Concordia19

No, it's not that bad. I had to vent because I was so frustrated with how this term has developed. Since my original post they have made a concerted effort to improve things, especially with our cohort. "Improve" means they have started listening to us and are now at least recognizing our frustrations/grievances. The staff (i.e. on-site clinical instructors/professors) are constantly asking us for feedback or are just there to listen to us *****. The head of the nursing program initiated an open-door policy and the Dean of nursing is now doing a brown bag lunch session to "listen". Some positives - the lab instructors are amazing. They are friendly, really smart, actually know their ****, and are doing everything they can to improve the program and give us an amazing experience. They're working really hard on fleshing out our on-site experience. They have developed some good sims/labs. The school has also hired at least another 4. During my 2nd term there were only 2 and they were stretched realllllly thin. The program also really does want us to succeed. It's doing everything it can to right any perceived wrongs and fix things. My cohort probably won't really be seeing the benefits of this (hopefully yours will). Also, there are some good online didactic professors (I LOVE Professor Inguilli and so will you ). An online program will never be able to replace the classroom experience, but you probably know this. The content is definitely there, it's just going to be on you to learn it. If you're a self-motivated, independent learner then you will have no problem. Still, there are issues with the online component. As I mentioned, things can be confusing and disorganized. I think homework can be too easy and you aren't really pushed enough. I think the teachers grade too easily. Sometimes I question if my papers are even being read. Also, I do not feel like the content is structured appropriately, but this is harder to explain. Clinically, were still getting screwed - there have been no changes here. People would rather have no clinicals at all then have to go to the clinicals they've given us because they have zero value.

The coursework is relatively easy IMO. Many people in my cohort are able to work.

Unfortunately, I am in the third term of this program and frankly, it sucks. The program is held together by shoestrings. It is in a constant state of turmoil and chaos. There have been multiple high-level staff changes that have left huge breakdowns in communication and organization at every level. The staff have no idea what's going on and by extension the students. Just this term, my student calendar has been revised 4 times. Were 6 weeks into the semester and we still don't know when we have some of our test days, sims, labs, clinicals, etc. This has also been a consistent issue with the online content. Due dates, assignment instructions, syllabi, rubrics, etc. - it's all routinely incorrect or it just makes no sense. It has taken a group effort from all students in my cohort to figure out how the hell to do some of the homework or figure out what they actually want. Communication with teachers and faculty is also terrible a lot of the time. We email staff about a problem and we might get a response (if we're lucky) in a week. More often we get no responses. We've had multiple didactic teachers who have been plain ignorant of the material they've been teaching - they have straight up told us factually incorrect information before tests. I don't know where they find these "teachers", but this has happened over ALL THREE TERMS. I've tried to look past all of this, the accelerated program is young and they're still building it. That is, until we got our clinical rotations this term. The rotations were supposed to be community health and pediatrics/OB. They couldn't find a Pediatric/OB rotation for 90% of the class so instead we are getting sent to a DAYCARE!?! At the daycare we are LITERALLY babysitting little kids. We're getting zero nursing experience. Similarly, the community health rotation basically amounts to volunteering in a low-income area. Again, no opportunities to practice nursing skills or interventions. So here I am, spending ~ $16,000 for experiences I could get for free. I mean, my cousin will pay me to babysit her toddlers... Worst yet, the dean and the administrator of the program has not even talked to us about this. They haven't apologized, or offered any form of recompense, or even a discount on tuition. The best part about all this is the school is trying to double the cohort size. They want more students when they can't even handle what they have now. Stay away from this program, it is terrible. Feel free to ask any questions.