jm42

Hey - I know this is an old post, but I was wondering if anyone knew how long the residency program through St. Francis is? I've been looking online but haven't been able to find much information on it. Also, if you have any feedback on how your experience with the program went, I'd love to hear it! Thanks in advance!

I went through the Utica St Pete program and survived to tell the tale. When i was looking into the program I had the same concerns about the negative reviews online, but in my experience, it's always the angry people who have to go out and share their experiences. It's unfortunate that the people who were happy with their experience don't go and post their side, but it's just the way it is. As far as support from staff, most of the didactic teachers are not present on site, so support is via email, phone call, or in some cases video chat (which is my favorite, it is basically the same as sitting in a teacher's office for office hours). They tell you up front that the didactic work is online and mostly self-driven, so anyone who is surprised and upset by this didn't pay attention to the entire process. The program is far from perfect, but guess what - every program has the same issues. Any students we talked to from other schools at clinical had the exact same complaints we had. It's not issues only at Utica, it's just a fact of life for nursing school. Schedules come out last minute, things get changed suddenly, and students just have to adapt and overcome. It's not going to suddenly change, so complaining about it endlessly really does absolutely no good. The program is hard, but overall I'm happy with my choice. If you find a good group of friends to study with it helps a lot. When you have questions you can always ask the teachers for help. Lab teachers are helpful and will usually even help try to clarify if you don't understand a topic from a lecture class, but when it comes to specifics they'll tell you themselves to always refer to the textbook for solid answers (for example normal lab values, where it may vary slightly from one source to another). Building good relationships with the faculty is important to their willingness to help, of course. If you treat them like garbage they're far less likely to go out of their way and take time out of their days to help you understand something from someone else's class. In my opinion, it all comes down to your attitude. If you want to have a good experience and are willing to be flexible you are much more likely to walk away with a good experience in the entire process.

In my experience the people who post terrible reviews do so because they are upset about something or didn't do well. Few happy people go out of their way to counteract the negative posts. Especially if someone got kicked out or failed and is no longer in classes vs. their classmates who are still busy studying and working towards their license. Not to say this is always the case, but just the majority of my experience. That being said, is Utica perfect? Absolutely not. Have I had my share of issues and days where I was beyond annoyed? Absolutely. But so have all my other friends who have attended other nursing programs of all levels. LPN, RN, BSN, NP.... no program is perfect and no school can make every student happy about every detail. It's physically impossible. But the overall experience is what you make it. If you go in with the right attitude and approach and understand who to reach out to for any issues which you may encounter there's no reason not to survive the program without any major issues. The work is hard, the demands are high, and even though it's largely online it is still very time consuming. Scheduling is not very flexible due to the school needing to schedule labs and clinicals for all students across 4 semesters. But it's doable. Don't let reviews or others make you think it's not. It's just about applying yourself as needed and understanding that some things just aren't going to change. It's not a Utica thing, it's a nursing school across the board thing. And that's just the way it's going to be in the real world too.

I recently finished the program at Utica. A lot of the work is online so it's important to be able to stay motivated to remain on top of material - it's easy to fall behind when there's no live class to attend forcing you to stay up to date. But the flexibility of completing lectures at my own pace was a large determining factor in my decision to pick that program. So it depends on what you are looking for in a program and how you learn best.

I can't give any info regarding Rasmussen, but Utica clinical rotations vary across the BayCare network. By the end of the program, you end up having been in several hospitals for different classes, and in some cases perhaps a different hospital for each and every class.

I only know about Utica, and I'm not really sure what information you are looking for. The lectures are online so a good amount of the work is independent and requires a great amount of self discipline to stay up to speed and not fall behind on material. If you're not a student who does well with online class formats this program might be difficult for you. The only instructors you see face to face are the lab faculty on site, and they tell you themselves that lab is completely independent of lecture. So as far as material, they are willing to help you to understand it, but they still still tell you to go to your lecture instructors to ensure that what they are telling you does not contradict what is being taught in lecture. Most of the faculty is good about responding to emails and such if there are questions or concerns. No program is perfect, but any complaints I've had many of my friends at other accelerated programs across the country have also had, so it seems to be bigger than just one school.

No nursing program is perfect. There are some things at Utica that I don't like, but overall I've been happy with my choice to go here. The online classes made it so I could keep working at least part time, but still get a second bachelor's degree in an accelerated time frame. A lot of it depends on how your attitude is. At least for us they told us that a ton of the work is independent, so be prepared for that. There have been a few teacher's I've struggled to get in contact with but overall most get back pretty quickly. Some will do video chats to meet which makes it feel more like meeting in person and lets you build at least some sort of a relationship with them. The lab teachers help as much as they can, but they'll tell you themselves lab is separate from lecture and they don't control the material in lecture or on exams, and refer you back to your lecture teachers for that information.

As a current Utica student I know for a fact that in order to even begin any sort of application process you must speak with an admissions counselor, and that individual has all the information which you asked for. Heck, Utica's ABSN website even has a chat option where you can IM with a representative from the school and gain information. So rather than complaining that random strangers are viewing your post and not responding, which is likely because none of them had the information you requested, why don't you learn to do work for yourself and find the information that is more than readily available? If you expect to succeed in an accelerated program, especially one like Utica where much of the work is online and you need self discipline, you need to learn to do the work for yourself. No one will hand you anything in this sort of program, and they shouldn't be expected to. If you become a nurse you will be responsible for people's lives, and you can't figure out how to use a Google search box? If you are unwilling to even attempt to solve this small of a problem for yourself, and instead resort to blaming others for not feeding you the information, how will you manage when your patient is crashing and you need to do something? Blame another nurse for not telling you how to fix the problem?

Hey, I'm in the program now and honestly what I learned during my application process and since I've been in the program is that the people who post reviews online seem to always be the ones who are pissed off about something. The people who are happy, or even just mediocre and not full of hatred, are too busy doing other things to spend time complaining in online posts. Honestly, the program is tough and time consuming, but that's expected of any accelerated program. Is the program perfect? Absolutely not. But I have many friends who went to other schools for other accelerated programs, and everyone has the same complaints no matter where they seem to go. No school is perfect, and no program can make every student happy about every single piece of the process. In my opinion a lot of what you take out of the program depends on your own attitude. If you go in looking for things to be unhappy with, you'll find a plethora of them. But if you come to a problem and address it in a good way it doesn't usually become a big deal. Some things can't be fixed and I'm still not happy with, but overall I've had more good experiences than bad and I think that's all I can ask for at this point.