Bellarmine University Accelerated Nursing Program May 2016

NurseSP · Jan 29, 2016

Hey! I also applied and have been conditionally admitted based on taking the nutrition course they require. You have applied to GRU also right?! I think I remember seeing you pop up in those threads. I have applied to GRU for CNL and BSN, but I haven't heard a peep yet which absolutely sucks because I live in Augusta!!! I applied in November and I haven't even had an interview. I started looking into alternatives. So far, Bellarmine it is. The tuition there just hurts my soul though!

Royv24 · Feb 1, 2016

Hey HopefulCNL2016,

Yeah I did apply to GRU as well! So far I've had an interview and according to my application status, the committee has already made their decision and I'm just waiting to hear back via mail. I'm really really nervous because its been a few days and I haven't received anything or heard anything else. As far as Bellarmine, I'm also waiting to get the "conditional acceptance package/letter" to figure more out. I know you said you haven't heard a peep, but trust me it is still early in the game, I think there's still hope! I live in Athens

NurseSP · Feb 2, 2016

Royv24,

Good luck to you! I thought they were calling people not sending them out by mail this year? Maybe since the deadline has passed they are now sending out the rest of the notifications via mail. It takes a few weeks even after the interview to hear back anything. I'm sure you will be just fine!

Janegirl · Feb 9, 2016

Hey I'm from Augusta and I'm sitting in the same boat. I applied to the CNL program but I don't have too much hope. If you do end up choosing Bellarmine you should email me! I need a [email protected]

FatsWaller, BSN, RN · Feb 16, 2016

Just an FYI, I am a current Bellarmine Accel. student about to finish here in May. Bellarmine accepts everyone who applies and meets the requirements, their selection process comes once you start courses. The 2015 cohort (before mine) started with 135~ people and graduated a little less then 50. My cohort was somewhat smaller, starting with 80 people and we have around 46 original people at the moment (we had some who failed last year join us too). So if you choose Bellarmine, be prepared to kick ass out of the gate. We lost the majority the first semester.

moeknee · Feb 17, 2016

Do you think the dropout rate is so high because they accept everyone that meets the requirements? When really those students probably weren't ready for such an intense program. Or would you say it speaks to the quality of the program? Would you recommend people to go elsewhere? I feel any accelerated nursing school is going to be really difficult.

FatsWaller, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2016

I would say a combination of all. First you need to remember this is a bachelor's degree with over 775 hours of clinical time in less than 12 months (it's really 11 months if you remove breaks). It's intense but do-able. There were definitely people who were just not cut out for it and were gone in the first few days to weeks. There were people who were doing fine but just couldn't take the stress and dropped out. There were people who were tired of so little time for themselves or family and dropped out. And there were those who just couldn't hack it academically. The grading scales are harder in BSN programs, you must get a 77% to pass and the scales breakdown like soâ€¦(A=93-100; A- = 92; B+= 89-91; B=85-88 B-=84; C+=83 C=77-82) there is nothing lower than that because anything lower is failing.

That said, people who tended to do better were those with a previous degree in a science. Many had Business degrees or other B.A. degrees and did ok but tended to struggle more because the types of classes are so different for them. Also having healthcare experience both helps and hurts. It helps in that your comfortable with patients and understand the system better, it hurts because nursing is much different than being a CNA, TECH , EMT, etc.. that you really need to forget all of what you learned in that previous field and drop a lot of bad habits.

Personally I don't think your GPA in your previous degree for an accel program matters at all. This program will turn 4.0 students into 2.8 students. There are a lot of people in my classes who had honors and 3.6-3.9 gpa in their undergrad and in this program scrape by with 2.9-3.1 and are perfectly happy because they are passing.

