I am 24 days into WGU's RN-MSN program and I love it,

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Specializes in Critical Care, Dialysis, School Nursing.

and here's what I have done/learned. I have finished THREE classes and have 9 competency units/credits in 3 weeks! If you have prior experience/knowledge you can fly through. Some classes have "outside vendor" components to the WGU course and they aren't always compatible with whatever computer OS or browser you have. For example, my statistics lab doesn't work on my mac but does on my PC. You need to be aware of this!! Luckily I have 2 laptops and can switch when I need to. MY mentor is awesome!! You really want someone to whine to. The course mentors are awesome!! They know the course material and can answer questions. I recently finished the course called Health Assessment and the assessment for this course is the NLN Health assessment test. I've been a nurse for 22 yrs and have a BS in biology. This is a tough class. There was info in that course that I feel was geared for a nurse practitioner, things I was never taught, never heard of, and would never do in nursing practice unless I were a NP. So this course as a BSN level course is going to be very hard for nurses with an ADN and little experience. I relayed this to my mentor and said that WGU could contact me and I would happily give examples. My next course is statistics, then community and population health. I should finish the BSN component and receive my BSN in less then 6 months. Then onto the MSN courses. Feel free to ask questions if you are on the fence about WGU!

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Specializes in Home Health, MS, Oncology, Case Manageme.

I start 4/1 with RN-BSN and possible MSN after that. Here are my questions. How many hours are you putting toward school per week? How many hrs are you working? Re: Health Assessment. I used the book that WGU recommends (Jarvis) for my ADN in 1999. Is all the material in the book, if not what other sources do you recommend? Thanks for posting. I pretty anxious about starting.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Dialysis, School Nursing.

hi paradiseboundRN! I work 35 hrs a week and spend about 25 hours on school work. I used only the resources WGU provided for the Health Assessment course. I passed nutrition(which I had yrs ago), and Care of the Older Adult along with Health Assessment in the 3 weeks since I started. I'm doing Stats now as well as watching the videos for Biochem. I'm impressed that you were taught from that book for health assessment!! I graduated with my ADN in 1991 and I dont remember us having a book, so you should do fine in that course! Plus you are experienced too. Do you know what classes you need? You know you can start working in your courses now?? just click and get started! They "opened up" as of the 15th. They want you to take them in a certain order depending on how many students are starting in any given month. But you can browse and read and watch videos etc... I guess they cant have all of us taking the same courses at the same time. Anyway hit me up if you think of more questions!

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Thanks for all the information! I just started the ADN to BSN on March 1st and I am still in the Health Assessment Class which has a ton of information. Maybe I am over thinking it but how did you finish it along with other classes within just a few weeks? Maybe I am studying too much of the information? I am studying about 23 hours a week and if i stay with it, i will finish the class within the 6 weeks recommended time for just this class. Maybe I am missing something or just over thinking it? lol. Any thoughts? I am a pretty good at self motivation and I do really well on tests but I still feel like this class is overwhelming.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Dialysis, School Nursing.

@ann_kristen, I have a BS in Biology so that definitely has helped. For Nutrition, I had it a long time ago so it was a refresher and I took that assessment after a week. I took Care of the Older Adult last and that too had a LOT of material to relearn/remember/learn for the first time. I agree that the Health Assessment is way too much info, full of material I will never use in my practice. For example, a quiz question asked "What is the name of the duct from the parotid that opens into the mouth near the second molar?" REALLY??? Do we need to know this? I basically skimmed the reading and spent 90% of my time in the online interactive course. Are you using that? Be sure to go to the Health Assessment Community to see what others are saying too.

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I'm happy to hear things are going so well for you!

I do have a word of caution though. In speaking with my mentor a few weeks ago she was telling me about some of the program changes. One change was a class requiring a proctored exam versus the written tasks I did. I believe it was the health informatics class? Can you verify that for me? I recall my written project was comparing two computer charting systems. Anyway she said her poor students were failing this class left and right. She went on to say that the school was aware of this issue and that they would most likely reformat the test, but that it takes time. So my recommendation is to save that class for later in your line-up and hope they redo the exam quickly. She made mention that the exam was very particular and detailed and it was causing students to fail. I just wanted to pass this along. I told her I was disappointed they weren't doing the written tasks anymore as I learned so much about Epic doing the paper and now I'm starting a new job that utilizes the Epic software.

