, worked my ass off researching patient medical conditions, remedies, drugs, medical procedures, disease processes, etc. and doing weekly clinical write-ups of which I think the clinical instructor learned from ME!! Of course if you come from a wealthy, powerful family or have friends and relatives that work at the school or at UPMC they would not dare treat you the way I was treated. I previoulsy attended CCAC and had a 3.97 QPA there. Also, PRIOR to my attendance at CCAC, I attended The University of Pittsburgh for four years, and graduated with a BS in Chemistry and Cum Lade Honors. Therefore, I think the comment "some can't handle it" just doesn't apply here. As far as being "irresponsible" for "bad mouthing something I didn't complete" , one does not have to complete the school to come to the opinion that they are receiving a very bad educational experience, two semesters were more than enough. As far as Shadyside's recognitions, these are nothing more than a numbers game and are, in fact, an indicator of a very bad school. It is ironic that the second poster mentions NCLEX pass rates as an indicator of a quality school. This is JUST ONE of the numbers that are being manipulated by the administration and faculty at this school, and which is why my post states they are "playing a numbers game". It has nothing to do with "amazing teachers or administration" and everything to do with manipulation which hurts students. The school manipulates these NCLEX pass rates as well as other rates which they closely monitor including attrition rates, employment rates of graduates, enrollment rates, minority enrollment rates, over age 40 enrollment rates, etc, and the list goes on. If they believe a student will not be able to pass NCLEX, then they kick the student out before they even get a chance to take NCLEX (and remember the NCLEX pass rates advertised are the FIRST TIME pass rates-students can retake NCLEX). Any student who is motivated, willing to work, and intelligent with a solid education background can pass NCLEX, it does not matter which school you choose. At UPMC, a student who is motivated and willing to work, but maybe slightly lacking in other areas will never have the chance to pass NCLEX because the school will kick them out in order to boast about their 90-95% NCLEX pass rate. The same student at CCAC or another public institution will have the opportunity to take NCLEX and pass it if they work hard, or maybe retake the NCLEX if they fail it. Also, the school's nice , neat, consistent pattern of NCLEX pass rate statistics should be noted. If several students at UPMC are a "sure Pass" for the NCLEX, and the class in which these students are enrolled in has an estimated 97% "sure pass", but the class which started a semester AFTER their class has only an estimated 83% NCLEX pass rate, then the school will try to fail out some of the students in the class with the 97% estimated rate, and try to re-enroll these students in the class with the 87% NCLEX pass rate to bring up the rate for this class, as well possibly try to kick out some of the students in the 87% class who they think might be "borderline NCLEX pass" rates, or fail some of these "borderline students"so they go into the class behind them. In this pattern, for admissions they select only the strong, intelligent, experienced "sure NCLEX pass" students in one semester, and the following semester they select the weaker, less experienced, "borderline NCLEX pass " students. Then they make all efforts to fail out as many as they need from the stronger class, so they will then enter the weaker class which is behind them and bring up the statistics for this class. This pattern works well for them and their statistics, however, it manipulates the students. Hence the reason why so many people are wondering what is going on with their admissions all the time...why it takes them so long to respond, why they say they sent things out yet people say they never received them, etc.

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I'm replying to my own post!! Just as another item to think about, I was not the only one in my class which complained about this school...many of the students complained daily about the things which were going on at this school. It was a joke and many times I felt like I was playing a game of charades rather than going to school. One student in my class got to the point that he angrily interrupted the class in the middle of lecture. I was scared he was going to pull out a gun and start shooting. Honestly, it would not suprise me at all if the next "school shooting" occurred at this school the way they are manipulating the students.

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I'm replying to my own post again. You might ask why would the school manipulate things like this? Many reasons including the reputations of the administrators, the reputation of the school, the school's ability to attract students and charge a premium for their tuition which often times exceeds tuition rates for public institutions, the school's ability to make a profit , their accreditations, their ability to receive federal funding in the form of student loan monies, possibly more. Something else prospective students should consider.

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Specializes in Tele, Stepdown, Recovery.

In response, I'm sorry you had a poor experience at Shadyside and just fyi, no I'm not some "well-off" student in ANY way. I went to Shadyside all on my own dime through loans. And, I'm not super smart but I also worked my ass off, staying up until 1am or 2am on any given night just researching and working on anything I could, probably like you said you did. I went to Penn State after high school and then CCAC and had a horrible experience at CCAC and one of my parents went to CCACs nursing program while I was at Shadyside and the difference was night and day for the two of us- that's why I say the things I do about CCAC. I have just never heard of someone having such a bad experience at Shadyside. Not all the times I had were rosy there, just like like life, there's bad moments too, maybe I just lucked out with instructors that gave a damn? Oh well, I'm not looking for a fight in anything I just don't want to scare people off, I want them to make their own decision. And as for the NCLEX pass rates, I passed on my first try and I'm truly an "average" student and didn't even benchmark the HESI, and to be honest I didn't care- I wanted to see where I was at without being super prepared for it. Regardless, I passed my boards the first time and I've only known of two people of almost 100 that I graduated with that didn't pass their boards. Anyways, I'm sorry you had a bad experience there because there really are instructors there that care. Like I said, I'm not looking for a fight about Shadyside, I just wanted to get my good experience out there for people to hear about instead of them seeing just negative comments (people usually comment on bad things and experiences and not positive ones). I hope you had a better experience at CCAC and best of luck to you.

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Hello Tammy i was thinking of relocating to shadyside so i can go to upmc Shadyside SON Godwilling next yr spring about your neighbour having the apartments is it still available?And if so how can i get in touch?

Thanks.

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I am registering to take the pre entrance exam and I need to take it as soon as possible. Can you take it at any school or do you have to take it at the school you are applying to? I am not completely sure which UPMC program I want to start but I know that ST. Mararets has the earliest testing date. If I take it there can I still apply else where?

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