Hospital Scholarship?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

The hospital I work for offers $10k for employees to get their BSN (the program here at the state university is $18k, so that is a huge chunk of it!) in exchange for a 2 year contract to work for them as an RN.

Have/Are any of you taking adventage of a scholarship like this?

My main concern was ending up in a job that I hate...but the first year there, I can do a rotation and spend 6 weeks in all the different units to see where I would like to be full time. And after 6 months anywhere, I can always move units if needed.

This hospital is known to be the best in the area, is the only magnet hospital in the region, and is where I ultimately want to be long term

Are there any downsides I am not thinking of?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Anyone?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Hi there,

Have you already been accepted to a program or does the hospital have an agreement with one? How will the hospital handle your work schedule while you are in school? It could be a problem if you are unable to flex your hours. How does the process work - will you have to maintain a specific GPA? Take a specific course load so you graduate by a specific date? Is there an option to go slower or take a semester off at some point? What happens if you fail a course? Drop out? Get fired? What if the hospital doesn't have any jobs after you graduate? You need to work through all of these "what ifs" ahead of time.

Frankly, if everything else is OK, I don't really see much of a downside related to the outcome. You will be getting a 'gift' of $10k!! I don't know about you, but I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I am already in a flex position at the hospital, and the said students can work as little as needed to keep up with school. They even have a "senior nursing student" position that you can get into your 2nd year. I am not yet accepted into the program, but the university I am going to works directly with this hospital with its students. You have to have a certain GPA to get the grant (2.0) but there arent any stipulations about keeping a certain grade while in the nursing program from what I can tell. And being an employee there already, I can skip the interview portion of the process.

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In this job market and since you already know what the hospital is like and since you think want to be there long term anyway once you become an RN, I don't see a downside to getting more than half the cost of your degree paid for. If it were me, I'd totally go for it!

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