Nursing school now first come first serve?

[lemonbug]

There are two schools in the city I live in that offer ADN programs, the community college, and the private college (which I am applying to). The community college is significantly cheaper therefore getting in requires many more hoops to jump through. At one point they only had pre-requisites in order to apply, but now the demand has gotten so high that they now require you to take several classes before being able to take the eight pre-requisites.

Well they just changed their policies. Now their program will be operating off of a 'first come, first serve' basis. Twice a year they accept applications and the first 40 applicants will be considered. Today was one of those application days. A friend of mine and several of her friends camped out all night in front of the nursing building waiting for the doors to open at 7:30 to turn in their applications.

I must say I'm a little appalled at this. Nursing school isn't like waiting in line for the newest DVD to come out. I feel sorry for the people who worked their butts off to get high gpa's only to find out it didn't mean anything?

I am really glad now that I went with the private college for my ADN program.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Sorry but nursing school isn't just something like going to opening day of a movie or something.

I am just thinking that those "first come/first served" what if they are c- students? Do they have any basic chemistry or biology knowledge? When BP drops, do they know why many organs participate to raise it back up (liver, kidneys, hypothalamus, lungs etc) Do they know what the pancreas actually does? Do they know why penicillin is good against gram + versus gram - bacterial infections?

Have they ANY KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT THEY ARE GETTING INTO??? (besides the all might $)

So basically the C student (lazy) who beat the A student (hardworker) because he/she was number 40 and the hardworker was number 41 so they didn't get in.

Pathetic...

As much as passing pre reqs with A's while working and applying to NS's is stressful, I am rather glad that it is competitive. To "weed out" all those that go into it either unprepared or ignorant.

I would rather have my nurse the person who worked their butt off and competed against many vs. the nurse that just so happened to get their application in before everyone else...

I have several A-grade students in my class who don't know squat about biology or chemistry despite the fact that they made A's in those courses. Grades don't tell us much about people and knowledge. It's sad that someone is believed to be educated after receiving a diploma and better educated when the transcripts of that diploma are littered with A's. I have no solutions for that problem, however.

[DarkBluePhoenix]

I have several A-grade students in my class who don't know squat about biology or chemistry despite the fact that they made A's in those courses. Grades don't tell us much about people and knowledge. It's sad that someone is believed to be educated after receiving a diploma and better educated when the transcripts of that diploma are littered with A's. I have no solutions for that problem, however.

Although I do agree with you to an extent. kinda like which is better: book smart vs street smart?

I just don't want someone who showed no hardwork to get into NS (not that theyll last) vs. some who did work hard and deserved to be there.

Just my two cents

***btw the bio/chem etc...bit was about the people who did bio then anatomy, did chem then micro, did physio etc....

vs.

people right out of hs, no pre reqs walking in with no prior knowledge (at least the basics) and getting into NS.

I didn't know if 1st come 1st serve had pre-reqs or anything, if so I apologize for making a dumb point lol

[deboraclark82]

I am very disappointed in the college. Nursing school should not be first come first serve. Yes there is a high demand for students and there is a high demand for nursing in the medical field but its more important to offere QUALITY over QAUNTITY. The school is going to start putting out ****** nurses that are not going do well in their field and eventually the medical facilities in your area are going to start seeing that trend and stop offering employment to their graduates. Which in turn will lower the applicates to the program and cost the school serious money. Its a bad idea from every prospecitve.

[wazeout]

There is a school in my county that does first come first serve, and they have a consistently high nclex pass rate. They have been open since the 70's, and have received awards for being one the best schools in the state. They have always done the 1st come 1st serve system.

You must have all prereqs done with at least a B-, pass the nursing entrance exam with a 75% or higher,and have an unencumbered cna license. They use to allow people to hand in their applications at the beginning of the open session, but then they ran into that problem of people camping out in front of the college waiting to apply.

Now you have to mail in your applications and they have to be post marked no earlier than the date given to apply. The reasons given for doing this were;to allow everybody a chance to get into the school of nursing, to see who were dedicated and determined to get in, and if you can follow directions, because if any part of your application isn't followed to the "T" then they will not consider it. This school doesn't have a waitlist, and it's once a year. So if you don't get in then you re-apply the next year.

Many other schools in my county do lotteries, point system and of course the waitlist, but to tell you the truth some of these ways can be unfair to some people. If the applicants have the same gpa of 4.0 and even 100% on the entrance exams some people are still not going to get in, and like some have said already that a person's gpa doesn't really tell you if that person is going to be a good nursing student or nurse. The competition is pretty stiff here, and there are people from all walks of life applying to the programs. So, when you consider 2-300 apps for 30-40 seats it's not hard to see more than 30-40 people receiving the max points possible and 4.0 gpa's, which then calls for a tye-breaker that can be seen as fair. IMHO, lotteries, and 1st come 1st serve systems are probably the most fairest ways to resolve them issues, because nobody can scream favoritism or whatever in the event of tye-breaking decisions. Just my:twocents:..

[wazeout]

Although I do agree with you to an extent. kinda like which is better: book smart vs street smart?

I just don't want someone who showed no hardwork to get into NS (not that theyll last) vs. some who did work hard and deserved to be there.

Just my two cents

***btw the bio/chem etc...bit was about the people who did bio then anatomy, did chem then micro, did physio etc....

vs.

people right out of hs, no pre reqs walking in with no prior knowledge (at least the basics) and getting into NS.

I didn't know if 1st come 1st serve had pre-reqs or anything, if so I apologize for making a dumb point lol

Street smarts is basically having common sense and using it, although common sense isn't all that common. I don't know of any nursing schools that would allow anybody to apply to their school with a C-, I could be wrong but I don't think so.

Well, I'm not sure what the requirements are for entrance into the diploma schools, but I do know that diploma RN schools have the highest average nclex pass rate out of all the other BSN and ADN nursing programs. So, if nclex pass rates are indicative of good schools producing good bedside nursing RN's, then diploma schools are doing something right with the students that they let in and train.

[DarkBluePhoenix]

I'm not going to argue lol.

I just don't trust first come first serve

[caliotter3]

Just shows how much TPTB respect the reputation of their program and the people who apply to it.

[rena575]

The way nursing students are accepted into the programs in my area are through a lottery process. Once all pre reqs have been successfully completed, and you've gone to the schools mandatory information meeting then you apply and basically your name is then pulled from a hat - for lack of better words. Which to me really sucks-there is nothing you can do to help give yourself an edge at all. You can be a 4.0 student with a ton of volunteer work at the local hospitals or whatever and it doesnt matter. You can be in the pool for years and never get your name picked where some get in on their first try. Just to many people trying to get into the health industry thinking that once they are in they wont ever be affected by the economy and there is some kind of shortage in nurses.