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How did you complete the background check for NJ BON? Should something be mailed to you?

Yes you have to find your own preceptors

Hi everyone! Former HFU ABSN grad here~ I was just in your shoes not too long ago, feel free to ask me any questions & I also have a bunch of resources from the program ? Shoot me an email for my Google drive of helpful school stuff: [email protected] Also my blog: https://nursevrinds.wordpress.com/

I did get accepted, I'm just finishing up my third semester of this program ?

Hi guys! Got all your emails & I'm compiling everything I have on my laptop and will send it out by the end of the week. I did the full-time program, the part-time program actually is a new option but the content is the same as what I've seen in your program outline. Enjoy your time not being in school & if you guys are interested in, you can read my blog: https://nursevrinds.wordpress.com/ I posted detailed tips for each course, what I did right/what I did wrong, my grades for exams, MedMath youtube tutorials, pharmacology cheat sheets, tips for applying to Master's programs and my general feelings about Holy Family's program.

Of course, what is your email if you don't mind posting it here. Or you can email me directly: [email protected]

So exciting! Congrats again on your acceptance! I would say just enjoy your time off from school right now because once it starts, you literally are flooded with coursework/exams. Other than that, make sure you have major things like finances/budgeting in order prior to starting because you don't want the stress of money coming in during the school year and make sure your oil changes/car repairs are done as well (you're going to be driving all over Philly for clinical)! Good luck, send me an email if you want notes/PDFs of textbooks/careplan examples. I've been compiling a collection of everything to send to a few other people as well.

Congrats everyone on your acceptances! You will be awesome nurses! Stay positive & don't let anyone discourage you! ?

[email protected]

Usually clinicals start during the MedSurg I session and there you have 1 clinical per week in the accelerated program that is usually at a nursing home environment. Every clinical except for MedSurg II, which was x2 a week for 12 hours each was 1 x per week for 12 hours. Not sure how they are going to split it with the 20 month option, maybe something like the traditional program that has clinical for 6 hours per day 2 x per week?

Congrats on your acceptance! Let me know if you need notes/powerpoints etc!

You wear scrubs to school on the days you have lab. You have lab in your first two blocks (Fundamentals & MedSurg I) and then after that you just wear scrubs to clinical. I believe I spent a total of $300 on books, scrubs, & stethoscope. But I also bought older versions of books since we didn't really read from the textbooks.

I only worked for 3 months in the beginning of the program. Once MedSurg started with two 24 hour clinicals, I found it difficult to manage work and school. I also commuted 1.5 hours everyday so it wasn't ideal for me. There were students in my cohort who continued to work part-time, one person even worked full-time, and they managed to pass the program. I personally would say try to avoid working if you can but obviously that is not an option for everyone & everyone is different. In terms of professions, do you mean specialties? In that case, I would say I enjoyed critical care the most, I'm hoping to land my first job in the ER or ICU, but I also did enjoy OB, even though maternity was the hardest class in the program in my opinion. Some advice I would give is don't skip class and keep up with the material. Attendance is not mandatory for core classes but missing class means falling behind and it's next to impossible to catch up. We luckily had one student in our class who attends every lecture and records the lectures and posts them online for other students to listen to. The lectures are enough to study from, you don't have to read the book since the professors condense the information/highlight what you need to know. It's an accelerated program, so they don't go crazy with details. That's why when I say its imperative to not skip class, I really mean it. I like to re-listen to lectures again to reinforce the content. I also heavily suggest doing tons of practice questions before the exams. Use test banks online and from the publisher to practice the material. Going to class (even when I really didn't want to!) and doing practice questions was my key to acing nursing school. Exams are challenging but doable. I consider myself an average student, but I generally scored in the low to mid 90s on each exam.

Yes there is a white coat ceremony, generally 1 month after your program starts.

Yes, there is a break, my break was from December 15th until January 8th. There is also a special academic calendar on the Holy Family website for 2nd Degree/Accelerated students you can look at with all the breaks listed.