Personally, I am from California. I moved to Kentucky solely for the program because the competition for accelerated nursing school on the west coast is insane, (like 10,000+ applicants for 60 spots insane) and because bellarmine let me in. My undergrad was in Human Physiology, I screwed around and was immature my freshman year and so I graduated with a 2.74 gpa (despite my last 2 years all having trimesters with 3.4+). I couldn't get in anywhere on the west coast, I literally had schools laugh at me in the interviews. But I'm almost done at bellarmine and I have currently a 3.45 so I'll take it. I grew up a lot and worked hard for something I wanted and I made it (almost there). It just takes dedication. We had a lot of immature people come directly out of their undergraduate degrees (like from UK) and they still were in party mode and wanted to drive back to Lexington every weekend to see their friends or party. You can have some fun but unless you get out of that mindset, you will be one of the ones who has to drop down to the 2 year program or has a 2.75 gpa, and you really want at least a 3.0 in nursing school so if you ever want to expand and go on, you can.

That all said, the program will prepare you. If you plan on staying in the state, it is most definitely the most respected nursing program by hiring hospitals, when they hear you're a Bellarmine grad they hire you, and during your clinical they respect you more which is very nice. It is also expensive, but I didn't really care because non-private colleges in California were the same cost (and private were 60k +) so to me the price was not absurd, plus I just wanted to get into school. Out of the state though, it's just another school. It doesn't have national recognition by any means, no one at UCLA medical, Mass Gen, or NY Presbyterian is going to recognize Bellarmine like they would John Hopkins School of Nursing, but it gets you your BSN and your RN License

Mads0805 · Feb 19, 2016

Thank you for posting this, it is incredibly helpful! I will be entering the 2016 cohort at Bellarmine this May and I have been a little nervous after hearing stats like these. Good to know that even though it is very difficult (which is expected), it won't be impossible.

Would you mind sharing which classes and/or semesters had the highest number of people failing out or dropping down to the two year format? I want to mentally prepare myself as much as possible before the program begins. Anything you would recommend studying or reviewing beforehand (other than the prereqs)? I know that things will be incredibly busy once the program is underway, so I want to utilize the extra time I have in these next couple of months as much as possible.

Thanks!

FatsWaller, BSN, RN · Feb 23, 2016

No problem. Hopefully you'll learn more at the orientation as well.

Your first hurdle will come the first 2 sessions (of 6) when you have competencies. This is where you have to act back the skills you have learned in lab (Foley insertion, restraints, ng tubes, etc.). This isn't really that hard but the pressure is pretty intense. You will act them back to a clinical instructor 1 on 1. You have two chances to get every step without mistake correct. If you can't, then you do get a third chance in front of a camera which is obviously nerve-racking. I never had to go to that point but many did. A few did fail out due to failure of the competencies but that wasn't the main issue, the main issue was the insane amount of stress and anxiety they brought which took away from studying for the initial courses, which weren't too bad. Certain instructors are harder than others.

Med-Surg II (session 3) with instructor B.Lee is a highly failed course. She is a great instructor and she basically runs the program, but a lot fail that class, it's hard.

The most failed is probably OB, this comes before Christmas break (session 4). Both instructors are tough (Broderick is definitely tougher, but you will truly learn). This is highly failed because it by far has the most amount to learn. In my class we received a binder with 337 pages, each with 6 slides on it. That's a lot of information. Also I think because it is just prior to Christmas break, many are just burnt out from going hard for 7-8 months.

I had the tough teachers from the start so when I had them in the tougher classes I was prepared. The people who had the easier teachers struggled more when it came to the tougher courses. You can't change the teachers you get for session 1 or 2 though so it's just a toss up.

It's pretty known that if you make it to Christmas, your golden and you will most likely make it. Its only February but so far no one has failed out after Christmas and it definitely feels downhill from here.

I would say to prepare, relax and have as much fun as possible these next few months. Don't try to read ahead or study, there's no point; you'll learn everything you need to while in the program and learn what to skip as time permits.

AAB04 · Mar 4, 2016

Hi! I was recently admitted to the program for May 2016! I'm not from around there, so does anyone have any suggestions or input on a nice place to live?

FatsWaller, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2016

I would look when you come for orientation and try to meet as many people as possible as there will be alot who will be reloacating and needing a place to live. Having a roomate in the same program helps. The nicer area is the Highlands, so I would look for a place there. There is also St. Matthews which is a little farther from Bellarmine (5 miles or so) but is nice as well. You dont want to live near UofL or Downtown, its not the best area.