Orlando Tech

Also.. I've got students loans out from my first bachelors degree. Will I be able to defer payments on those while at OTech?

I'm currently in the LPN program at orlando tech and as far as I know you cannot bypass any of the program even if you have your pre-reqs done. There are quite a few people in our class who have them done and they have been in the program since the beginning. However, if you have your CNA license you can skip the first 4 or 6 weeks.. I can't remember exactly how long it was before the CNAs came into the program but they did come in later. I'm not sure about the student loan thing.. I have student loans too, but I am still paying on them while in school. But I think there's a way to request a deferment or tell the loan company you are back in school and they can defer them! Hope that helps! :-)

Ah!! What's the program like?!? Do you work during it? How hard is it what can we expect? Me and crash both start in August! I've been trying to find someone in the program for advice for months!!

Yes, please tell us all about it!!

The program is overall good. Our first teacher was AWFUL. But thankfully for everyone new coming in she is gone now! I am not sure who your first teacher will be but otherwise I would say the program is good (esp. for the cost). And we've had some of the people who graduated in Jan come in and all of them have passed the NCLEX so far so you will be prepared. I don't work, but I definitely could if I needed too. Most people work at least part time and some full and everyone, as far as I know, everyone is doing fine.. we haven't lost anyone yet and I don't think we will. I haven't found the program to be really hard, it's just A LOT of information in a short period of time, which can sometimes just be exhausting but besides that it's not too bad. However, we start pathophysiology tomorrow and our teacher said this is where it gets really difficult. I hope that answered some of your questions... If there's anything else feel free to ask!!! :)

What are clinicals like? What are the hours like for them?

Clinicals start off very slow.. but they get better! I love clinicals now! So far we have gone to healthcare central park (we only went there once though and we did mostly CNA work) and we were at Dr. Phillips for a couple months twice a week, where we didn't really do a whole lot, mostly CNA work there too along with occasionally passing meds with the instructor. Right now we have clinicals twice a week, and eventually I think it will be three times a week. Right now, half the class goes to MD anderson on Monday and Thursday and half the class goes to Lucerne on Monday and Friday Clinical times vary but there usually sometime from 6:30 - 1:30pm or 8:30 - 2:30pm. Each of us is assigned two patients and you spend most of the day helping with whatever they need, doing assessments, and paperwork/charting and usually a few people are able to do the exciting stuff with the instructor. I really enjoy clinicals! We get to do a lot but we also observe the nurses sometimes too because some things you can't do with the patients without your instructor present (pass meds, caths, NG tubes, any invasive procedure really). Hope that helps!

Thank you for replying and Good luck in the program. i can't wait to start.

Thanks again! One last question. My understanding is that once we complete the CNA portion of clinicals, we can actually gets jobs as CNAs or PCTs. About how far into the program is this?

@ksmall - No problem! And thank you! Good luck to you as well :)

@xoCrash - Hmmm.. I'm sorry but I really can't remember exactly how long it was. We were online the first three weeks and then we were in the classroom for the CNA class three weeks after we started. So I think it was a total of 6 weeks from the start of the program until we were done with the CNA portion of the class.

@Kcgator21 How is the program at Orlando Tech so far? Did it get harder? are the test pretty straight forward?