Palm Beach State College (PBSC)

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

So I wanted to share my experience after going through the whole nursing school process of the last 3 years with Palm Beach State College. I'm very proud to be an RN and as a student I was always looking for information on the school with minimal resources. After the program I added up the total cost and for me it came to about $5,000 for the 2-year program (not including pre-requisites). You can't beat the price but trust me when I say you get what you pay for. The program used to be held in much higher regard and has been on somewhat of a decline. I am basing this opinion of my own experiences and from talking with students in other semesters as well. The teachers are overworked and stressed out and it definitely shows. There is not much in terms of organization. I would have reading assignments that didn't correlate with the editions of the books we were told to buy, teachers who were dismissive of student's concerns and who could not get along with the other teachers in front of the students. Needless to say it was a mess. I hate that the light of the few good teachers there is darkened out by the negativity of others but it is quite obvious to everyone who attended the classes. Our class group chat would be blowing up during most presentations. The program is anxiety inducing and poorly presented. I only hope that things are changing for the better. The program is tough to get into and at least it is accredited but just a fair warning, you will not get bang for your buck with PBSC's nursing program. If anyone has specific questions I can try to answer them here. Otherwise, good luck with your nursing endeavors, it is absolutely still possible to be an exceptional nurse through tough programs as long as you are ready to do double up the work to make up for others. Take care of your mental health and stay positive!

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@Lou18e wow thank you so much for your transparency. Many people do not share in depth how they truly feel about a program. I recently moved to Palm  beach county. I relocated from Broward county. In Broward County, one of the top nursing schools for ADN nursing is Broward College. I received my AS degree from Broward College. I can definitely say it's a reputable school with amazing teachers. So moving to Palm Beach County I was Leary about leaving Broward college, but the driving distance got me considering Palm beach state college. My co worker who just finished his program in December shared similar feelings with you. He was disappointed to see the disorganization Palm beach state had. I taken a few courses there and I can vouch the professors seem a bit tired and barely attended classes. I felt that the constant absence from my professors was weird, especially if you signed up to teach for a semester. It was a 12 week semester and he was absent half of the semester. Anyhoo... I was really debating the drive and take my chances with Broward College. At this point I will apply to several programs besides Palm beach state. I am taking pharmacology in 2 weeks with Dr. Joseph, who I had to hunt down because I heard great things about her so let's see how it goes. I had a few questions to ask; is PBSC hard to get in? I heard for the HESI they mainly take scores higher than 90%. Also, which hospitals did you go to for clinicals? Would you do your bachelors with pbsc? Thank you for this post 

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Hi, thanks for your message! I am definitely not doing my bachelors with pbsc although I do know a few people who are currently enrolled for the BSN and they have said it is somewhat better than our previous experience. I've applied to 2 other programs and still waiting to hear back from 1. PBSC is hard to get into as many of the students who were able to get in had previous bachelors degrees. I believe that gives you 4.0 points on the application as opposed to an associates which gives 2.0 I believe. I did get just over a 90% on my entrance HESI and I feel like that helped and I used a HESI book from amazon to prepare. The clinical sites we had for school (there were around 8-10) were JFK main and JFK north, Delray medical, Boca Regional, West Boca Medical, Palms West and then the Belle Glade cohort had different hospitals I think. Dr. Joseph is absolutely amazing and by far one of the better teachers! Hope this helps ?

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@Lou18e thank you for replying. Wow the chances are tough at Palm beach state. I will be applying soon and taking my HESI next month. I did put my eggs in many baskets just in case. But I'll wait and see 

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Hi! Which teachers did you have that were great and not so great? What were clinical like? Any advice?

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which teacher you might recommend for anatomy 2 and micro biology for Summer in pbsc

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Hi! Do you mind sharing what were your stats?

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
Lmc2002 said:

which teacher you might recommend for anatomy 2 and micro biology for Summer in pbsc

Hey,

I actually took most of my prerequisites during Covid so it was converted to online. I remember I had an older male professor for micro in the Summer who was super tough but actually very good. I'm so sorry but I cannot remember his name. For Anatomy 2, I took it at the Boca Raton campus in the Spring of 2020 so it started in person but was converted to online which made the experience not so normal. I had a young female professor who I really liked, I think the last name was Volpe. Some people found her class really difficult but I think if you put the time in an A is totally possible with her. Also, I took the wrong chemistry for the prereqs and I'll never forget that (and it is worth double checking) but I believe the correct one they accept is CHM1032. I took CHM1045 and CHM1045L, only to find out it was not needed 💩. 

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Ooof, well this sucks. My aunt that went there years ago said the program was decent 😭ughh....  I wasn't sure how competitive the program is but, knowing this information changes my perspective. Busting my *** to get into the program  just for the program to suck gives me anxiety. What's even worse is that I have to apply for the exam last minute just before deadlines🥲.  I guess I won't be getting in this semester but at least I can knock off some required courses anyways....

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The look at your points , where you in 270 or 280

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
Nyxnut said:

Ooof, well this sucks. My aunt that went there years ago said the program was decent 😭ughh....  I wasn't sure how competitive the program is but, knowing this information changes my perspective. Busting my *** to get into the program  just for the program to suck gives me anxiety. What's even worse is that I have to apply for the exam last minute just before deadlines🥲.  I guess I won't be getting in this semester but at least I can knock off some required courses anyways....

Honestly, just stay optimistic and I think having a few good friends in the course is what helps to keep each other going as students. It is going to be anxiety inducing unfortunately, especially because many nursing professors want to tell you exactly how challenging the nursing environment is, and they will claim a lot that they are only stressing students out to prepare them for "the real world". It is good to stay calm under pressure but the anxiety gets to everyone for sure. The trauma-bonding is real. I like to hope the program will improve in coming years and I do believe that many of the problems were also post-Covid related. The a**busting definitely won't stop. My recommendation is to take a look in coursehero and prepare a week before the semesters start to help get a small advance in studying. But as far as working in the real world it's not as bad as nursing school in my personal opinion but again I think it depends where you work and who you are working with 100%. When you get to clinical sites, this is the time to take notes of how many patients the nurses are getting and how the floor seems to be running. 

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Lmc2002 said:

The look at your points , where you in 270 or 280

Worse 😅I have a 190 total. I scored a 93 on the HESI 98% on math and completed all my prereqs with additional Coreqs. My GPA is also 3.9, but I guess my GPA isn't enough, if I don't have paramedic, CNA or LPN experience 

Lmc2002 said:
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