Hondros College of Nursing - Input??????

delilas · Jul 25, 2011

All nursing schools in Ohio have their content certified by the Board. Hondros is no different.

In my class of 44 students as an LPN, only 4 failed the HESI. We're talking a pass rate of 90%, which is far higher than most schools NCLEX pass rate, and it's well known that NCLEX is easier than HESI.

We were also sent to a HESI preparation course for two days. Again, if you're talking about someone that had difficulty in the first year the school started a nursing program, it's not a fair stick, but it's to be expected that any new program is going to have difficulties.

Also, given Hondros' accelerated rate (LPN in 11 months, RN in 18), someone working full time simply isn't going to have the time to put in. I'm not trying, by any means, to insult another student in any way, but its simply the truth. Hondros outright tells you, both in handbook and in class, that they expect you to study 3 hours for every 1 hour in class. Even without clinicals, this is easily 36 hours a week. Add in the 8 to 12 hours clinicals, and the time, in total, consumed by class, study time, and clinicals, is 57 hours - and that's with a minimum course load of 9 hours, where several Hondros quarters are 15 to 18 hours.

I have never felt unsupported during my time here. Not only were we given a practice HESI in quarter 3, we were given a two day course to take in preparation in term 4, as well as a class that did review for two hours every week, and a paid subscription to an online course that gave you access to thousands of NCLEX style questions.

If your student was a victim of the first year of opening, it's regretful, but it's not how the school is at all now, and hasn't been since at least June 2009.

patel.748 · Jul 25, 2011

Their main issue right now is retention of instructors. Which is true for ALL nursing programs nationwide.

justsayin · Aug 11, 2011

Let's be very clear on a couple of things about Hondros...I am a current student in the RN program at the Columbus branch.

First and foremost, Hondros is not a typical educational institution....they are a PRIVATELY OWNED FAMILY BUSINESS, that built there name on obtaining and preparing individuals to pass the OH Real Estate exams. If you enter their nursing program with this "business oriented mindset"; you should not be let down by any bumps in the road. They ran, essentially, as a cash based business for a very long time and seem to be struggling to shift gears into a "student" oriented environment vs a "customer, I just need a few classes to pass a test" evironment.

Second, instructor turnover is a serious problem. Do not be alarmed if you have 2-3 instructors for 1 class over the 10 week course. Clinical sites and those instructors will be changed, some more than others. Clinical experiences will vary greatly depending on the location and instructor. You may be doing vital signs and checking blood sugars only...but your fellow classmate at another location could be doing the same along with passing meds, giving injections and wound care. Learn now...that is just the way it is! Also, not only is the instructors constantly changing, the administrative side is virtually non existant. If something goes wrong, do not expect a quick fix. On occasion, issues can be resolved but just know that you are on your own...so know your handbook and learn how to research problems, be YOUR STUDENT ADVOCATE!

Third, working during the LPN program is virtually impossible! The RN program just changed this quarter (Summer 2011) and I am hearing that working during this program will be impossible as well. Plan on massive study time...do not think that because you were a 4.0 student in your previous life, that you will be during these programs. Grading is strict! Some teachers will give reviews before quizzes/exams and some will not. It is a lot of material and remember....77 is an F!!

Fourth, financial aid is another serious issue at Hondros. DO NOT plan on using any remaining balance of PELL/student loans as your "living expenses." You will not get this money the way traditional colleges/universities disburse funds! You need to learn the FAFSA/Department of Education/Great Lakes websites. You will hear everything from, "the hondros dog ate your money," (lol) to computer problems, different service providers to it will be here in a couple of months/next quarter. After a year and a half I am still baffled by this "department." So, if you have no other financial support or income (remember, working is very difficult to do with the schedule and study time) find some quick....you will struggle and be in trouble financially!!

