Duke ABSN Fall 2015

U.S.A. North Carolina

Published

Hi All,

Just wanted to get a thread going for those who are applying to the Fall 2015 ABSN program. What are some of your degrees in? Is anyone applying to other schools? Also, is anyone planning on moving to North Carolina to attend?

No one has been accepted yet (well I am making the assumption that no one has). Hopefully next week!

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I am in my final semester and on the old curriculum but can confirm a lot of the below.

I spoke with a clinical instructor who teaches the first semester students and they admitted the "clinical" experience 1st semester seemed to be a wide spread complaint. I was disappointed to hear about this change. The CI did mention the program was supposed to add back the "excursions" which is where you go to Duke Hospital 4 times for 2.5 hours to practice vitals, taking a health history, and physical assessment. I have no idea if this happened for the spring or if they are going to try in the fall.

On the plus side the new curriculum does give more clinical time in the final preceptorship compared to the old curriculum.

Our cohort had people who struggled in patho, pharm, and adult health (med-surg). There were several people who got tutoring whether small group or individual. The lab does move very quickly the first semester. They really expect you to take time on your own during open lab to practice. In general I noticed those who lacked CNA experience tended to struggle more.

Writing this with a few other current cohort comments...we are all currently in the ABSN program. Here are the pros and cons to the program that few of us wish we were told before:

-Clinical skills are strongly lacking and barely taught 1st semester (some people are still struggling with vital signs).

-No clinical in hospital 1st semester---therefore, if you are looking for hands-on and strong clinical teaching right off the bat, you will be very disappointed. I have friends in other great ABSN programs that are already in the hospital 1st semester, doing hands-on skills, & learning applicable clinical skills in lab.

-My friend's clinical placement has zero patient contact and she has never worked in any medical field before. My clinical has few patient contact but barely. They weren't organized well & other friend calls her placement "glorified babysitting".

-People fail classes and we have several in our Pharm/Patho course. If you are not strong exam taker, there is not other ways to get enough points in that course. It would be a great struggle for those who do not test well. 3 semesters of Patho/Pharm to consider.

-Many people keep saying things can be very disorganized----too many professors for one, single course. Sometimes 2-5 professors for one course.

-Cut down Global Trip to 3 countries and only so many people will get to go. People will be cut from going on trip or waitlisted. Those who don't get picked will be required to do the community clinical in Durham or surrounding area. One thing that drew a few of us to program was the many global locations and that opportunity. Noted by several cohort friends.

-Professors do not know everyone in cohort or names.

Pros:

-Duke holds a great reputation

-Duke Medical faciliities have great reputation

-Opportunities post-graduation

-Good Cohort size

-Lab instructors are helpful and enthusiastic

-Simulation lab impressive and helpful

-Nursing facilities state-of-the-art

If you are looking for hands-on, strong 1st semester clinical placements, where points can be earned just not on exams then I would say that into consideration. There are pros and cons to every place but we were all stating that it would have been nice to know some of this beforehand. Think we all had different idea on what to expect and somethings have exceeded expectations while others have been disappointing. At the end of the program, it is all of our wishes that we come out as great clinical Nurses with good critical thinking skills.

Good Luck To All!

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That's good to know because I got my CNA because I thought I was going to do community college programs that require it and thought I did it for no reason so this makes me feel like I didn't do it for nothing!😊thanks for the feedback!

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@ StudentABSN and BlueDevilNC[COLOR=#000000]. How many clinical hours total? And have Duke graduates gained residencies out of state, such as California? Also, if a student would like to get extra practice with clinicals, are they able to get the opportunity? [/COLOR]

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@ StudentABSN and BlueDevilNC. How many clinical hours total? And have Duke graduates gained residencies out of state, such as California? Also, if a student would like to get extra practice with clinicals, are they able to get the opportunity?

I know the cohort that just graduated has students who obtained positions in California (one student had two offers in CA!), Texas, Virginia. I am sure there are others states but that is just the ones my CI shared with me.

