Is there any other school.

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In Tucson, besides PCC that offers the nursing program? I know the university, but any other schools?

Hey, I've been considering applying to the accelerated program at UofA. All the advertising I've read about it makes the program sound fabulous. What's the real story? What hospital in Tucson was she contracted at so that if I do end up in the program I don't sign up for the same place?

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
Hey, I've been considering applying to the accelerated program at UofA. All the advertising I've read about it makes the program sound fabulous. What's the real story? What hospital in Tucson was she contracted at so that if I do end up in the program I don't sign up for the same place?

I think the UofA accelerated program is good and I also think the hospital that she works at is fantastic. I'd like to work there when I graduate, possibly. She has certain needs regarding her schedule that conflict with her chosen specialty. It's a bit more complicated - I just don't want to unfairly malign this hospital. She had never worked in healthcare and I don't think she quite understood how demanding the scheduling can be. So neither side is nefarious in this situation. It just goes to show that the contracts can really bite you (or not).

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

What the heck is this?

http://www.nau.edu/nursing/undergrad.php?id=bsnt

NAU traditional BSN program in Tucson? According to the website, it's the traditional BSN - not an RN to BSN. How did my radar miss this? Or is it only for certain hospital employees? The FAQ section lists 20 slots for the Tucson traditional BSN program.

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

I'm wondering if this NAU program is at TMC. I knew they sponsored RN-BSN completion thru NAU. It looks like they also do a traditional BSN through TMC. I'm going to check and find out if this is the same program that is listed on NAU's website because they did not make any mention of TMC involvement there.

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Specializes in Cardiac.
I'm wondering if this NAU program is at TMC. I knew they sponsored RN-BSN completion thru NAU. It looks like they also do a traditional BSN through TMC. I'm going to check and find out if this is the same program that is listed on NAU's website because they did not make any mention of TMC involvement there.

Yep, it's a TMC. I've been through a couple of computer classes with NAU folks when I did my clinicals there. It's not online, it's the whole shebang traditional BSN program. Good Rep too!

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

Well, back to the original question, is there any other school besides PCC & it's eternal wait? I just saw this in the newspaper today. Pima just got a 5 million dollar grant. It appears that they are going to try to increase enrollment for the nursing and radiology tech programs, among other goals with this grant.

Here's the news article.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/22412.php

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Specializes in Cardiac.
Well, back to the original question, is there any other school besides PCC & it's eternal wait? I just saw this in the newspaper today. Pima just got a 5 million dollar grant. It appears that they are going to try to increase enrollment for the nursing and radiology tech programs, among other goals with this grant.

Here's the news article.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/22412.php

That's great news, but the story hit the nail on the head as far as Tucson goes. What we need is clinical space. In 3rd semester, we all have to rotate through Peds. Well, only 2 hospitals have Peds in this town. So all of us Pima and UofA students are fighting for clinical time. That's why Pima added a summer semester for 3rd semester.

In addition, we need to figure out how to keep students in the program. What makes students fail? I've talked at length to the teachers, and offered some great suggestions on admission criteria. They said their hands are tied on how to restrict some applicants, or give preferrential admission to others.

What they know about our Nursing school is:

People who do well in A&P do well in the program and vice versa for those who don't do well.

People with any kind of healthcare experience do well (and so do people without).

A high GPA is suggestive of a good student with good discipline.

But, what is an indication of a student who doesn't do well in nursing school? Then they can start to work with those students right away to increase their chances of success.

From my experience, the typical student who fails out of 1st or 2nd semester is one who barely made it through their pre-reqs, and has no experience in any healthcare field. They take their first test and are completely overwhelmed by the style of testing and critical thinking. We must have lost over 20 students by the time the second test rolled around. So many better qualified students waiting in the wings would have cherished those seats, like you multicollinarity...

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
From my experience, the typical student who fails out of 1st or 2nd semester is one who barely made it through their pre-reqs, and has no experience in any healthcare field. They take their first test and are completely overwhelmed by the style of testing and critical thinking. We must have lost over 20 students by the time the second test rolled around. So many better qualified students waiting in the wings would have cherished those seats, like you multicollinarity...

So true about those who have not been exposed to a healthcare environment. I wonder if they could require either healthcare employment or volunteer time of at least 6 months? When I worked in a local ER years back I knew instantly I was in my element. My first night on, a man came in with a gun shot to his foot. I was entranced by looking at the inner workings of this man's foot LOL. I was hooked. Others would gag and never return. Better to know this ahead of time.

I hear you about the lack of critical thinking skills. Frankly, I wish the A&P and Micro instructors would crack down and require more critical thinking skills in their exams. My bio instructor was far too easy. He wasn't doing anyone any favors by letting them go forward with easy A's. They really could go for more complexity in those courses and weed out those who can't hack nursing critical thinking. Don't you think so, Cardiac?

I think I will get myself on Pima's list even though I'm taking pre-reqs for UofA too. I did a detailed semester by semester plan and I've plotted when to apply at Pima, when to apply at MCCCD, when to apply at NAU and when to apply at UofA. Eek gads I think I have all my options covered. ;)

Cardiac, do you think the skills lab mentioned in the article could at least help w/teaching some skills because of lack of clinical space? Do you think it could be a significant help, is what I am wondering?

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Cardiac, do you think the skills lab mentioned in the article could at least help w/teaching some skills because of lack of clinical space? Do you think it could be a significant help, is what I am wondering?

No, because it's not the skills that we need, it's the clinical time with patients. I guess it's a good thing that there are only 2 Peds units-less sick kids here in town. Some days, we didn't have enough peds at TMC, so I had to go to NICU. I ended up with all kinds of NICU time. Enough to know I wasn't able to cut it in there. So scarey those sweet little babies are!

Good to be on all the waiting lists, LOL! I hope it comes through for you soon.

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

. duplicate post

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