whistlebeats

Okay sorry in advance that this is so long: We had 2 students in my class from Oregon! We had a lot of people in the program from out of state. There were 4 people in my class from California. It's an appeal because it's such a short program and much cheaper than other options. I felt super confident coming out of the program! I did my capstone at a hospital in Minneapolis since I'm from that area. There was a group doing their clinical there too that was also graduating that semester. My preceptor told me that I was more advanced than them. Maybe she was just trying to build me up and be nice but I heard other nurses complaining about those students not being very competent a few times. Everyone does the same rotations: 3 med surg clinicals, peds, psych, OB, 2 communit rotations, geriatrics (nursing home), and capstone. Within the medsurg clinicals we did a day in OR, ER, and outpatient areas. We didn't get too much say in where we we got placed for clinicals. There's 2 hospitals in Aberdeen - Avera and Sanford. There was 1 clinical group in both first and second semester that went 90 minutes away. Semester 1 this group was made up of students who had no or minimal healthcare experience. And second semester, everyone who went in my class volunteered to go. There were a few random clinicals that were up to an hour away like community clinicals, but these were usually only a day. For these far away clinicals, everyone carpools in a car or 2. During semester 3(Summer), there were 2 clinicals where we were put up in housing for a week for a clinical rotation. One was for mental health at HSC in Yankton. We were in a hotel for a week, and you shared a room with 1 person. For our peds rotation, we went to camps. 3 out of 4 of the clinical groups went to sleep away camps where we got to stay for a week. I was dreading this, but the place I went to had housing similar to a hotel and was.super nice. One clinical group went to a day camp in Aberdeen and didn't go out of town that week. For your final capstone experience, you get somewhat of a say in where you go. They only really place people in MN, SD, and ND. I went to Minnesota, so I could live at home during that time. The big plus about clinicals in Aberdeen, is the experience you get. When I did my capstone in Minneapolis, students weren't allowed to do IVs or put in catheters. This wasn't the case in SD. We could do anything, which was super cool. There were some cons: the hospitals were smaller and so there were literally days where there weren't enough patients in the hospital for each student to have 1 student. On these days, we would "float" students to L&D or ER. So that was cool if you wanted extra experience in those areas. I didn't stay in SD to work. I had no intentions of staying in SD. The professors understand that most people aren't staying in South Dakota after graduation. I'm now an RN at Mayo Clinic in MN. And Aberdeen is super doable for a year! A lot of people in my class did weekend trips out to the black hills in SD or to the Twin Cities, so it's a good way to see different areas at least. The cost of living is ridiculously cheap. My rent was $1100 for a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment with washer and dryer in the unit, and the building was only like 2 years old. Seriously though, I can't recommend the program enough. There's 4 main professors. I came from a large University with 400-person lectures. It's crazy getting to know your professors really well all year. They're super understanding and extremely supportive throughout the year.

I did end up attending this program! I loved the program. I graduated and have been working as an RN for just over 6 months now. I highly recommend it to everyone looking for an ABSN program. I cannot say enough good things about the professors in this program and the structure of the program. If you have any questions or just want general info about the program, let me know!

Thank you for the info! I feel so dumb for being concerned about a reaction now. I looked at my immunization records again and realized I received the Tdap when I needed a tetorifice shot for a job as a freshman in college. I didn't realize they both contained the pertussis vaccine! I have another question! I feel like this is dumb, but are the DTP and Tdap the same thing? My school requires the DTP primary series and Tdap. Why would they need both if it's the same?

Okay I've been trying to find other similar topics on this, but can only seem to find posts about anti-vaxxers trying to get into nursing school. My school needs proof of the DPT primary series. My dad's family has a history of having a severe allergic reaction to the pertussis vaccine, so as a kid, I only received the DT series. My vaccination records were rejected by Castlebranch because of this. Obviously I'm going to contact the school about it in the morning, but I'd like input from others. Is this cause me issues in the future during clinicals, like in OB? Has anyone else had a similar situation?

They are referring to University of Sioux Falls, not University of South Florida.

Just wondering if anyone else applied to SDSU's ABSN program in Aberdeen? I interviewed, and I am waiting to hear back on an admission decision in the next week or two and wondering if anyone else is in the same boat? Or if anyone has gone through this program in the past and could tell me about their experience! There's not a lot of threads out there about this school, which I guess makes me hopeful that there are fewer applicants and gives me a better chance of getting in.