Florida Hospital--"faith-based" school?

[bewitched]

I've been looking at some of the RN-BSN programs around the state of Florida for after I get my Associate's, and one of them is at Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences. If i go through them I can get my Bachelor's in an online program designed for working RNs, and then go on to get a Master's in Anesthesiology.

My question is, Florida Hospital (and the College) is apparently run by the Seventh Day Adventists church. Part of their admissions process (for the Master's at least) is to include in an essay my "reasons for choosing to attend a faith-based institution", and part of the Gen Ed curriculum is to take "DREL 305 Christian Ethics for Nursing and Allied Health (3)

A survey of the ethics of health care for bachelor level allied health professionals and nurses from a Christian perspective. Topics include confidentiality, role fidelity, allocation of scarce resources, paternalism, end of life issues, reproductive issues, AIDs, and genetic manipulation. Weekly grade exercises include closed book assessments, case study postings, and roundtable discussion. An ethics interview and a final paper over personal and professional ethics comprise the core assignments.

As I am Jewish, I am a bit leery of attending a Christian institution that requires a class about Christian standards in healthcare. I'm pretty sure that I would have no problem with any of the ethics they teach, but how much should I expect the Christian aspect to be emphasized? Can the college refuse to admit me if I tell them that I'm not Christian? Or on the contrary, would saying something in the essay to connect my own views with those of the Seventh Day Adventist church to show that despite being a different religion we have a lot in common (as evidenced by a quick Wikipedia search), etc, help my chances of admission?

I'm just curious to know to what extent being a "faith-based" institution may affect my educational experience if I chose to go there.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

For information on this specific program, you might want to post in the Florida Nursing Programs Discussion forum.

Very good questions, by the way!

[bewitched]

Oh, I didn't even know we had one! *runs off to post over there* Thank you, that will probably give me folks more familiar with the program.

[elkpark]

I worked for a SDA medical center for a few years, and they also had an attached college of health occupations which actually recruited me at one point to come teach in their nursing program (I ended up turning them down, but not because of any problems I had with the school). Most of us who worked for the medical center weren't SDA. There was no discrimination in hiring, or any emphasis in the hiring process of the SDA affiliation (except that I was warned repeatedly about the cafeteria! ) The organization did have a written policy of beginning all meetings (including shift report) with a short devotion/prayer, but most managers and others just ignored the policy and I'm not aware of anything being said or anyone getting in trouble for that. The values and principles of the organization and institution were pretty universal, except that they had much higher standards of care and ethical behavior than a lot of other places I've worked -- which is a good thing. I found them to be v. welcoming of most all viewpoints and faiths (as you might expect, they take a dim view of anything related to witchcraft, the occult, etc.) "Day to day life" at work was v. much the same as my experiences working in any other medical center -- except for the occasional person who did start meetings with prayer, but even that was usually a pretty generic, inoffensive type of thing and not a big deal.

The SDA church has a large network of hospitals and health-related schools around the world -- health is a big mission/ministry focus for the denomination. They have an excellent reputation and I wouldn't hesitate to attend their school if my only concern was that I am of a different faith than they are. Based on my experience, nobody would be trying to convert you or anything while you were there.

Best wishes for your journey!