Nursing School Questions

[cambion]

Hello all.

I am a 31yr old male making plans to attend school for Nursing in the fall. Currently I'm considering the program at HACC here in Harrisburg, Pa and possibly Frankford Hospital School of Nursing in the Philadelphia area.

I have a couple of questions.

1: Is it correct to assume when attending a community college such as HACC, when I start school I will be pre-nursing and attempting to fulfill my requirements in order to apply for the nursing school within that particular college?

2: In private nursing school such as Frankford, are you applying directly to the nursing program? If so how is this sort of program any different than going to a community college?

3: Is it better, if your final goal is a BSN, to get your RN first then work and earn your BSN part time?

I suppose its relevant that I'd be starting with a clean slate financially and dependent upon student loans and grants to finance my schooling.

[msdizzydolores]

Hiddencat,

I would tend to disagree about Frankford. I've heard nothing but EXCELLENT reports about the nurses they turn out. Their NCLEX scores prove it.

I work for a private Christian university on the main line and the nursing staff highly recommends Frankford for other students who cannot get into our program.

This is the first time I've heard anything negative about Frankford students, but then again, EVERY nursing school churns out a few bad seeds here and there. You know what I mean?

It's funny that the reputation of a few select, none committed and dedicated nurses ruins it for the rest of us who will come after them and who have gone before them to pave the road.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I guess it depends on who you talk to then. But my SO has heard enough bad things about Frankford that it's the only school I don't intend to apply to in the region. Perhaps that's a mistake on my part, but personally, I'd rather not risk it.

[msdizzydolores]

I understand. Frankford is one of the schools I'm looking into, but will continue to research all of my options since I won't be able to attend until Fall 2009.

Decisons, decisions, decisions. Two schools I am looking into I hear bad things about: Frankford and Holy Family. I applied to Holy Family but am now deciding if I really want to go there or not after reading things on here.

Are there other nursing forums like this?

[JillyjillRN]

wow.. as a PROUD recent Frankford Graduate (with honors might I add - along with 15 other grads out of the 50 that were there) I sincerely beg to differ with your conclusion that our school produces inadequate nurses... we have the 2nd highest pass rate in the state for the NCLEX.. most employers around here (Philly area and sub's) really love the graduates - we have DOUBLE the amount of clinical hours of any other school. We are in the hospital for 1152 hours.. we start strong and we keep going.

Unlike a few other programs in the area - we are in NO DANGER of losing our NLN Accreditation as a nursing school for churning out poor results..

I love my school..