Grand Canyon RN-BSN

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Is there any updated information? I have been in heavy contact with them and am looking at taking their RN-BSN program. I work with a GCU grad and she has nothing but positive things to say, but I want more opinions. ?

Any pro's and cons? Thankfully the only class I'm missing is stats and that is offered in the actual BSN program. I'm a bit nervous as my algebra skills are way old. If anyone took this class, do you have any advice?

Specializes in NICU.
Hello, I have read all the post of this thread over the last three days and while I was pretty convinced GCU was the school for me, reading about your varied journeys really has inspired me. I graduated in Feb, took my boards on 27 Mar and received my officially results the next day. Immediately I applied to GCU and applied for a 7 Apr start date. However after reading this thread I'm hoping that by selecting 28 Apr, my transcripts will have been reviewed and that I only need the 12.classes.

Good luck to all who are nearing completion as well as those just beginning, I look forward to reading more and hopefully posting something helpful to those who may follow me as your comments have been helpful to me.

Awesome job on graduation and passing boards!!! You are so on top of things starting classes again right away. I hope you only have to take the 12 classes as well. have you started working already too?

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Thanks Prism, yes a hint of military...22 yrs active duty in the AF. Had an interest in the medical field when I first joined but things didn't workout that way, but I'm persistent and here I am. It indeed been and will continue to be a wild ride. Wife is a nurse as well, Air Force and working on her Masters and we have two kiddos...can you say spinning plates? But its those moments that have us a little tachy which lets us know we are alive and in the game right? Lol

Glad I found this thread and I believe for tokmom who appears started it. I'm strapping in and holding on tight.

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Thanks JRich, I have enjoyed reading your posts. I haven't started work yet, but shooting out my resume in a manner similar to confetti being shot from a cannon. I have an employment opportunity (thanks to networking) at a SNF working PRN, the pay is great, a 10 min drive from my house but the thought of 25+ patients (yes that's right) RNs on the LTC side of this facility have 44 and in excess of 50 patients, has me leaning towards volunteering and adding this experience to my resume. I'm moving from my current location in about 4 months, which really had me leaning towards volunteering versus working at this location, either way I feel the experience is relevant. That's pretty much what I told myself and instructors during school. :-)

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Welcome to the darkside Murse! :blackalien:

Yes, I resurrected this thread a while back, after attending an educational fair at work. Little did I know that 15 minute break would lead me here! I liked GCU, because it is a brick and mortar college and they were the only ones not harassing me needlessly as I made my way down the tables of handouts. I also worked with a nurse who went through the program and was successful.

Anyway, long story short, I found this ancient thread and found a few others interested in the program too! Pandora graduates with me in May and then it's going to be all of you!!:yeah:

I'm glad to hear our rambling has help you decide to take the GCU plunge. Since you are right out of school, you will probably do just fine, being your head is in school mode. :) Like Prism, we took a long time to get this far, but are proud of our accomplishments.

If there is anything we can help you with, let us know. We are always happy to help. PM's are always welcome too. :)

GO LOPES! :geek:

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Oh, wanted to add that not working will behoove you. That will take some stress away because you won't have to juggle a job until you a few classes into the program. Like Prism said, just wish your family well until 2015:wacky::laugh:

It's obviously doable, because we are slogging along while managing family, work and life, but it would be less stressful to not have work getting in the way of paper writing, lol.

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Specializes in UR/CM, Managed Care.

Bear with me here, got somethin' on my mind....