Sorry, I really am not too sure and I don't want to give you wrong information. Definitely give the Financial Aid office a call, they hopefully will be able to direct you.

Unfortunately I did not receive anything in terms of scholarships or nursing loans from the school

No problem. It was about 10k for the early semesters, 9k for the mid semesters and the last semester about 4,500

Honestly, all I can say is enjoy your time off prior to starting the program! I was worried about reviewing Anatomy & Physiology but they teach you everything you need to know in class. If you really want, I can email you my powerpoints if you want to get an idea of what to expect. Definitely plan for the next 14 months, financially & mentally (I went on vacation before starting the program haha). You don't want to worry about financial stress during the program so definitely plan that out. Oh and make sure you have a reliable vehicle since you're going to need to drive a lot for clinical.

Yes it was hard! I couldn't tell my employer when I was available to work so that was one of the reasons I quit working as well. I can't imagine how difficult it was for students with kids trying to plan childcare etc. I hope they fix the scheduling issue soon! I'm waiting for my authorization to test from my state (which takes forever!). Being a NJ applicant just makes the process even longer because NJ is a mess, but as soon as I get the ATT I will take the NCLEX, hopefully by next month. I do feel prepared right now though. Prior to finishing the program, you are required to take 2 practice NCLEX & you have to pass at least one for course requirements. If you don't pass, the school requires you to do an online remediation course. I passed both of my practice exams and a majority of my class passed as well. I think there were only 1 or 2 people who are doing the online remediation, but to answer your question, yes I do believe Holy Family prepares you well for the NCLEX.

I worked during the first 3 months of the program part time and then quit soon after because I wanted to focus on school entirely. There were students in my class who did work part-time and 2 people who continued to work full-time and they ended up passing. Knowing myself, I could never handle working that much and keeping up with school. It's highly suggested to not work while in the program but reality wise, not everyone has that luxury. Once you get to the OB/Peds block, you usually will have 4 days off a week, so in logic you may be able to work during that time. And yes there were clinicals during the weekend and they don't tell you your clinical schedule literally until days before, which was hard for my employer to accommodate as well.

Thanks! I guess I really disliked the beginning of the program. Fundamentals of Nursing are so dry and boring in my opinion and lab where you learn BPs and basic skills is also not very engaging & unrealistic. I literally hated the first block. After that though, the content was more physiology based and relevant. Also I really loved Maternity clinical, but the class was definitely the hardest in the program! So depending when you start, you may or may not have days off between semesters. I started January 2018, so the only breaks we had was 1 week off at the end of August and 3 weeks off in December for Christmas break. Other than that, we only had 3-4 days off between semesters. Clinicals can be any day of the week- I had clinical for MedSurg I on a Saturday in a nursing home. It was so extremely slow. Some people had clinical on weekends multiple times. Clinical was once a week for 12 hours (and yes, they keep you there the entire time), except for MedSurg II clinical which was twice a week for 24 hours. You usually will arrive at the hospital/clinical site at 6:30am, get assigned patients for the day (usually 1-2 patients), get report from the night shift nurse, follow up with the day shift nurse, perform assessments/care for all your patients, and do medications with your instructor. After lunch it gets slow and you may have down time to work on careplans. And then before you leave there's a post-conference where you are expected to give a report on your patient and your instructor asks questions. All of my clinical instructors at Holy Family were amazing- they were all super patient and understanding. They expect you to be curious, be on your feet and ask questions.

Haha trust me, as a non-white asian who doesn't do religion, I was worried myself as well. It is safe to say that there is diversity in the class, different religions & races- so I did feel welcome. There were two very Catholic students in my cohort but everyone else was diverse, and welcoming.

Hi everyone, just graduated from this program 2 weeks ago. Feel free to message me questions! ?

Hi everyone, congrats on your acceptances! I just graduated from this program 2 weeks ago, please feel free to send me a message/any questions you may have about the program! ?