Keep up the great work and you'll be BSN before you know it!

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I have heard several people say that their credits from previous schooling didn't transfer. I really don't relish the thought of having to repeat classes I've already taken. I'm really interesting in WGU, I've heard many people say they've finished in 6 months or less (for BSN) and that is very appealing to me. Thanks for the info!

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Specializes in Home Health, MS, Oncology, Case Manageme.
I have heard several people say that their credits from previous schooling didn't transfer. I really don't relish the thought of having to repeat classes I've already taken!

I know what you mean. I had the same dilemma. WGU doesn't transfer any BSN nursing classes, one of which is nutrition. I had to take nutrition for my ASN so Ill have to repeat that. I have also taken 2 nursing classes toward BSN which won't count either. My health assessment and micro (no lab) didn't transfer either. So I have 5 pre-reqs total. But after looking into other programs and reading many posts, WGU still appears to be the most efficient and cost effective way to get this degree. Previous students have given it very high satisfaction ratings. I start 4/1/13.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Dialysis, School Nursing.

Hi RN*mommy!

Yes, the three "U" classes and their corresponding "labs" that I need are being tweaked but I don't know how yet! My mentor said that they (the mentors) were told NOT to enroll anyone into those classes until further notice. They are: UBC2/UBP2(Evidence Based practice), UDC2/UDP2(Adv Prof Roles&values), UCC2/UCP2(Adv info mgment and app of Tech). In the meantime, I have to finish Stats, Biochem, Comm and Pop Health and the Practicum so plenty to keep me busy for now. Hope to be done in August. Then on to the MSN portion of my program. :)

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Sounds like you are doing great! Thanks for updating us!

hi paradiseboundRN! I work 35 hrs a week and spend about 25 hours on school work. I used only the resources WGU provided for the Health Assessment course. I passed nutrition(which I had yrs ago), and Care of the Older Adult along with Health Assessment in the 3 weeks since I started. I'm doing Stats now as well as watching the videos for Biochem. I'm impressed that you were taught from that book for health assessment!! I graduated with my ADN in 1991 and I dont remember us having a book, so you should do fine in that course! Plus you are experienced too. Do you know what classes you need? You know you can start working in your courses now?? just click and get started! They "opened up" as of the 15th. They want you to take them in a certain order depending on how many students are starting in any given month. But you can browse and read and watch videos etc... I guess they cant have all of us taking the same courses at the same time. Anyway hit me up if you think of more questions!
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So, they are tweaking these classes because so many are doing poorly since they have changed the program? That doesn't sound good at all and I am not sure I want to do a program like this.

Hi RN*mommy!

Yes, the three "U" classes and their corresponding "labs" that I need are being tweaked but I don't know how yet! My mentor said that they (the mentors) were told NOT to enroll anyone into those classes until further notice. They are: UBC2/UBP2(Evidence Based practice), UDC2/UDP2(Adv Prof Roles&values), UCC2/UCP2(Adv info mgment and app of Tech). In the meantime, I have to finish Stats, Biochem, Comm and Pop Health and the Practicum so plenty to keep me busy for now. Hope to be done in August. Then on to the MSN portion of my program. :)

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This is terrible. I don't think I want to go to a school that is doing this to their students!

I'm happy to hear things are going so well for you!

I do have a word of caution though. In speaking with my mentor a few weeks ago she was telling me about some of the program changes. One change was a class requiring a proctored exam versus the written tasks I did. I believe it was the health informatics class? Can you verify that for me? I recall my written project was comparing two computer charting systems. Anyway she said her poor students were failing this class left and right. She went on to say that the school was aware of this issue and that they would most likely reformat the test, but that it takes time. So my recommendation is to save that class for later in your line-up and hope they redo the exam quickly. She made mention that the exam was very particular and detailed and it was causing students to fail. I just wanted to pass this along. I told her I was disappointed they weren't doing the written tasks anymore as I learned so much about Epic doing the paper and now I'm starting a new job that utilizes the Epic software.

Keep up the great work and you'll be BSN before you know it!

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