Frightened by Apparent Ineptitude

[PersnickityChick]

I am supposed to start nursing school this fall at the local CC. Long story short, after several attempts and four days I finally got to talk to my "Adviser" today. When I told her that I wanted to register for classes for this fall, she acted like she'd never heard of such a thing, and said that everyone registers at Orientation. Orientation is less than a week before classes start.

When I expressed concerns about it, then she started saying that she wasn't even sure I was qualified, and she ran through the entire list of pre-reqs, asking if I had each one (I have). I mentioned that for people who have jobs it is important for them to be able to change schedules. She paused, and then said, "Umm...." and went on to something else.

At this point, I feel completely lost, and I am wondering if I ought to turn down the seat that I supposedly already have in the program (I did get an acceptance letter), and wait until I can apply at the University I intend to transfer to anyway. I can easily find 4 classes to take this fall that will apply toward my BSN.

Can anyone offer any suggestions, or perhaps share your own experience about registration?

[WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

You should probably talk to the Nursing department at your school. I find that most "advisors" are pretty clueless and do more harm than good, especially when they are not involved in the area you are studying. In CC I completely bypassed the "advisors" (I use that term loosely) and did my own registration.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Good day, PersnickityChick:

If your school has a welcome center, ask if there's another advisor to whom you can talk. In my case, the RN orientation is approximately two months before classes start, YET on the very day of priority registration. So I'm also a little nervous about getting the classes, clinicals, etc. that fit my schedule best. Life will go on. Don't let the fear/anxiety/nervousness hold you back. We can do it!

Thank you.

[Livetoride]

Go directly to someone involved with the nursing department, or request a new advisor that is more specific to the health careers.

I actually bypass the advisors at my school if it's health sciences related because the advisors tend to give me the run around and act confused. They are brilliant if you ask them about general ed classes though... The advisors to the nursing program at my school are very hard to get ahold of so whenever I had free time and I had a question, I'd just go to the health sciences building and talk to the people in there and they even told me to come to them first if I had any questions regarding my major, like admissions and registration for nurse aide classes/certification tests.

[PersnickityChick]

Thanks for the encouragement. I appreciate it enormously. Unfortunately, this advisor is for the nursing program specifically. I am still not used to quite this degree of ineptitude, though this is surely not the first instance of it I have encountered within the last year. I guess I should just be patient, although the last time I was patient I missed a semester of classes because of mis- and disinformation. I don't intend to make that mistake again.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Well, if you think you can do as well or better taking coursework elsewhere and then going to another college in a year, why not do that? It's your choice. Make up your mind. (This advisor may be new to the program herself, you know.)

[PersnickityChick]

Update: Yesterday while on the phone with my alleged advisor I made an appointment to meet with her today, at 1:00. So, I packed up and drove out for the meeting, arrived promptly, and waited. After a bit someone came down the hall, and asked if I needed help. I told her I was waiting for an appointment with my advisor, and she told me that my advisor hadn't been in her office all day.

Fortunately, there was another advisor in the area who was able to do what I needed to have done.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

I was going to say we registered for our classes at orientation. Our advisors had to go in and change our programs so we could get the nrsg classes. We wrote ours on paper and then the advisor put them in the system. We did no registering ourselves.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

I'm glad you were able to get registered.

In our program, we can only register when the nursing program coordinator sends us the course code allowing us to register. No one else has this information. It prevents students who aren't accepted into the program from registering. It may be that this advisor just didn't have access to that information. I know the advisors at our school wouldn't be able to help us register. Doesn't excuse your advisor's behavior, to say the least.