Chamberlain - Advice?

[JLB89]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for a nursing program that's pretty easy to get into, without a long wait in the St Louis area. I don't want to sacrifice a good education or possibly ruining future jobs prospects though. I've read through a lot of the posts about Chamberlain and I'm having mixed feelings. Can any current students and/or people in the admission process tell me more about the school and their experience with it so far?

Also - from the site it says

A minimum ACT composite score of 21, minimum SAT critical reading and mathematics reasoning (CR-M) score of 990, or minimum A2 Admission Assessment score of 75.

I have not taken the ACT/SAT, does this mean I would only have to take the A2?

[meatballexperience]

thank you!

i was wondering if you felt as though the nursing classes prepared you for you clinicals and if you feel as though your clinical experiences have been valuable? in addition, have you been to a wide variety of clinical sites?

did you get the opportunity to do any of the community health "mission trips"?

i'm so excited to start in july, i'm not sure what to expect.

were you able to work at all while taking classes?

let's see.......

i felt like i was prepared quite well for my clinical experiences. i had some great instructors and some great nurses to work with. just remember that your learning is ultimately up to you, and sometimes in clinical you have to seek out opportunity to learn and do. always keep your ears open for things that are going on and don't be afraid to speak up. before you are set loose in clinical, you will have opportunity to practice skills in the lab and will have to return demonstration to pass fundamentals, which is expected at any school. just don't screw up the sterile field and you will do fine :).

taking health assessment and fundamentals together can get pretty overwhelming. i focused more on health assessment and it paid off because i can't begin to tell you how many times that info has saved me on other tests. however, there were people that did the same and ended up failing one or the other.

my clinical experiences have been really great for the most part. i am in the the evening/weekend program, which is being phased out, so i'm sure we missed out on stuff. a lot of your cool tests and procedures aren't done on the weekends. we didn't get as varied of clinical site placements as the day group. we did a lot of clinical at slu, which was fine with me, i really like it there.

so here's a run-down of where i've been: fundamentals i was at lutheran senior services @ meramec bluffs, which is an absolutely beautiful place with some of the kindest staff i've run into in a long term care facility. i spent all 16 weeks of med surg @ slu on the abdominal transplant floor. half of my group spent 8 weeks on telemetry. i really liked that floor, transplant patients are awesome and there were some great nurses there. next was ob @ mo bap. ob is not my thing, it totally freaks me out when something goes wrong with babies. the experience was good- spent some time in nicu, saw some births, but the staff wasn't exactly welcoming because we had this really nutty instructor who is no longer there thankfully. peds was fantastic even though we aren't allowed to do much nursing wise. that was on hematology/oncology @ cardinal glennon. after that i went to slu for mental health. not my thing either, lol. but great instructor. critical care was my favorite so far. again @ slu, trauma/surgical icu. now i am in community. i did not go on any of the mission trips but i am going to camp barnabas for a weekend. it's a camp for special needs kids and adults. i have no idea where i am going for management yet.

as far as working goes, i worked briefly @ barnes, didn't like it, and am going to apply at slu because i've spent so much time there, lol. several of my classmates work full time. it's doable, but definitely a challenge for them. i decided to stay home because i have a little one.

anyway, hope that helps you and if you have any more questions, please ask!

[Dartsiren]

That was a TREMENDOUS help, thank you so much!

Mental health and OB aren't my cup of tea either. I would really like to work in the ER or Trauma ICU. Were you able to get any ER experience at all? I know it's a difficult atmosphere for clincals and most hospitals don't like big groups of students there. Were you able to observe in an OR at all?

I'm currently working at St Mary's in a non-clincal job, but they are extrememly flexible with my hours so I'm going to try to keep working part time while in school. I wouldn't mind working for the corporation when I graduate but there isn't a Trauma I hospital in the system, which stinks.

oh, how much do you think you spent on scrubs for school? And how many pairs do you really need?

Thanks again for all your help!

[Nurselacey]

Love Chamberlain!! In the RN to BSN program..So far no problems at all...