This is super early to talk about applying to nursing school for 2016, but it's always better to be well-prepared! Let's share some thoughts and help each other out!
I am re-applying to nursing schools as I did not get in last year, and planning to enroll to more courses for pre-reqs and to increase my GPA (I graduated with a B.A.)hopefully this year will be much better and with luck!!!!
I have a few universities in mind to apply -
University of Toronto
York
Nipissing
Western
Queen's
McMaster
Should I apply to more? Which one should I apply? I am super eager to enter the program and I failed once, failing twice is not allowed!
Feel Free to give me suggestions or ask questions! Here is a link I found online listing most of the second entry nursing programs.
It would not show up on your OUAC, however for this time of year, it most likely isn't a waitlist but they may be waiting on further grades, etc. @nurse9431
Actually I did get an e-mail saying I am waitlisted. So I don't think this is true....
Specializes in Endoscopy/Gastroenterology, General Surgery.
It is a collaborative program. There are Western site and Fanshawe (collage) site when you applied. Both site takes 130 people in first year. Both sites supposed to teach the same material and have the identical exam. Then in third year the students from Fanshawe site joined western and graduate with western name on their degree. Yes Compressed program is on the main campus
It is a collaborative program. There are Western site and Fanshawe (collage) site when you applied. Both site takes 130 people in first year. Both sites supposed to teach the same material and have the identical exam. Then in third year the students from Fanshawe site joined western and graduate with western name on their degree. Yes Compressed program is on the main campus
I think it's good advice for students who applied to the collaborative program. But a lot of students on this forum may have applied to the Compressed Time Frame BScN program, which is highly reputed for sure! It's unfortunate to hear that you haven't had the best experience with the collaborative program, but hey, you will be getting your BScN soon!
Specializes in Endoscopy/Gastroenterology, General Surgery.
Would you mind if I asked why?
There are so many useless courses that they teach us such as global health - it is a course that teach you why you should care about toileting in India as a nurse. Because they have to fit these type of useless course in the program, we don't have clinical placement until third year. And we only have one 12 hours day shift per week in third year. In second semester, I got rehab nursing and I was so mad because in orientation they promised we would get placement in acute setting. We emailed the clinical coordinator and she was mad and she said that she was not going to change it for us and she had "carefully read through everyone's clinicial history to place us." She was obviously lying because one of us got placed in cardiology twice at a different hospital but she sent all of us an email saying she was not changing any placement for us. Well, what i understood from that email is that I am not doing my job, despite the fact that all of us paid western (and her) for being in the program to have a better learning experience.
Anyways, because they put in some many useless courses, the program actually took out the useful courses that teach NCLEX material such as ped, materiality health, mental health. They have two online courses that made us to self-learn this on our own. The online material wasn't even organized by western professors themselves, but rather learning material from other websites (like RNAO). Thats so ridiculous. We paid Western the tuition so we can self-learn thing on own own? Does that make sense to you?
In addition, there are so many courses that their content are overlapping. For example, in first year i have health promotion and foundation of professional nursing. They are both a full year course. However, the content in first half of health promotion overlapped with the second half of foundation course...also in my opinion, research and statistic should be one course instead of two separately course. Oh did i mention we have a useless course named informatics. The purpose of that course is basically to use internet as a nurse and protect client's confidentially and how to tell if the website is legit to use for medical information. That course is ridiculous because it has so many assignment including group assignments PLUS 10 reflections portfolio to explain what you have learnt from that stupid course. I still have so much more to say but i will stop there. You decide whether or not you want to learn about toileting in India but not NCLEX material. Me and my classmate are so afraid of NCLEX now. Western obviously does not prepare us well for NCLEX and if you go to the NCLEX info session that they just tell you to buy the saunder book to prepare.
There are so many useless courses that they teach us such as global health - it is a course that teach you why you should care about toileting in India as a nurse. Because they have to fit these type of useless course in the program, we don't have clinical placement until third year. And we only have one 12 hours day shift per week in third year. In second semester, I got rehab nursing and I was so mad because in orientation they promised we would get placement in acute setting. We emailed the clinical coordinator and she was mad and she said that she was not going to change it for us and she had "carefully read through everyone's clinicial history to place us." She was obviously lying because one of us got placed in cardiology twice at a different hospital but she sent all of us an email saying she was not changing any placement for us. Well, what i understood from that email is that I am not doing my job, despite the fact that all of us paid western (and her) for being in the program to have a better learning experience.