You know, not for nothing, and as if we needed any additional incentive (not), I just wanted to share my thoughts on how SURE I am that we are all doing the right thing here. These days, a BSN is just the natural order of things, it is the expected next step in what has now become the norm of continuing education throughout a nurse’s career (thanks a heap you RWJF IOM report you!). Some of us are young, and some of us are not so young, and let me assure you, nursing now is soooo different from how it used to be. I started out as a phlebotomist, and watching all those nurses all day I thought “I could totally do that”. I took LPN classes and when I was done I walked into an ICU and asked if I could work there (didn’t know a soul), and they said, “SURE!” After a couple of years doing that, I took RN classes (that familiar old “I could totally do that, and they’re making a lot more money than I am…”), and when I finished that, I slid right into that position. Many years later I burned out of ICU, and went for an interview at an insurance company (who’s ad said, “BSN Required”), and they hired me on the spot – no experience, couldn’t type, no BSN. The 3 subsequent jobs were the same – “BSN Required”, but they hired my ADN-self. Well those days are gone, I read some of the new grad posts on AN (as well as Murse’s anticipation of needing reams of paper for his application-palooza), and I’m taken aback at how difficult it is for a nurse to break into a job these days. I’ve read some posts that have sent out over 300 resumes! That is just insane! I’m not young, but I ain’t ready to throw in the towel yet either, and lurking on AN the past couple of years is what really made me take the plunge. I had gotten comfortable and didn’t realize what was going on out there in the nursing world, everyone has gone Magnet, and HR personnel are just tossing resumes that don’t end in BSN or above. The competition is fierce, and it was time to set my ego aside and just do it (that ego that had taken me through many years of ignorance, “I don’t need a BSN, there’s really no difference, I don’t plan on being in management, I work alongside BSNs all day long (and a couple MSNs) and we all do the same work and are getting the same pay…blah blah blah”.

I can’t recall her handle, but we had someone on this thread while back who was considering GCU and asking some questions, then she disappeared. I ran across a post of hers on another thread that said she decided to not do it, that she knows she’s not good at group projects, and since it looks like that’s a big part of BSN school, she had changed her mind. I know this is long and I apologize, but if whomever that was happens to read this, please reconsider. Take it from an “old grad” who has watched the progression of this profession from the outside, and found myself nearly left in the dust. A BSN is a must these days, and even new grad BSNs are sometimes shooting out reams of resumes with no luck. Please don’t do what I did and wait until it’s almost too late. If my job went in the dumper today, I’d be hard-pressed to find another, even with my 20-some years of experience, with “just” an ADN. Those awful group projects aren’t ALL awful, there’s only one per class, and I feel their purpose is to try and teach us how to manage difficult situations (and people) out in the real world. There are slackers on every job, just like in a CLC project, and they’re giving us experience on how we manage those situations (doesn’t make me like them any more, but I get it). We all got through nursing school, suffered through all those gawd-awful careplans, made it through clinicals, worried we were gonna kill somebody by accident, been screamed at by doctors and mortified by patients, but here we are. If anyone ever feels like quitting, postponing or not starting at all, please reconsider, GCU or elsewhere. 12 or so CLCs, 60 or so papers, we can do anything for 13 months when you consider the rewards, as well as the losses and the barriers we face if we don’t. So, I’ll stop now, and in the words one of tokmom’s recent professors as she closed every post… “Charge On!”

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Um, I ditto Prism...

I graduated last May, passed NCLEX in June, moved out of state and got my new license end of July and started applying...and applying...and applying. I sent out well over 500 applications/resumes, everywhere! I had 2...TWO interviews out of those hundreds of applications! It took me 7 months to land my first job! I started back in August because I was bored sitting at home :p But also knew I needed my BSN eventually because it's tough out there!

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Tokmom,

Congrats on your upcoming graduation. I agree the school does not hound you, in fact I had to hunt down (not really) my advisor yestrday because I had a few questions.

Glad you resuscitated this thread and that so many are willing to share their thoughts and offer advice as well as much neeeded encouragement.

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Bear with me here, got somethin' on my mind....