Last (finally, huh!?) if you do not adapt well to change, this is not for you. If you expect answers to your questions, either by email or in person, this may not be for you either. It possible to get through all of this, just keep your head down, have your life in order and pray for no problems (personal) along the way! There is no room for error, sickness (children or yourself), pregnancy, car breaking down or whatever life throws at you. You are expected to have mulitple plans of action in place to overcome any obstacles that you encounter.

After all, you can always call a cab to get to class....just don't plan on using your left over financial aid to pay for it!

Lee J A · Aug 12, 2011

Wow, I bet you feel better:) Nursing school is tough no matter what but seems like you have some obstacles. Goodluck, it will pay off!!

justsayin · Aug 12, 2011

LOL! Not so much me, have just seen alot. I just keep my head down...only 4 quarters to go!

amanda.tucker07 · Dec 13, 2011

From what I understand, SOME credits are accepted by Hondros, but not many. And as far as transferring credits out..HA! Not likely. Nobody seems to accept the credit from there, including teh schools they have articulation agreements with. Those just mean they will accept our degree or diploma (LPN) in order to continue on, but we willstill be required to fill in teh "gaps" of our education. Personally, many of us are not returning after the LPN because there are far better options for an LPN to ADN degree. For example, about 8 of us are already ready to attend Excelsior College. It is the only online approved college, at ALL, by the NLN. Others are going to Marion Technical after they receive their LPN It will only be 3 quarters using either option. For teh LPN though, you may also want to consider the Columbus School of Practical Nursing, or American Institute of Alternative Medicine for their options. Both good schools as well! Best of luck & I hope this helps a little!

I see that you decided to goto Excelsior. Its been a couple of years since your post, but was hoping that you could share with me for a moment your experience at Excelsior. I am graduating as LPN from Hondros and am Hesitant to continue on, and I am seroiusly considering Excelsior. If you could fill me in on how you did I would greatly appreciate it!

android · Feb 18, 2012

I am a recent graduate of Hondros (West Chester); I attended the school through both LPN and RN. I would not recommend the school to anyone considering it. I don't know a single classmate that plans on getting their BSN here.

If you graduate from Hondros, you will be able to find work as an RN. They aren't going to shut down any time soon, or have the accreditation that they do have revoked. I suppose that's all they promise, and that's all I can say in their favor.

Hondros is a private for-profit institution. It is far more expensive (2-3x) than most, if not all, nearby options for nursing. It gets away with charging what it does because less expensive schools have long wait lists and/or high GPA requirements. Like most for-profit institutions, Hondros does a good job of assisting students in getting loans and grants.

Everything about the school screams "greedy". The acceptance of transfer credits coming in seems arbitrary, in favor of denying your credits, of course. Testing out of non-nursing classes was disallowed completely a little over a year ago. Repeating a failed course requires full repayment of tuition for that class. Textbook fees are bundled into the cost of tuition, don't bother trying to buy used. You can of course SELL your used books to the company that the school allows to set up shop on campus at the end of every term. Many books are barely utilized; just print the lecture's power points. Much of the book utilization feels forced as if to combat complaints of not needing the books. Laptop ownership is compulsory. When I started they advised buying the junky laptops they wanted to provide, I'm pretty sure it's now mandatory (so that you can read along with "power point professors" off your own screen, while they read off the projector, because you reading off printed notes from home isn't good enough). I realize some other schools do one or two of these things. They are too cheap to even update the computers; they can't handle Google.docs, they constantly break down, half the websites you look at tell you to update your browser (which you can't do without admin powers), the connection is slightly above 56k, their version of Word is outdated, it's a mess. They did just get a new copier though, I was amazed to see they removed the coin slot too. Research resources are a joke, but I hear they may be finally adding access to EBSCOHost or something like that soon.

