Ivy Tech State College

18 views and no responses?

18 views and no responses?

How sad this is - 34 views and no responses. Makes me wonder what nurses think about CNA's. Just on the road to nursing school and want some practical experience and no one can bother to respond.

Hi Toni,

I cannot comment on the CNA classes at Ivy Tech State College, as I have not taken this program. What I can tell you is that I am a student at the Indianapolis campus, working on my pre-reqs for the ASN program. I have found most instructors to be very helpful, but there are a couple that leave a little to be desired!

I know this hasn't really answered your question, but if I can give you any more info about the school itself, pm me, I will be happy to answer anything I can :)

18 views and no responses?

I agree, don't take it personally. I just now found this Indiana forum! I took the CNA class through Ivy Tech back in 1996. I know they have new instructors now, but I was pretty impressed with the program. We had so many weeks of class, then a required 40 hours in a nursing home of their choice. I worked as a home health aide for $7.50 an hour back then, and up until 3 or 4 years ago worked in a hospital for $8 an hour. The pay is best in nursing homes, but not the best work, either. I'm no longer working as an aide.

I don't have a foggy notion about CNA, but I was in the LPN program and it didn't work out for me. My experience with the prereqs was wonderful, but once in the program I found two problems for my own learning style...almost no time to practice skills available, and the instructors were (by and large, but not always) unavailable to help. I feel this is probably due to a shortage of instructors, not because they were unwilling. The pace was sometimes alarming in the skills lab, and since the lab was only open for practice one day a week I had usually been tested on the skill before I could ever get in to practice. Consequently, I passed all my skills but always felt panicked, rushed, and terror-stricken. When asking for help on skills I would be told that they had already been demonstrated, go work with a student, and frequently if I did mess up a first try on a skill it was due to something that could have easily been corrected earlier had there been enough time to practice or attention from instructors. Again, I feel the budget just doesn't allow for enough instructors at the campus I attended...one student even commented to a teacher that we really need them to be in the skills lab to help us and answer questions, and the student was told that they should PLEASE contact the Dean with these concerns because the instructors could not do anything about it, but those who are paying the bills (the students) might have some pull about making changes.

This is just MY experience, I know others felt that the skills labs were fine, but it's important to understand your own learning style and know that what is good for one person may not be for another. The program produces good nurses and has very strict rules (in my view, unnecessarily strict at times), and for me I found another program that fits me better and produces equally competent nurses, so I chose to leave. I came into the LPN with no previous nursing training, and I think having a CNA would have helped immensely. Sorry I can't help you with advice on the CNA, but I would feel that it would most likely be a good program because Ivy Tech does have good programs overall, though I have heard a wide range of opinions depending on which Ivy Tech you are talking about.

Keep your options open and look at all the programs have to offer...and also, talk to previous students and get some opinions.

Blessings,

M.R.