El centro nursing program fall 2012??

U.S.A. Texas

Published

Hi is anyone out there applying to the el centro nursing program for fall 2012? Would you share points and which campus you're choosing ? :)

Congrats to all of you! Nur-c-poo is right, this is the way they operate! You have to be on your game at all times! First semester is VERY stressful and it is to see who can handle it and who can't. Basically it's a make or break ya semester! 2nd semester is AWESOME!! Just some tips from me. First, look at the ecampus site. Most of what you need as far as info can be found under "community" nursing. You will be added when your classes are set up. Once you are added, browse through it and familiarize yourself where things are. Another thing, work together NOT against each other. You have ALL made it! Team up and help each other find things or answer each others questions. Also, your friends and family will not understand what you are going through, but your nursing buddies will! Keep up with your reading!! Print the concepts from ecampus and study with that. Sometimes you do not need to read the entire chapter. Also, use ATI as it is a big help to solidify the concepts. As far as clinicals, if you want the BEST learning experience get the VA! Yes the instructor is tough but you will be ahead of other students because you will learn so much more and have hospital experience! I thank that instructor every time I see her because she made me a better nurse. Also, you will be done way before other students. Let's see, what else can I tell you all? OH, when you all meet in July to pick clinical sites/lecture, LISTEN to them. They will not repeat themselves! Do as they ask! Don't write when they tell you not to. Turn your phones off and listen for your number to be called! If you fail to do so, you will be picking last! I shouldn't have to say this BUT, act like adults! Ok that's all I've got right now. Let me know if you have any questions! Again, congrats!!

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Hey everyone! I hate to sound like a meanie but this is what El Centro/Northlake is all about! They are the most unorganized bunch of people I know of! I am a nursing student at Northlake, I 'think' I had 14 points but I may have had 15 when I applied. Be prepared to deal with these types of fiascos constantly during the program. It is frustrating!!!

A few tips..

I still work 40 hours a week, it is HARD but I have managed. The first 6-8 weeks of school are the worst. You will be learning skills and will have skills lab from 2-4 days a week and the schedule may not be the same times and days each week. Lecture will be one day a week for about 4 hours during the first 8 weeks and then it will be for 1.5 hours after that.

You will start at the hospital in about the 6th week and will still have to go to skills so it will be very busy.

Your best friend will be organization.. the school is very unorganized so you need to be. Be prepared to be flexible because they expect that you are available for seminars etc without much warning. There will be a lot of "you will lose your place in the program if you don't show up for this"..

I know they stress that you should not work during nursing school and if you are working it should be less than 24 hours per week, I think the reason is so that THEY don't have to be organized. If they could get the scheduling and the assignments figured out in a timely manner it would be far less stressful!

Nursing school is hard, fun, exciting, stressful and an emotional rollercoaster but you will make great friends with your fellow students and will be able to laugh with them about all the chaos this program entails!

Good luck!

nur-c-poo how do you still work 40 hours a week? I am trying to figure out how I am going to make that work. I know they stress that you shouldn't work, but I hear that alot of students work. would you mind if i pick your brain for a bit? you can email me at [email protected] thank you.

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Congrats to all of you! Nur-c-poo is right, this is the way they operate! You have to be on your game at all times! First semester is VERY stressful and it is to see who can handle it and who can't. Basically it's a make or break ya semester! 2nd semester is AWESOME!! Just some tips from me. First, look at the ecampus site. Most of what you need as far as info can be found under "community" nursing. You will be added when your classes are set up. Once you are added, browse through it and familiarize yourself where things are. Another thing, work together NOT against each other. You have ALL made it! Team up and help each other find things or answer each others questions. Also, your friends and family will not understand what you are going through, but your nursing buddies will! Keep up with your reading!! Print the concepts from ecampus and study with that. Sometimes you do not need to read the entire chapter. Also, use ATI as it is a big help to solidify the concepts. As far as clinicals, if you want the BEST learning experience get the VA! Yes the instructor is tough but you will be ahead of other students because you will learn so much more and have hospital experience! I thank that instructor every time I see her because she made me a better nurse. Also, you will be done way before other students. Let's see, what else can I tell you all? OH, when you all meet in July to pick clinical sites/lecture, LISTEN to them. They will not repeat themselves! Do as they ask! Don't write when they tell you not to. Turn your phones off and listen for your number to be called! If you fail to do so, you will be picking last! I shouldn't have to say this BUT, act like adults! Ok that's all I've got right now. Let me know if you have any questions! Again, congrats!!

