Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences online BSN?

Nursing Students Online Learning

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Specializes in Med Surg, Renal, Neuro ICU.

I'm applying to this school and I'm wondering if anyone that is a current or former student can give me a general idea of what to expect, such as how exams are taken, workload, which courses were more difficult, etc? What did you think of the program overall?

I'm thinking I'll be ok once I finish statistics but I'd like to speak with anyone willing to share. Thank you!

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It sounds as if you're planning on going forward with attending, but just so you know... last year I requested information from them and after speaking with their rep, I told her I was not interested. Period.

Since that time they have bugged the living crap outta me asking if I've changed my mind. I finally got so fed up I told them that even if I did decide to pursue an online degree it wouldn't be with them because of their irritating behaviour and inability to comprehend the word 'no'.

I'm still getting emails from them :stone

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

Hi. I moved this to the distance learning forum.

I graduated in August 2007 and my overall experience has been great.

Their format is relatively easy. You post to discussion questios on a bulletin board similar to this one, and it's very easy to A's doing that. Once a week you attend a live chat and discuss the week's topic. Again, very easy A here. Some of the classes have tests, which aren't too bad because you're at home with your books in front of you and Google, so it isn't that bad. All of them have papers to write.

The worst class for me was Community Health. There is a loooooooooooong project over the course of the 8 weeks that ends in a 40 plus paper about your local community. But I learned a lot. Next worst was research where you do a big project, but again it's spaced over the whole course.

The instructors were very nice and easy to talk to. I was fairly independent and only once did I need to contact and instructor and she was very receptive.

Good luck. Feel free to ask any questions.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
It sounds as if you're planning on going forward with attending, but just so you know... last year I requested information from them and after speaking with their rep, I told her I was not interested. Period.

Since that time they have bugged the living crap outta me asking if I've changed my mind. I finally got so fed up I told them that even if I did decide to pursue an online degree it wouldn't be with them because of their irritating behaviour and inability to comprehend the word 'no'.

I'm still getting emails from them :stone

University of Phoenix did the same thing to me after I asked for information. That's the irritating thing about some of these schools they won't let you get any information without getting personal information from you first, so they can do their marketing pitch.

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University of Phoenix did the same thing to me after I asked for information. That's the irritating thing about some of these schools they won't let you get any information without getting personal information from you first, so they can do their marketing pitch.
That's a shame. I looked into their program specifically because I'd read your posts and your experience seemed to be pretty good. There wasn't necessarily anything bad about their program, it just wasn't going to work for me. I'm just frustrated that, at least as far as their admission/business office goes, they can't take no for an answer.
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Specializes in Med Surg, Renal, Neuro ICU.

How were the statistics & chemistry classes? This will be my first experience with distance education, so I'm a little worried.

Thanks for replying so quickly!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Renal, Neuro ICU.

You know, that bugged me, too! You're absolutely right.

But in the end, I think that this school works well for my schedule & time frame. I wanted to do TESC but they want your RN classes to be within the past 10 years & mine are older. Plus, they have that expensive "credential review fee" and I didn't want to spend nearly $400 to be rejected.

Thanks for your response!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Renal, Neuro ICU.

Another question - are the weekly live chat's scheduled? What if you're working, at your kids play, etc? Are they mandatory?

Thanks.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
How were the statistics & chemistry classes? This will be my first experience with distance education, so I'm a little worried.

Thanks for replying so quickly!

Statistics was so easy I would have made a 100 average but I got a deduction when I thought I hit "submit" when I didn't and lost 25 points on my last assignment. Always be sure to check and double check when you submit something. :) It was time consuming with lots of questions.

Chemistry was a bit tougher but I still made an A. The tests were all day affairs, many questions that took literally hours to do, but they gave us several days to do it.

Getting my BSN was certainly not easy by no means, but it wasn't all that bad either. You just have to be determined and have just a little bit of discipline.

Do you have a program to help you with APA format when you get to writing your papers? It's a godsend. I used Reference Point and it was money well spent.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
Another question - are the weekly live chat's scheduled? What if you're working, at your kids play, etc? Are they mandatory?

Thanks.

Yes they are mandatory. It's only for one hour a week, at the same time weekly and they have usually about ten times to choose from. I always took mine on Tuesday nights at 8:00pm and it worked out great. You just have to settle the kids down for one uninterrupted hour a week during that time. But it's nice because you are at home, I would eating supper, getting up to refill my drink, sitting, sometimes listening to American Idol.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

they are doing the same thing to me . if i would have given them a good phone number my phone would be burning up. they e-mail me at least once sometimes twice a day. what irritates me is filling all that garbage out and then the part when they ask you if you are a rn. no i am not right now but should be very shortly (emphasis on short) and want to get everything in place so i can make a smooth transition over... i am trying not to wait until the last freakin minute.

that's a shame. i looked into their program specifically because i'd read your posts and your experience seemed to be pretty good. there wasn't necessarily anything bad about their program, it just wasn't going to work for me. i'm just frustrated that, at least as far as their admission/business office goes, they can't take no for an answer.
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I graduated from FHCHS in April 07. I loved it. Be there no doubt, it is a lot of work, but doable. I continued to work full time and had my first child while in the program. I was sent down to Mississippi to help with hurricane relief for 2 weeks and the instructors were so accomodating with that interuption. I earned an A in almose every class. My impression was that the school really wanted us to succeed and would bend over backwards to make sure we did. A few classes were ridiculously easy, and required little time commitment, but then others were horrid and I found my self locked in my room studying fo the entire 8 weeks or so of the course. Statistics was acutally one of the easier ones. There was a health and well being that was really easy. Right now I can't think specifically which classes were really hard for me (I think I really need to go to bed). I remember thinking in the advanced assessment class that I must be doing the work expected of a grad student. And keep in mind that an online program is really heavy on the writing, lots and lots of writing. Many formal papers, lots of less formal discussion, but lots of writing. We also had narrated power point lectures, and in a couple of classes DVD's of filmed lectures.

One thing that surprised me with this program is that it was a lot more interactive then I ever thought an online class would be. With the chat sessions and the discussion boards there is a lot of open communication between the students and the instructors really do read the responses and give good feed back. In a classroom setting you can sometimes sit in the back of the class and hide out. Not online, you have to contribute.

I really liked that the classes were 8 weeks long. When I went they generally only offered one class at a time, which was nice for me to be able to really focus on just one, and before you knew it, it was over. This did mean that bigger projects moved fast and you had to be on top of them or fall behind quickly. But, after 8 weeks it was over and on to the next class. Now they have changed the format, I believe, and they offer more then one course every session.

I had the same problem with the sales reps from pretty much every school hounding me. Heck, I still get e-mails and mailing even now, three years afterdoing the research.

Congrats on continuing your education. I enjoyed the learning so much I am planning to start a masters program in the fall.

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