You know, not for nothing, and as if we needed any additional incentive (not), I just wanted to share my thoughts on how SURE I am that we are all doing the right thing here. These days, a BSN is just the natural order of things, it is the expected next step in what has now become the norm of continuing education throughout a nurse’s career (thanks a heap you RWJF IOM report you!). Some of us are young, and some of us are not so young, and let me assure you, nursing now is soooo different from how it used to be. I started out as a phlebotomist, and watching all those nurses all day I thought “I could totally do that”. I took LPN classes and when I was done I walked into an ICU and asked if I could work there (didn’t know a soul), and they said, “SURE!” After a couple of years doing that, I took RN classes (that familiar old “I could totally do that, and they’re making a lot more money than I am…”), and when I finished that, I slid right into that position. Many years later I burned out of ICU, and went for an interview at an insurance company (who’s ad said, “BSN Required”), and they hired me on the spot – no experience, couldn’t type, no BSN. The 3 subsequent jobs were the same – “BSN Required”, but they hired my ADN-self. Well those days are gone, I read some of the new grad posts on AN (as well as Murse’s anticipation of needing reams of paper for his application-palooza), and I’m taken aback at how difficult it is for a nurse to break into a job these days. I’ve read some posts that have sent out over 300 resumes! That is just insane! I’m not young, but I ain’t ready to throw in the towel yet either, and lurking on AN the past couple of years is what really made me take the plunge. I had gotten comfortable and didn’t realize what was going on out there in the nursing world, everyone has gone Magnet, and HR personnel are just tossing resumes that don’t end in BSN or above. The competition is fierce, and it was time to set my ego aside and just do it (that ego that had taken me through many years of ignorance, “I don’t need a BSN, there’s really no difference, I don’t plan on being in management, I work alongside BSNs all day long (and a couple MSNs) and we all do the same work and are getting the same pay…blah blah blah”.

I can’t recall her handle, but we had someone on this thread while back who was considering GCU and asking some questions, then she disappeared. I ran across a post of hers on another thread that said she decided to not do it, that she knows she’s not good at group projects, and since it looks like that’s a big part of BSN school, she had changed her mind. I know this is long and I apologize, but if whomever that was happens to read this, please reconsider. Take it from an “old grad” who has watched the progression of this profession from the outside, and found myself nearly left in the dust. A BSN is a must these days, and even new grad BSNs are sometimes shooting out reams of resumes with no luck. Please don’t do what I did and wait until it’s almost too late. If my job went in the dumper today, I’d be hard-pressed to find another, even with my 20-some years of experience, with “just” an ADN. Those awful group projects aren’t ALL awful, there’s only one per class, and I feel their purpose is to try and teach us how to manage difficult situations (and people) out in the real world. There are slackers on every job, just like in a CLC project, and they’re giving us experience on how we manage those situations (doesn’t make me like them any more, but I get it). We all got through nursing school, suffered through all those gawd-awful careplans, made it through clinicals, worried we were gonna kill somebody by accident, been screamed at by doctors and mortified by patients, but here we are. If anyone ever feels like quitting, postponing or not starting at all, please reconsider, GCU or elsewhere. 12 or so CLCs, 60 or so papers, we can do anything for 13 months when you consider the rewards, as well as the losses and the barriers we face if we don’t. So, I’ll stop now, and in the words one of tokmom’s recent professors as she closed every post… “Charge On!”

I was so convinced that a new grad or residency program was the ONLY track I wanted to take, but then one had to face reality. Granted several members in my class have faired quite well in finding employment, to include someone securing a slot in the Cath lab. It is a little discouraging when you see BSN preferred or an add under new grad RN posting, but as you read more it states "new grads not considered at this time" WHAT!?

So as stated before thank you for sharing your experiences and keeping some of us on the correct course.

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Specializes in NICU.
Um, I ditto Prism...

I graduated last May, passed NCLEX in June, moved out of state and got my new license end of July and started applying...and applying...and applying. I sent out well over 500 applications/resumes, everywhere! I had 2...TWO interviews out of those hundreds of applications! It took me 7 months to land my first job! I started back in August because I was bored sitting at home :p But also knew I needed my BSN eventually because it's tough out there!

I graduated May 2012. Passed boards in June. Moved to a new state and it took 1 DAY to get a job. I only stayed there 8 months before I transferred to a different unit. But in my initial training I was with a BSN student with honors and it took her 1 YEAR to get her first job. It is crazy how places pick people for jobs.

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Specializes in NICU.
Tokmom,

Congrats on your upcoming graduation. I agree the school does not hound you, in fact I had to hunt down (not really) my advisor yestrday because I had a few questions.

Glad you resuscitated this thread and that so many are willing to share their thoughts and offer advice as well as much neeeded encouragement.

My student advisor person used to hound me. She would call at least twice a week to see if I needed anything. I never did. I am a night shift nurse too, so I sleep in the day. I would get so sick of her calls and voicemails. I hate voicemails.

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

My advisors would call me once a week at first to make sure I was ok, then slowly tapered off to once a month. I appreciated the support.

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