Megan1217 - thank you very much for this information.....I've heard that 1st and 3rd semesters are the hardest......looking forward to giving it my all.

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Congrats to all of you! Nur-c-poo is right, this is the way they operate! You have to be on your game at all times! First semester is VERY stressful and it is to see who can handle it and who can't. Basically it's a make or break ya semester! 2nd semester is AWESOME!! Just some tips from me. First, look at the ecampus site. Most of what you need as far as info can be found under "community" nursing. You will be added when your classes are set up. Once you are added, browse through it and familiarize yourself where things are. Another thing, work together NOT against each other. You have ALL made it! Team up and help each other find things or answer each others questions. Also, your friends and family will not understand what you are going through, but your nursing buddies will! Keep up with your reading!! Print the concepts from ecampus and study with that. Sometimes you do not need to read the entire chapter. Also, use ATI as it is a big help to solidify the concepts. As far as clinicals, if you want the BEST learning experience get the VA! Yes the instructor is tough but you will be ahead of other students because you will learn so much more and have hospital experience! I thank that instructor every time I see her because she made me a better nurse. Also, you will be done way before other students. Let's see, what else can I tell you all? OH, when you all meet in July to pick clinical sites/lecture, LISTEN to them. They will not repeat themselves! Do as they ask! Don't write when they tell you not to. Turn your phones off and listen for your number to be called! If you fail to do so, you will be picking last! I shouldn't have to say this BUT, act like adults! Ok that's all I've got right now. Let me know if you have any questions! Again, congrats!!

Megan - thank you for this insightful info !!! If you can think of anything else, please share !! :) I know we'll all be glad for any helpful hints/tips you guys can give us :)

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I know that feeling. I am a LVN and went to GCC in Denison. I am currently trying to bridge over. I could imagine working. One Pharm test I studied 30 hours for it. I made good grades and I agree you do have to be on top of your game.

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Right now I do case management and I did work in urology.

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I have been up to now been a lurker on the allnurses boards. It is from following your posts that I learned they had changed the program. Having reviewed the last couple years of posts about people getting in to the El Centro ADN program and from those I was pretty comfortable with the fact that having acquired 16 points, which took me two years to do, I would be accepted into the Spring 2013 program, I could spend the next couple of months gathering my documentation and maximizing my Hesi score -- that has all changed as of today.

I called to find out when this new plan of going to 30 points would go into effect and it how it might effect my acceptance into the Spring 2013 ADN Program. At first I could not even get a confirmation this would happen and was told that I needed to go to an info session and the new packet information would be up on May 1st. At last, the lady at the admission office did confirm that they were upping the points to 30 by giving 1pt for every undergraduate core course that UTA needed for you to bridge into their RN to BSN program, increasing the points for the HESI -- but would be taking away the health experience points. Since I have no other courses completed except the prequisites and all but 2 of the support courses I realized that we were talking 9 points that someone could trump my application with. The lady was not sure if it would include those of applying before the August 31, 2012 deadline for the Spring 2013 ADN program and that I would find out when the packet was up May 1st. Meanwhile, I'm stressing so I went to the paramount building and talked to the Nurse counselor there and he told me it would indeed go in effect starting with the 2013 ADN program; and leveled with me that my 16 points would be no where near what I would need to be accepted -- it probably would need to be in the low to mid 20's to be assured a spot. He told me that based on the history of the applicants, a large majority had either a bachelor's degree or were applicants with 2 years of college that didn't make the 4-year college cut for the nursing program. I was floored ... and frankly still am, but really not surprised.