I'm sure the quality of teachers is a mixed bag anywhere you go. The West Chester (also called Cincinnati campus) has a couple good ones. Most are mediocre, and some have no place in a classroom. Even if the teacher is good, some classes are just a monumental waste of your time. I know they have to include some or all of these in the curriculum, but instead of identifying our power animal, or what kind of element we are, or pretending to shave with a bladeless razor and a lot of shaving crème to show how you can "shave off stress", how about learning about nursing? I can't tell you how many times NCLEX question time devolved into a free-for-all that resulted in a teacher saying something like "We'll have to look into this one later" with a nervous smile because the class is clearly ****** after sitting in the same room for 6 hours in front of someone who is teaching a class that's supposed to be preparing us for the NCLEX.

Clincals are a joke. The reliance on nursing homes is way high. Even into the RN program. EVEN into preceptorship, it's not unheard of to wind up in a home. During school, and since, I've spoken with people from other schools about their clinical experience and it's a stark contrast. When we were spending week after week observing perfectly healthy little kids run around at YMCA for pediatric clinicals, other schools were taking care of terminally ill children in hospitals. While we were doing bed baths and bedpans in nursing homes, other schools were in hospitals. I know that one class, last term or before, didn't get placement for a clinical group until halfway through the term. The school had them show up to lab on campus instead for the full 12 hours the first five weeks. Guess what? That did not fly with the state board, and every student had to cram all the clinical time in during the second half of the term. How ****** were they? Well the main administrator for that campus (unsure of her actual title) got fired.

Hondros does not have NLN accreditation. This will severely limit your job options. They applied after being in operation for three years, which is the soonest a school can apply, and assured students they would soon have NLN accred. That was over a year ago, so obviously they didn't get it. I don't know why that is, but clearly it's a huge gamble to assume they will have it anytime soon. Many hospitals will not hire you if your school doesn't have NLN. No state hospital will. I knew one student who started Hondros fresh out of the military, planning on getting a job at a VA hospital which would have continued employment benefits (unsure of terminology here). VA won't have anything to do with them unless they get a degree from an NLN school, so they now have to get their BSN from the extremely limited amount of schools WITH NLN that will accept them from a school WITHOUT NLN.

At West Chester, I didn't have trouble with the administration because I didn't have cause to interact with them. From what I understand, it can be a mixed bag, just like teachers. In short, the guy can be helpful if you are a good student who isn't wasting his and your time. The lady in the other building however is universally disliked by students and teachers (yes, you would be surprised what some teachers will tell you in a clinical setting) and you will get zero help from her with a side of bad attitude.

Should I end on a positive note? Hondros has the best scrubs. When I see some of the students from other schools at clinical, I have to shudder for the poor things.

BrittanyLPN · May 1, 2012

I am probably going to start this program this summer. I have been a LPN for a year now and am now a Junior at Wright State University. I changed my major there from nursing to education. Now I am switching back to nursing because the job field of teachers is declining. I was going to apply at WSU for their nursing program but I have a 3.5 gpa and if you don't have at least a 3.8 gpa or above forget about getting in. I am only twenty and from my experience from my lpn school you are with the same students all the way through. Don't get me wrong I made lifelong friends when I was at my LPN college but there were also older women in my classes that made my life hell. My questions are:

1. Do you have the same people in your classes all the way through the program?

2. Do you take the hesi's all during the program?

3. I know you have to take an exit one... how many chances do you have to pass that?

android · May 11, 2012

1. At Hondros you will have the same people all through the program. Especially considering they just voluntarily terminated most of the articulation agreements they had with neighboring schools. This means those schools cannot accept Hondros transfer credits, so students will find it more difficult to transfer out during the program, or even get their BSN somewhere else after their RN (this was planned, so as to retain the students they already had from LPN/RN into their new BSN program. Because NO ONE was coming to Hondros' new BSN from other schools, and they knew they would be hemorrhaging students into other schools BSN programs.). So yeah, once you start at Hondros you will probably all be stuck there, as the few options you would have had are always dwindling.