Not sure what you mean by extra practice with clinicals? You mean more time in the hospital? No. If you need more practice with skills or assessment there is open lab time. You can work with a partner or with the staff that runs the lab. There is one room that is available 24/7 even when staff is not there.

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-My friend's clinical placement has zero patient contact and she has never worked in any medical field before. My clinical has few patient contact but barely. They weren't organized well & other friend calls her placement "glorified babysitting".

-Cut down Global Trip to 3 countries and only so many people will get to go. People will be cut from going on trip or waitlisted. Those who don't get picked will be required to do the community clinical in Durham or surrounding area. One thing that drew a few of us to program was the many global locations and that opportunity. Noted by several cohort friends.

@StudentABSN Thank you so much for this detailed post! I am very concerned about the parts that I copied above. One of the MAJOR reasons that I am looking at Duke is the chance to do a Global trip. At the info session the students on the panel made it sound like you go if you want and you don't go if you don't want to. There was no mention of only a few spaces available. Do you know if that has changed with new curriculum?

Also, would you mind explaining the clinical placement a bit? What does that mean exactly? Do they choose for you or do you have any say? Is it for all 4 semesters?

Thank you so much!!!

Melisa

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@StudentABSN Thank you so much for this detailed post! I am very concerned about the parts that I copied above. One of the MAJOR reasons that I am looking at Duke is the chance to do a Global trip. At the info session the students on the panel made it sound like you go if you want and you don't go if you don't want to. There was no mention of only a few spaces available. Do you know if that has changed with new curriculum?

Also, would you mind explaining the clinical placement a bit? What does that mean exactly? Do they choose for you or do you have any say? Is it for all 4 semesters?

Thank you so much!!!

Melisa

For the global trips the # of choices offered has been reduced. But the # of seats should be about the same. Everyone in my cohort that wanted to go on a global trip got to go. There used to be 6 or 7 options offered, with half the seats available to each cohort.

This example may help. They offer a trip to Jamaica and a trip to Barbados. Under the old curriculum the fall cohort would send 5 students to Jamaica and 5 to Barbados. Then the spring cohort would send 5 students to Jamaica and 5 to Barbados. Under the new curriculum the fall cohort would only go to Barbados but would send 10 students and the spring cohort would go to Jamaica with 10 students.

Not 100% on this but the fall cohort has a trips to Tanzania, Nicaragua, and Barbados. Then spring goes to a Tanzania (different site than the fall cohort), Nicaragua, and Jamaica.

I'll let ABSNStudent expand further on clinical placements. But what she is talking about is only for the first semester. 2nd/3rd/4th semester you are in the hospital. I got the impression 1st semester students were in placements like schools or community organizations. The focus is on healthy populations / wellness.

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@BlueDevilNC - a little off topic, but could you share your stats/ qualifications when you applied to the ABSN program? Just looking for a brief snapshot of what a competitive GPA/professional & healthcare experience would look like to the admissions committee. Thanks!

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Thank you bluedevilnc!

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@BlueDevilNC - a little off topic, but could you share your stats/ qualifications when you applied to the ABSN program? Just looking for a brief snapshot of what a competitive GPA/professional & healthcare experience would look like to the admissions committee. Thanks!

The average GPA at the time I applied was ~3.5. However, I've know applicants with 3.75 waitlisted while another with a 3.25 admitted first round. I had some healthcare experience but there are students in the cohort who had none. The average age for my cohort was 27, most people are under 35.

At the time I applied Duke seemed very focused on looking at people holistically. I heard a rumor they were starting to focus more on GPA but I haven't heard that directly from any reputable source.

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Thank you for the response. Any thoughts on competitiveness regarding completing the lab portion of the science pre-reqs vice not? I was very surprised to learn that Duke doesn't require completion of the lab sequence for the science pre-reqs for the ABSN program.

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I am waiting to find out about admissions decisions. Hope i get in......

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