I think of several classmates who just have the prerequisites and who have been balancing work, school and/or family responsibilities (I even know one who quit just so could go fulltime) for the last 1-2 years to make the 3-4.0 average and who are depending on the 2pts for healthcare experience to get them to 15-16 threshold, which btw has been taken away. They were planning to apply this summer and now it looks like school for at least another year before they have the points. I think of many others like you here who have 17 & 18 points who now won't get in. Perhaps you will disagree with me, but it seems unfair to give so little notice to the next group of applications who will have less than 1 month to regroup.

As I told the counselor at ElC "I guess this means the end of the El Centro ADN program" and he nodded yes "it's all going the BSN direction now". I know there are other nursing programs in Dallas and I'm exploring my options -- but we are looking at a window of what 1 month to apply at mountainview and take their hesi, etc.? I can't help but feel they shut the door on alot of people that they could have and should have given more notice to. My husband says I should apply anyway, but I just feel so deflated and "why bother".

You are the last class of El Centro ADN Nurses. Having said that CONGRATULATIONS! and good wishes to you all -- you already have good luck :)

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boomertx you made a really good point there but don't feel discouraged or give up just yet, i understand, now that they change to a new point system it seems like you're only half way there before you can apply (which seems almost unfair), but think about it this way, if you do get in now it takes about 2 years to finish the program and by then most hospitals will only be hiring BSNs and you will have to do the bridge program and take those classes anyways...so if you take those classes now and reapply then once you get into the bridge program you can finish up early. I just don't want you to give up yet because you have came so far...just a little more steps before you get in.

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@boomertx...I know of another school that is changing their point system also. I do believe that they all will make that change. I also agree that they should give more of an advance notice for the next applying group. I went to the info session at ECC and I was surprised to hear the new changes. But I do understand why they are pushing for BSN nurses. I have a friend who graduated from ECC last December. She just got hired as an ADN nurse but they gave her a timeline for her to get her BSN in order for her to keep her job. Good luck to us all!!!

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Boomertx.. So for those who have to reapply for sping 13 they would have to do the 30 pts?

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@Sarah...yes starting for the next application period which is next month, they will be using the 30pt system.

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Hello All. Congrats to everyone and i hate that you all are experiencing strife with the program. I'm a 4th semester student at El Centro. I got in when they changed from a GPA driven format to a point system without a notice, just as some of you are experiencing problems with the format change now. The market is changing such that ADN nursing is going to be a thing of the past. Presbyterian, Baylor and Children's hospitals are a few of the many hospitals that will not even look at an applicant that does not have a BSN, and that list is growing. My friends and I have had a tough time finding jobs with our ADN degrees, we couldn't even get interviews. El Centro is having to compete with a market that is being flooded right now. In DFW alone, there is TCU, BAylor, UTA, TWU, El Centro, Brookhaven, TVCC etc all cranking out 50-100 nursing students a semester. The hospitals are going "magnet" which means that they require their nurses to have a bachelor's degree. I do not agree with the way the school has gone about growing with the market, but I understand. Thankfully i've found an internship to start this summer, but it was because of networking that I even got the interview. I submitted well over 50 applications, and got one interview for this summer's internships.

There are some kinks with the school. These problems are all starting and ending with disorganization. The first semester is tough because you are being submerged into knowledge and "critical thinking" test taking. 3rd semester was a weed out semester with 20% of our class failing. That being said, i feel i have had amazing instructors that really care for the students. It is the hardest thing i've ever done, but worth it. I'm taking classes for my BSN now, but wish i had known about the job market before i began, as i would have pushed for a BSN program.

Good luck to everyone. Remember, if it was easy or without effort, it wouldn't be nursing school. =)

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