2. You don't take HESI until the end of the RN program. Whereas some schools include the HESI grade as a major part of your final grade for one class, Hondros makes HESI a Pass/Fail requirement of the class. What this means is that no matter how well you do in NUR 295, if you fail the HESI you fail the course, period. It's called high stakes testing and is a horrible way to run a class.

3. You have two chances to pass the exit HESI. If you fail both attempts, you receive an "Incomplete" grade and you have to wait until the end of next quarter when the next class takes their HESI. You then get two more chances. That's a total of four chances to take the test, if you fail all four you fail the class. Sometimes the smartest people with the best grades fail the HESI by a relatively narrow margin and have to put their lives on hold for 12 weeks until they can retest. At another school they would have simply taken a small hit to their final grade, at Hondros they are just more likely to continue pumping money into the school.

lezdogg666 · May 21, 2012

im starting hondros july 2 im so excited!!

delilas · May 21, 2012

i'm a graduate of the columbus campus, and while the program was definitely not perfect, i wanted to take the time to counter a couple points here.

hondros is a private for-profit institution. it is far more expensive (2-3x) than most, if not all, nearby options for nursing.

i had to prove to wia when i was getting financial assistance that i had not chosen the most expensive route.

let's just look at a few well known schools around here:

hondros - 250 dollars per credit hour

chamberlein - 665 dollars per credit hour

capital university - 375 dollars per credit hour

mount carmel - 495 dollars per credit hour

fortis/rets - 285 dollars per credit hour

when the only school who is around hondros' price is fortis, who has had their teaching license in trouble repeatedly and had to change it's name not once, but twice because of it's continued troubles, i don't think there is anything behind your claim of "2-3x" other than thats what you heard from a friend at lunch.

the acceptance of transfer credits coming in seems arbitrary, in favor of denying your credits, of course.

i can only speak from personal experience, but i transferred in 12 credits worth of general education (english i & ii, psych, sociology) and my only issue was that somehow between lpn and rn school, they "lost" the transcript from my previous university and i had to pay to have another sent.

you can of course sell your used books to the company that the school allows to set up shop on campus at the end of every term

you can also get a much better price by selling them online, to amazon.com and other places. don't blame the school just because you had no ingenuity.

even if the teacher is good, some classes are just a monumental waste of your time.

this is the case no matter what school you go to, or even if you don't major in nursing. some classes are stupid, and some are taught by stupid people. it's a problem of higher education, and hondros is no exception.

clincals are a joke. the reliance on nursing homes is way high. even into the rn program. even into preceptorship, it's not unheard of to wind up in a home.

perhaps this is an issue with west chester. in columbus, there was not a single nursing home clinical in rn. none. period. i clinicaled first on a med-surg floor, then on a cardiac step down unit, then a trauma icu, and my preceptorship was in a level i emergency department. i did have two classmates go to nursing homes for preceptorships, but one was requested (ie, she wanted to work there) and the other was the lowest grade in the class, and they warned us since entering rn that your grades determined your preceptorship.

hondros does not have nln accreditation. this will severely limit your job options. they applied after being in operation for three years, which is the soonest a school can apply, and assured students they would soon have nln accred. that was over a year ago, so obviously they didn't get it.

i will absolutely agree with your first sentence. i know here, osu med center won't even look at your resume if you don't come from an nln school, and many other employers are the same way (ohiohealth is fine with it).

however, you don't appear to have any basic knowledge about nln accreditation. its a two to three year long process in many cases. they are still in candidacy status (which you can easily check on yourself) and last i heard, were scheduled for a fall campus visit from nln.

to anyone who bothers still to read this; do your research thoroughly. given that hondros is one of the only schools in the entire state that doesn't require pre-reqs, isn't a four year program, and is on good reputation with the local hospitals (in columbus, anyway), it has a lot to offer a student. the bumps and issues along the way were, on my side, part of the growing pains of a new-ish curriculum, and not that big a deal because i focused on my studies.

Rarman · May 21, 2012

I just recently checked the National League for Nursing website and Hondros College is listed as a member school.

I