Anyways, because they put in some many useless courses, the program actually took out the useful courses that teach NCLEX material such as ped, materiality health, mental health. They have two online courses that made us to self-learn this on our own. The online material wasn't even organized by western professors themselves, but rather learning material from other websites (like RNAO). Thats so ridiculous. We paid Western the tuition so we can self-learn thing on own own? Does that make sense to you?
In addition, there are so many courses that their content are overlapping. For example, in first year i have health promotion and foundation of professional nursing. They are both a full year course. However, the content in first half of health promotion overlapped with the second half of foundation course...also in my opinion, research and statistic should be one course instead of two separately course. Oh did i mention we have a useless course named informatics. The purpose of that course is basically to use internet as a nurse and protect client's confidentially and how to tell if the website is legit to use for medical information. That course is ridiculous because it has so many assignment including group assignments PLUS 10 reflections portfolio to explain what you have learnt from that stupid course. I still have so much more to say but i will stop there. You decide whether or not you want to learn about toileting in India but not NCLEX material. Me and my classmate are so afraid of NCLEX now. Western obviously does not prepare us well for NCLEX and if you go to the NCLEX info session that they just tell you to buy the saunder book to prepare.
I am in the Western Compressed Time Frame program currently. I will agree the program is quite disorganized, although I don't have any other nursing education to compare it to. Our curriculum was changed this year due to a lack of placements, so like the collaborative program, we no longer have a pediatric/family placement or a mental health placement. The mental health placement is replaced with a sim lab and the peds/family placement is replaced with an online modules. Just so other readers are aware, many of the other classes you mentioned are not included in the CTF curriculum anyways.
With regards to the NCLEX, I think the problem is much bigger then Western's curriculum. The NCLEX is not geared to the curriculum that Canadian nursing schools have previously taught, and there hasn't been enough time for the schools to adapt to the new test yet. Our profs told us that the pass rate for the CTF students on the NCLEX was 80% which is well above the average and I believe the highest in the country. Unfortunately this data has been published anymore to have a closer look at it. It is also a drop from 99% pass rate on the CRNE, but again I am not sure how much the pass rate for other schools has dropped since the switch to the NCLEX.
I can agree that I don't feel my critical thinking is being challenged, with the exception of in placement. The program makes you think in blocks ie. nursing, pathology, pharmacology, microbiology,etc. are all taught in different classes so it is up to you to make the links between the classes in placement. I have read that other schools combine a lot of this info in a class and the students found it overwhelming so Im not sure what the 'right way' is. I have been doing NCLEX questions to help supplement my studying for my classes and hopefully this will also help to prepare me to write the test next year.
Hope that gives some potential Western students some more insight into the compressed program.
I have gotten an offer to Seneca/York for Sept 2016, I have actually gotten an offer from 3 colleges, Humber/Georgrbrown/Seneca/York. I have decided to accept the offer to Seneca, because I would like attend York for my 2ndterm. I have created a group for people going into Seneca/York for 2016, so that we are able to share ideas and views. Please join the group. If you are attending another college, my advice would be create a group for the college your attending, so you are able to get help and help others.
Specializes in Endoscopy/Gastroenterology, General Surgery.
I am in the Western Compressed Time Frame program currently. I will agree the program is quite disorganized, although I don't have any other nursing education to compare it to. Our curriculum was changed this year due to a lack of placements, so like the collaborative program, we no longer have a pediatric/family placement or a mental health placement. The mental health placement is replaced with a sim lab and the peds/family placement is replaced with an online modules. Just so other readers are aware, many of the other classes you mentioned are not included in the CTF curriculum anyways.
With regards to the NCLEX, I think the problem is much bigger then Western's curriculum. The NCLEX is not geared to the curriculum that Canadian nursing schools have previously taught, and there hasn't been enough time for the schools to adapt to the new test yet. Our profs told us that the pass rate for the CTF students on the NCLEX was 80% which is well above the average and I believe the highest in the country. Unfortunately this data has been published anymore to have a closer look at it. It is also a drop from 99% pass rate on the CRNE, but again I am not sure how much the pass rate for other schools has dropped since the switch to the NCLEX.
