amandafromtx

I just recently graduated from the generic program at SAC (May 2006). I cannot tell you what happens at UTHSC-SA, but as for SAC, I was very happy with the education that I recieved there. As with all programs, the course work was very intense. But, we spent countless hours in clinical doing hands-on learning from the very first semester. All of the instructors that I had were willing to let you do every aspect of patient care, with instruction and supervision of course, especially the first time you perform a task. I loved the education that I received from SAC and would recommend them to anyone as a great foundation for a career. Also, as far as finding a job with an ADN instead of a BSN, in my experience, I had no problems finding a job as an ADN RN, and almost everyone that graduated at the same time as me had jobs lined up before graduation. Also, none of the people that I graduated with had any problems finding jobs either. Most hospitals in SA are more than willing to hire ADN grads, and even diploma program nurses (that graduate from Baptist Health System's School in SA). Hope this helps a little! Amanda Z., RN

My experience as a pharm tech may have been a little different from yours would be because I worked in a hospital pharmacy for about 3 years. (The same hospital that I am now working as a new RN) Prior to starting to work as a pharm tech, I had no real medical experience. I was working on my prereq's for RN school. In my time as a pharm tech, I definitely learned to multitask in a fast paced environment. I learned and knew almost all of the drug calculations that we were required to test on in nursing school. In my school, we had a math test every semester, you had to get above an 80 (with one chance to retake if you didn't pass the first time). If we got below an 80 on the retest, we failed clinical for the semester and had to repeat it. All of the math was mostly review for me then, and I wasn't having to learn something new on top of all the nursing stuff.... I learned the brand-generic names of MANY medications, along with what the more common ones are used for (I promise this helps when instructors are asking you why you will give a pt this medication). Also, I learned to decipher doctors writting, or at least most of the time could. This has helped me immensily as a new nurse (I finished RN school May 2006). Also, as a pharm tech, you will learn some of the more common dosage ranges of medications. This has helped me to avoid making some med errors, because doctors are human too, and have been known to add an extra zero to the end of a dosage sometimes, and if something looks out of the norm, I guarantee you will be more apt to look up the drug to check out the actual therapeutic range. In my personal opinion only, I love my nurses aide's where I work, but the pharmacy gave me more skills that helped me through nursing school and in my new job.... Best of luck with whatever decision you make. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Amanda P.S. One last helpful thing to point out...if you are having any problems when you take your pharmacology class for nursing school, you are working with some of the best people to teach it to you out of class **Pharmacists**