My case for MedTech

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First of all, I'm 35, husband/father to 3 kids and the "provider" for my stay-at-home wife. I lost my job in July due to the economy and job prospects in my field aren't the best and quite frankly, I really have no desire to do it anymore.

I have a bachelors and a masters degree. Neither degree required any classes like anatomy, physiology, sociology, etc. I obviously have a number of nursing school options to include IUPUI, University of Indianapolis, Marian College, Purdue, Ivy Tech, and MedTech. For me, the #1 goal is to get through a program in the shortest amount of time in order to become gainfully employed once again.

For admission to all programs other than MedTech, I must complete a number of prerequisites that would take at least a year for me to complete before I could even apply to the nursing program. I'm competing against a large pool and even once I completed them, would be bound to be waitlisted. It's quite conceivable that I wouldn't be able to start at any program for 2 full years. Add on 2 more years for just an ASN degree and that's 4 full years of lost income.

Sure, MedTech is expensive, but so is any other option that isn't Ivy Tech, IUPUI, or Purdue. Based upon the credit hours at MedTech and Ivy Tech, the cost is about $32k more from what I can see. Problem is, I'd gain MUCH more in working those 2 years than I could going to school. I also have a pretty narrow window of how much longer I'll be able to continue collecting unemployment. At MedTech, all the prerequisites are included in the ASN program and the garbage math/English/psychology that won't transfer in. It's unfortunate, but hey, I'd spend more time outside of the ASN prerequisites before I even got in elsewhere. The director last night claimed having a 90+% pass rate of the NCLEX-RN.

Maybe one day I might pursue an ASN to BSN option, but that isn't as important at the moment. Having worked in management, I'm perfectly content in not dealing with the added headache.

What am I leaving out?

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Let me preface this by saying I am not a nurse, do not work at a hospital, and have not even started nursing school yet (will start in Jan.). So, this is just my thoughts based on what I have heard/read in the past year and a half since starting to look into nursing schools.

It's been said that hospitals around here do not view MedTech grads as highly as grads from Ivy or IUPUI, etc. People have posted on this site before to say that they were in the program at MedTech and found out when they went to clinicals that hospitals don't like to hire them. Same applies to schools such as ITT, or IBC (Harrison now?). I don't know the current state of accreditation, but since MedTech was so new it wasn't accredited yet by NLNAC. That could have changed by now, I honestly don't know.

What it comes down to is that you really need to do some research specifically about MedTech and its program. You need to talk with the hospitals around here about their opinions of MedTech grads. Find out if their program is accredited yet (not just accredited as a school, but the ASN program itself, by NLNAC, or CCNE). Do a search on this site for MedTech and read what has been said before. Maybe their reputation is becoming more favorable now, as they get more grads out there--that would be something that only someone in the know within the hospitals would be able to tell you. But I would suggest that it is vitally important to determine these things before taking on such large debt. Good luck!

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MedTech is not accredited by the NLN. At least not that I know of right now.

I do believe that ITT was just newly accredited by the NLN. They do about the same thing- cost is high but its easier to get into the program.

You have to remember though...those of us who chose to attend a school that required pre reqs have been out of school for a long time. If you have been out of school for any length of time I would be careful about just jumping into a nursing program that will drain you emotionally, mentally, and physically.

And even if you *might* pursue a BSN later on, you will need those credits to transfer.

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And by the way- that "garbage" math/english/psych actually helps you immensely in this field of work.

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