2019 Darton/Albany LPN to RN Bridge Program

kkelley6 · Nov 13, 2018

How far are all of you ladies driving? I live in Northeast Ga so I have a long drive. I'm praying I find someone to carpool with.

llott30 · Nov 13, 2018

How far are all of you ladies driving? I live in Northeast Ga so I have a long drive. I'm praying I find someone to carpool with.

I believe that my drive will be about 2.5 hours. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to get a room every week or just get up VERRRRY early for the commute. I will be driving from Milledgeville.

Rannussion · Dec 10, 2018

Hey guys/gals, I graduated this Fall 2018 semester from the LPN-RN Bridge at Albany State. Your teacher's name should be Ms. Jenkins. Perhaps you'll have Dr. Gilbert as well, but I believe she's moving on...I'm not sure.

Some things to take note of;

If you took POLS 101 at GMC you will have to take an online class that fulfills the Albany's requirement. It's an online class that you take at your own pace. You'll have a semester to complete it and as long as you do the class before graduation it'll be fine.

If you're traveling, as I was, Red Roof Inn is about $90 a night. It's not the Hilton...but there are worse places in Albany.

Clinicals were relatively easy. Mostly observation then write a paragraph about your experience.

We started with 61 and finished with 53.

Paramedics did just as well as the nurses.

Bring snacks and something to drink. The day is long, but you usually get an hour break.

We only needed one uniform, if anyone needs a mens large I have several that I can send out.

Also, if you need the in-class polo I have a couple I can send out as well (Mens Large)

If you have any questions I'll answer the best I can.

llott30 · Dec 10, 2018

Hey guys/gals, I graduated this Fall 2018 semester from the LPN-RN Bridge at Albany State. Your teacher's name should be Ms. Jenkins. Perhaps you'll have Dr. Gilbert as well, but I believe she's moving on...I'm not sure.
Some things to take note of;
If you took POLS 101 at GMC you will have to take an online class that fulfills the Albany's requirement. It's an online class that you take at your own pace. You'll have a semester to complete it and as long as you do the class before graduation it'll be fine.
If you're traveling, as I was, Red Roof Inn is about $90 a night. It's not the Hilton...but there are worse places in Albany.
Clinicals were relatively easy. Mostly observation then write a paragraph about your experience.
We started with 61 and finished with 53.
Paramedics did just as well as the nurses.
Bring snacks and something to drink. The day is long, but you usually get an hour break.
We only needed one uniform, if anyone needs a mens large I have several that I can send out.
Also, if you need the in-class polo I have a couple I can send out as well (Mens Large)
If you have any questions I'll answer the best I can.

Congratulations on your graduation!!!!! That's AMAZING!!! Also, thank you for the information!! That gives us something to plan for. How far did you commute to class? Good luck on the NCLEX and the next steps of your journey!

Rannussion · Dec 11, 2018

Thank you.

I commuted from Augusta, Ga. Depending on traffic it took 3.5-4 hours one way.

kkelley6 · Dec 11, 2018

Awesome, thanks for the info. I will have a 4 hr commute. Did you carpool with anyone? And were you able to listen to lectures while you drove?

Rannussion · Dec 12, 2018

No, I didn't carpool. I would advise filling up in Albany before heading back home. There's a Marathon fueling station with a Dairy Queen attached off exit 99, from I-75 (the Albany exit/ HWY 300 ), it has an incredibly high markup on the fuel. The Pilot station as you exit Albany is much more reasonable.

I drive a large truck which gets about 15mpg with a 26 gallon tank. I filled up before I left home. This would get me to Albany with a little over a quarter of a tank remaining. I would then fill up in Albany before my return. Most of my drive was HWY/Interstate driving. I did go through Macon. (I tell you all this to give you an idea of fuel costs and where to refuel.)

The first semester or so I listened to the lectures while I drove. We asked them to put the lectures into a format that would allow us to download them before the drive so we wouldn't be eating up our data, and battery. I'm not sure if they did, as I stopped listening to lectures. To answer your question though, yes, you can listen to lectures on your drive. Audio books are nice too.

Lectures, on average, were 20-30 min per chapter. During the lectures the instructor would say "you'll need to know this" but was never on a test. Rarely given out were "topics of study" and sometimes it helped on the exams, but most times it didn't.

Late in the game I started driving down the night before testing. This seemed to help me mentally on the tests. If you can afford it, I would suggest it. There was less stress with the possibility of car problems or fear of missing a clinical if I struck a deer. Rooms in January may be hard to come by in Albany. They had hurricane Michael come through earlier this year and it seems everything has been booked since then. Cordele is approximately 45 minutes from Albany. There's a Comfort Inn just off exit 99, in Cordele, that runs about $90 for a standard room and $100 for a suite. The standard rooms face I-75 so I listened to traffic all night, but the suites are on the opposite side of the building and provided for a better rest. Even if you don't carpool with someone, perhaps you can find someone who is driving down that wouldn't mind sharing the cost of a room?

Not to sound negative, but this course is difficult. That 4 hour drive made it more so. It's doable, but there will be plenty of frustration. Some clinicals require you to be at the hospital at 6am and stay until 4pm. Some days you'll spend more time driving to Albany then you'll be in Albany. Some of the answers to some of the test questions did not correlate with the book, and when brought to the attention of the instructors they were not moved. The lectures will probably be from an older edition book. The school itself was difficult to work with, but to be fair they were going through a transition with the merger of Darton. I told myself while going through the program had I known it was the way it was that I would have waited on the Oconee Falls program. This was not a positive experience for me. I did make it through though with nothing less than a "B" average. Just know, if you are already set on this school, that you can do it. It won't be the easiest decision you ever made, but you can make it through.

Rannussion · Dec 12, 2018

And if you're just itching to do something in relation to your class/clinical, you could do you Blood Borne Pathogen Certification which will be required to do clinicals in Phoebe.

USG: RTK Introduction to Bloodborne Pathogens

kkelley6 · Dec 14, 2018

Lol thanks for the info again! How were the drug calculation tests? Any advice there?

Rannussion · Dec 18, 2018

We had a math test every semester. There were 10 questions. It was pass or fail. We had to make 100%. We were given a practice test and three attempts to pass. If we scored 100% on the practice test it counted as a pass. If you remember v/t (in minutes) x drop factor you'll be fine.