Philadelphia 2nd degree ABSN programs

RegularNurse · Feb 1, 2016

The Philly RN market is hugely saturated. Drexel, Villanova, Gwynedd Mercy, and Jefferson will give you better employment prospects than West Chester, but new grad prospects at the premier hospitals like Jeff, Penn, and Temple are dysmal. I would go for West Chester because it is the cheapest. However, because it is so cheap, it is competitive. You will also likely not do clinical at the downtown level I trauma centers. I think West Chester does clinicals in Main Line Health and a few hospitals near Lancaster. Drexel and Villanova do clinical at Penn and Jeff in addition to many peripheral hospitals. Drexel is probably the program with the largest reach, but you will be paying for that reach. Gywnedd Mercy is an old school, but not much of a competitor to the larger private schools.

I do not know your plans going forward. The following paragraph is to give you insight into the Philadelphia nursing job market, and how, if you want to live and work at a major Philly hospital, you should know the reality before investing the time and money in some of these nursing schools (Especially expensive private schools).

I want you to have realistic expectations with how saturated the RN market is, and that you may have to move or settle for a nursing job when you graduate....before you get into this. Drexel, Lasalle, Villanova, Penn, Widener, Temple, West Chester, Gwynedd Mercy, Imaculata, Rutgers, and Holy Family are all within 30 miles from Philly and have traditional BSN programs with some having 2nd degree programs. If all these traditional BSN programs only graduated fifty students a year, that is about 550 new grads entering the local job market yearly. In reality it is probably closer to 100, or about 1100 new grads per year, which I still think is conservative, if considering all the second career programs. Also, don't forget that just because an RN quits, does not mean the job becomes available or will even exist going forward. I have noticed many full time RNs from Penn and Jefferson working pool at the other local hospitals. So a part-time Penn nurse may work there twice a week at Penn and twice a week at Jefferson and so forth. Most of these hospitals also don't blind hire. Almost every new coworker I have had in the last 5 years has been an extern in the hospital; something you may not be able to do in an accelerated program.

direw0lf, BSN · Feb 1, 2016

The Philly RN market is hugely saturated. Drexel, Villanova, Gwynedd Mercy, and Jefferson will give you better employment prospects than West Chester, but new grad prospects at the premier hospitals like Jeff, Penn, and Temple are dysmal. I would go for West Chester because it is the cheapest. However, because it is so cheap, it is competitive. You will also likely not do clinical at the downtown level I trauma centers. I think West Chester does clinicals in Main Line Health and a few hospitals near Lancaster. Drexel and Villanova do clinical at Penn and Jeff in addition to many peripheral hospitals. Drexel is probably the program with the largest reach, but you will be paying for that reach. Gywnedd Mercy is an old school, but not much of a competitor to the larger private schools.
I do not know your plans going forward. The following paragraph is to give you insight into the Philadelphia nursing job market, and how, if you want to live and work at a major Philly hospital, you should know the reality before investing the time and money in some of these nursing schools (Especially expensive private schools).
I want you to have realistic expectations with how saturated the RN market is, and that you may have to move or settle for a nursing job when you graduate....before you get into this. Drexel, Lasalle, Villanova, Penn, Widener, Temple, West Chester, Gwynedd Mercy, Imaculata, Rutgers, and Holy Family are all within 30 miles from Philly and have traditional BSN programs with some having 2nd degree programs. If all these traditional BSN programs only graduated fifty students a year, that is about 550 new grads entering the local job market yearly. In reality it is probably closer to 100, or about 1100 new grads per year, which I still think is conservative, if considering all the second career programs. Also, don't forget that just because an RN quits, does not mean the job becomes available or will even exist going forward. I have noticed many full time RNs from Penn and Jefferson working pool at the other local hospitals. So a part-time Penn nurse may work there twice a week at Penn and twice a week at Jefferson and so forth. Most of these hospitals also don't blind hire. Almost every new coworker I have had in the last 5 years has been an extern in the hospital; something you may not be able to do in an accelerated program.

Really?? I know an RN who was hired as a new grad within a month at a pediatric hospital in Philly.

Bellavita, if you are willing to travel about an hour, Seton Hall has an ABSN at a campus in NJ, although even though the name is reputable they have a poor nclex rate. But I used to live in NJ and the hospitals around there are having big merges and it's a good time to seek BSN RN employment.

Disclaimer: I only go by word of mouth and people I know, I'm a student.

AceOfHearts<3 · Feb 2, 2016

The Philly market is saturated with new grads. I forget how many nursing programs there are in the area, but it's a lot. That doesn't mean it is impossible to get a job upon graduation- it just makes it harder and much more competitive. I graduate school in philly from one of the large private schools that always leaves people impressed. I started my new job 2 months after finishing and less than 2 months after passing boards.

You need to go to info sessions for every program. You need to ask about retention rates for the program, the number of credits involved in each program, and you need to ask and become familiar with high stakes testing, and compare the costs. Feel free to PM me with questions.

bellavita20 · Feb 10, 2016

I am not allowed to PM I just found out? Weird, but anyways.. what program did you attend ace of hearts?

nurseletDZ · Feb 11, 2016

I'm graduating from the Jeff 1-yr program in June. Anticipating an unpleasant job hunt bc opening for new grads are not the most plentiful. I would have liked to get an externship, which helps a lot, but I waited too long to start applying I think. The program has been all right, most of the instructors are good, whereas a few can be frustrating. I can't speak too much to the curriculum because they are rolling out an entirely new structure for the incoming class.

The clinical rotations have been pretty great for the most part, and most of my instructors have been very good teachers. For me, med/surg, tele, OB, and neuro were all at Jefferson hospitals, peds was at CHOP. Psych was at Cooper, which was not a great experience but pretty typical for a psych rotation I think. We just started community clinical and I am doing hospice home care in NJ. Lots of driving, and since you can't choose and don't find your placement until 2 weeks before starting, you must plan on having access to a car.

Overall I can't complain too much! And people seem to respect Jefferson as an institution. There are some annoying things about the program but if I were to guess, it wouldn't be much better elsewhere. I applied to Penn as well but it's so much more expensive that it didn't make sense. Got an academic scholarship from Jefferson too (without having to apply for it!) so that was a plus. :)