ARC vs. SCC...comparisons please

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Oct 5, 2016

I'm an SCC grad. My impression of the two programs is that by and large, they're almost identical. One of my classmates was a transfer from ARC and his take on ARC was that their Nursing Care Plan stuff was perhaps a little easier than ours. That being said, the first couple times you do them it'll probably take 2-3 hours per care plan. Eventually it'll take you around 30-45 minutes per care plan.

The exact schedule is going to be different. Our clinical days are typically to do Prep on Wednesday and Patient Care on Thursdays and Fridays. They actually have all the regional programs pretty tightly scheduled so students from different programs aren't doing patient care on the same floors at the same time. I rarely saw students from other programs because of this, and when I did, it was invariably only during prep (ours or theirs).

If you have to choose between ARC and SCC, go with whichever one fits your overall schedule best. There often is one or two semesters where there'll be a period of time where the clinical schedule won't follow the typical pattern for your program. In my program, we usually did our patient care time in the mornings but we had some times where we'd rotate to a PM shift for clinical. This was for just a few weeks (4?) but it necessitated an accommodation from work at a relatively short notice. Fortunately they were able to work with me and I could continue school.

That last bit is a HUGE hint that I'm going to make plain. Both programs expect you to follow their schedule and adjust everything you do around their needs.

The school schedule of classes should give you a rough idea when you can expect to be doing prep, clinical, and in-class work. It won't be exact because of the way they have to schedule all their students and all the rotations, but it'll be reasonably close. Use that to help you choose the program that best fits your schedule and you'll probably do just fine and get an excellent education from either program.

Just a little factoid: when ARC's program was first started, it was a spin-off of SCC's program.

Rnrmom · Oct 5, 2016

Thanks for your response! I have looked at the schedule for both, there are some similarities. ARC gives me back about an hour each day in drive time, which I could use elsewhere. It is closer to my home. What time would you say that you were done with most of your clinicals? I know you said you have a few in the evenings, but for the daytime ones did you usually get done around the same time?

Thanks!