Mercy College of NW Ohio ADRN ?

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http://www.mercycollege.edu/future-students/nursing/

I am looking for opinions or experiences with their ADRN program.

Thanks.

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I'm in their nights and weekends program right now.

Pros:

Transfer dept is by far the best i've ever worked with (i've attended three different colleges and spoke with transfer depts in two others). It was a total Godsend when I was getting my stuff put together. Same goes for their financial aid dept, best i've worked with so far!

Only college in the area w/ a nights and weekends program and so far they've really stuck to that. I have yet to have to come in before 5:00 for anything required.

Very good NCLEX pass rate. Off the top of my head I want to say it was 95 or 97% last year. That is for day and evening programs combined. My one prof stated that last years nights class was 100% first try passes.

Nursing skills lab is awesome and VERY helpful. You also do clinical in Mercy Hospitals so all of the technology used in the hospitals are the same things we have in the lab. Very cool sim man's that you can practice anything on including blood pressure, lung sounds, heart sounds, pulse, bowel sounds, naso-gastric suctioning, etc.

Small school - My nights class started w/ 50 people and I think days may start w/ 90-100 not sure. I know most of my classmates by name now and the instructors know most of us by name as well. You don't have to walk in from 6 miles away because it's a small campus. Our clinical groups first semester when we had the most people still only averaged 7-8 people so you get a lot of one on one time if you need it.

Accreditation - Right now there are not a lot of options for a NATIONALLY accredited ADN program in the Toledo area since the whole Owens ordeal.

Very hands on. We don't just stick to the dummies. We have practiced both injections and IV's on each other which I know some people don't like but I think it's been very helpful. Makes you not so nervous if your not sticking a pt for your first ever attempt. :) It was NOT required of us but more of a "if you want to practice sign a waiver and we'll help you do it" thing.

Cons -

Small school. :) The flip side of being a small school is that it can make it hard for choosing certain classes because a lot of classes you need are only offered a certain semester and there aren't a ton of different electives offered for you to use for your humanities/social science credits. Same w/ being offered at different times. A lot of your classes will only have one section so you don't have a variety of time options like you would at a bigger school. If you fail a nursing class you're going to have to wait an entire year for that class to come up again to retake.

Cost - It is a private school so your cost is going to be a lot more than what it would be at a community college, but that also makes it easier to get into. Even w/ a good GPA (4.0 in sciences and 3.6 something over all), I was looking at a wait for Owens, I didnt have a problem getting into Mercy. However, I know a lot of people that had planned on going to Owens are trying to get into Mercy for the fall so I don't know what that will do for wait list and so on.

Grading Scale - This is kind of a pro and a con, but the grading scale at Mercy is tougher than I've seen at some nursing school's in the area. An 80% is the lowest possible C and the lowest possible passing grade. I guess the good side of that is it makes you study your butt off!

Pharm - I really wish there had been a separate pharm class. Right now you get a pharm book and there is a little bit incorporated into each nursing class. It think it would have been better to have a separate class like the BSN program does. BUT I hear that there is currently a full review of the curriculum going on and that is one possible area they are considering changing for future classes.

Overall I would recommend the program. I have heard from more than one person (and not just people associated with the college) that a new Mercy grad trumps other new ADN grads from local programs as far as preparedness goes. Plus you have a bit of an edge with hiring as Mercy hospitals like to hire Mercy grads when they can.

I would most definitely try and knock your pre-reqs and other non-nursing classes out of the way somewhere else first. Not just for the cost, but because the classes are intensive. I know days is even more intensive then our nights program (nights is considered part time and goes a few extra semesters) and I can't imagine! I work a FT job and have a family on top of nursing school though. hth

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I should also add that we are given a lot of opportunities in the clinical setting. I've heard from students at other programs that were never allowed to place a catheter or start an IV on an actual patient their entire clinical program being told that they'd learn to do that on the job. We are given as many opportunities to use skills as we can on the floor.

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Thanks for all the info! I didn't know that Mercy program existed until Jan of this year, too late to apply for fall 2010. I'll look into it, in case the fall 2010 plans fall through. Everything I have heard about their grads is good. I have an associate and a bachelors degree in other fields. Maybe what I should be looking at is accelerated BSN but I am up to my neck in current coursework and running around the country taking every school's arbitrary and capricious (yes, I meant to be that snarky, hehe) testing & interviews for diploma & ADRN programs now. With everything always coming due at once and two lab classes (A&P II is one) I don't have free time to track down and comparison shop accel BSRN stuff, too.

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I didn't apply until the spring, I want to think it was the end of April or beginning of May and still got in for the fall. I was on the wait list and enough people dropped out that I got the very last spot. Didn't find out until the very end of July so it was crazy getting everything together in time! It might be worth it to apply and get on the wait list jsut in case. If you go to one of their open houses they waive their $25 application fee.

I've heard good things about University of Toledo's Gemini program (it's not called that anymore, I think it's Clinical Nurse Leader or something like that) which is an accelerated BSN for those that have a Bachelor's in another field. I don't know anyone personally that's gone there though. Just friend of a friend type things.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Mercy grad here May 2009 nights and weekends program too. And yes we had 100% pass rate first try!! I'm so proud of that:yeah:. Peytonsmom prretty much said it all but I'll add a few things regarding after graduation. I believe it to be true that the Mercy name will get you farther than the other Toledo area schools. Mercy does not take any crap and are very strict on following rules and the hospitals know that. We are viewed as very professional and intelligent students. Our instructors are awesome,especially in the clinical setting and make sure we get experience. At my job 3 of us were hired and we were the only ones out of 8 that had ever placed a foley!

I loved the small atmosphere of the school, you know everybody therefore you have everyone to help you out. Hang out in the lounge and join study groups, its very easy to make friends. I attended Owens for a little while and always felt alone because none of my friends were there. I made lifelong friends at Mercy. Teachers too! Mercy hospitals trys to give priorty to Mercy students when it comes to jobs so you have that working for you.Plus most of the instructors work or are retired from Mercy hospitals so its helps your with references.

The only thing is that there is no cafeteria after 1pm. But they plan on remodeling the lounge whenever that may be.

I guess the most important thing is Mercy prepares you for NCLEX!! I did nothing after graduation but study NCLEX style questions and I had no problem. All of my classmates said they felt like NCLEX was easy. Mercy is tough on their grading you must get no lower than 80% but its for a reason, they want you to pass NCLEX! And you will. I would recommend it to anyone I really enjoyed my experience there.I plan on returning for my RN-BSN.

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:hpygrp:

I live and work in Michigan and was accepted into the ADN evening program starting this fall. I was very excited to read the excellent reviews of Mercy. I can't wait to start, I know I will receive the best education and will be well prepared to enter the workforce...

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Specializes in Cardiac.

congrats! You absolutely will!!

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I know this post is older but I just got accepted into the days program with Mercy and was wondering if you can offer any advice

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How much time a day did you study?

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