I can agree that I don't feel my critical thinking is being challenged, with the exception of in placement. The program makes you think in blocks ie. nursing, pathology, pharmacology, microbiology,etc. are all taught in different classes so it is up to you to make the links between the classes in placement. I have read that other schools combine a lot of this info in a class and the students found it overwhelming so Im not sure what the 'right way' is. I have been doing NCLEX questions to help supplement my studying for my classes and hopefully this will also help to prepare me to write the test next year.
Hope that gives some potential Western students some more insight into the compressed program.
I have heard the CTF is much better than collaborative one and you are right that students in CTF has a higher passing rate than us. So as for second entry western seems to be okay but definitely avoid the 4 hours nursing program from western for sure
Was accepted to Trent at the end of Feb and to UoT on April 6th. I also applied to Western and Humber, but have yet to hear from them. My GPA from the last two years of UG was about 3.7. My top two choices are UoT and Western. Does anyone have any insight to these two programs? My eventual goal is to get a masters, and many schools require a B average. Just wondering if obtaining a B average or higher is possible from either Western or UoT?
How is the program set up? Do you receive any breaks (Christmas, summer etc.)? And also, is it a very intensive program where you essentially have no life? I also couldn't help but read in one of the posts here that obtaining a job in the nursing field is difficult? I have always read or heard that the job outlook for nursing is good, due to aging population and retiring baby boomers?
Any input would be great! Good luck to everyone who has applied and I hope to meet some of you next year.
Was accepted to Trent at the end of Feb and to UoT on April 6th. I also applied to Western and Humber, but have yet to hear from them. My GPA from the last two years of UG was about 3.7. My top two choices are UoT and Western. Does anyone have any insight to these two programs? My eventual goal is to get a masters, and many schools require a B average. Just wondering if obtaining a B average or higher is possible from either Western or UoT?
How is the program set up? Do you receive any breaks (Christmas, summer etc.)? And also, is it a very intensive program where you essentially have no life? I also couldn't help but read in one of the posts here that obtaining a job in the nursing field is difficult? I have always read or heard that the job outlook for nursing is good, due to aging population and retiring baby boomers?
Any input would be great! Good luck to everyone who has applied and I hope to meet some of you next year.
I am finishing up the first year at Western. I was accepted to the program with an average between 83-84 on my last two years of my undergrad, and my average is about the same now. So yes it is absolutely possible to get a B average. Depending on what type of masters program (for ex. I'm interested in eventually pursuing my Primary Health Care Nurse Practicioners) I think well above a B average is required to competitive, even though they state that as a minimum.
As for the intensity of the program, it is definitely heavier then my other undergrad. There is a quite a learning curve in the first semester in adjusting to the pace of the classes, the heavier class schedule, etc. I wouldn't say I have no life but I do focus a lot of time on studying. Now that I am more in the swing of things in terms of the program I am looking for a part-time job. It's kind of a difficult question to answer since how you perceive the difficulty of the program really depends on the person. For example I will spend more time preparing for a test and get a similar grade to someone who works and has only been able to prepare for a day or two. As for breaks, there is fall break which is a Thurs/Fri at the end of October, Christmas break like other schools normally do, a couple weeks between spring and summer depending on when exams fall, and the month of August off. I can't comment on the courses or the setup of the program because it is changing for next yeras intake.
I have heard mixed reviews about getting a job as a new grad. Yes there is an aging population and a lot of nurses are set to retire in the next five years. BUT currently I have heard of many positions where nurses have retired and the positions just don't get filled. The hospital I recently did my placement at has part of the unit closed because they cut two full time RNs. They were offered retirement packages and there positions just weren't filled after they left. The bottom line, unfortunately, is money to keep the positions open. I feel that London is probably better in terms of job prospects then Toronto. LHSC employs 3000 nurses, and there are quite a few other smaller hospitals in and around London. The advantage to London is that the only nearby school or school that offers placements here is Western, so you are only competing against Western grads (for the most part). In Toronto there are obviously more nursing positions but there are also new grads from York/UofT/Humber/Ryerson/George Brown/etc. Wherever you are, your final placement is basically full time 'work' so it is really a job interview and your best chances of getting a job after.
One more thing about job prospects, it really depends on how flexible you are. Getting your dream job out of school isn't always possible, especially in some specialities. I think in today's economy you have to be willing to take any job and/or relocate in order to gain some kind of experience and make yourself more marketable. I've heard that after your first job it gets easier to move around.
fkbes
29 Posts
No, but it showed up on my SOLUS.