HACC vs. PA College of Health Sciences Nursing Programs

[SR123]

I was accepted at PA COHS for the three year BSN program and would need to complete pre-requisites if I would go to HACC before applying for their nursing school, but trying to decide which one to go to.

• What was your experience of the nursing program at either of these schools?
  
• I'm wondering whether HACC (Lancaster) will offer more varied clinical opportunities and will push you more academically than PA COHS and if anybody knows whether employers are looking for students from one school over the other?
  
• For either school, how did you think the program prepared you for an actual nursing job in a hospital?
  
• How long does it take to finish pre-requisites at HACC, how difficult is it to get accepted into clinicals, and what did your schedule look like for a full time student?
  

Thank you for any input, it's much appreciated!

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Good day, SR123:

I was accepted to both programs and decided on HACC for several reasons:

1) PA College went through at least two years in a row of being on probation for deficient first time NCLEX-RN pass rates. The primary purpose to pick any nursing school is first-time NCLEX pass rates; you want to select the one with the highest, consistent 1st-time pass rates. HACC (at least the Lancaster and Harrisburg campuses) have consistently high 1st-time pass rates.

2) At the time I got accepted to both (2014), PA College credits were not transferable to some other schools; that was a huge red flag for me. They may have corrected that issue by now; not sure.

3) I found out from many surrounding hospitals that except for LGH, HACC students are preferred over PA College students (that was true at least in 2016 and early 2017). When I was being precepted, I had five preceptors, and most of them stated they prefer nurses who graduated from HACC because they are better at the nursing skills portion of the job to start.

4) HACC is 1/3rd to 1/2 the price of PA College.

It took me one-year (going over the summer) to complete all of the prerequisites, then two years to complete the RN program at HACC

While I do have an associate degree, I'm getting my BSN online, and the total price of the AD + the RN to BSN is still less than that of PA College.

Thank you.

[SR123]

Thank you for commenting! That's helpful information to know and I will definitely consider that in my decision.