EBP_RN

@Jenrod91 Hi! I’m not sure where these classes can be taken. Bellarmine is very specific on what classes meet the requirement. I Think you could take classes online through Bellarmine and those should meet the requirement since they are classes from Bellarmine. I would reach out to the Student Success Coordinator for the accelerated nursing program at Bellarmine. She’s very nice and should be able to help you. Best of luck!

@Abough87 Haha uh, no, I don’t feel prepared to be an RN. I have heard from other people in different programs (ex: UofL) that they don’t feel prepared either. Preceptors have also told me they didn’t feel ready when they were about to graduate, so I feel like that is normal. You can get straight As all through nursing school, but at the end of the day it really comes down to what you’ve learned on the floor. You will learn so much in your first year as an RN, so I’ve heard. Clinicals really depend on 1) who your clinical instructor (CI) is and 2) what nurse you are paired with for the day. Some CIs are more lenient than others and don’t care about hospital paperwork. Others will rip your paperwork apart and make you redo it. Some CIs are really good at explaining how to perform a skill and others aren’t. Some CIs have taught before and some are new. Similarly, some nurses love having a student and will include you in caring for the patient. Others will act like you aren’t even there. Don’t take it personally if a nurse doesn’t seem like they like you, they may have things going on in their personal life or they may not like teaching a student. Either way, just show up to clinicals ready to practice your skills and interact with patients. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. When it comes to clinicals, I feel like most people have trouble talking to patients and interacting with family members, but if you’ve experienced that before then I wouldn’t worry. You'll do great! ? @Abough87 and thank you! May can’t come soon enough! ?

@Abough87 Yep, I’m in that cohort. Online classes have been OK, but it’s online clinicals that have sucked. I won’t go into that though since you won’t be doing clinicals until the second session, correct? For us, the hardest part of this session has been juggling class assignments and clinical assignments. If you guys just have classes online, I wouldn’t worry. Navigating Moodle is a little confusing the first time you use it, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be fine. Do you know who your professors will be? Every professor sets up their Moodle page differently and some are better at it than others. I wouldn’t worry too much about your clinical hours being pushed into the other sessions. In fact, I think that’s better. Our first clinicals we hardly did anything bc we weren’t trained to do anything. We mainly stood around working on our hospital paperwork or taking patients vitals. So I wouldn’t be worried. Hopefully when you do have clinicals later on you’ll be able to spend more clinical hours in peds and community. I’m a little bummed bc we didn’t get to spend any time in the hospital for peds. But pretty much everyone in our cohort has a job lined up for after graduation so we didn’t need to “trial” peds to see if we liked it. Hope this helps. CONGRATS are getting into nursing school! It’s going to be quite the ride, but it’ll be worth it. I’m excited for you!

Hi Tango10! I lived in the dorms when it was free over the summer. I would say that was worth it! The perks of living in the dorms were 1) you got real close with the other people from your cohort who were also living in the dorms 2) you could go back to the dorms and eat or take a nap between classes and 3) you got your own room which was huge. I wouldn’t recommend living in the dorms during the regular school year bc I heard parking is terrible, WiFi sucks, and you are in a building with undergrads who maybe aren’t as focused with their schooling as you are. Thus, they are partying during the week when you are trying to get some sleep for your next day 12-hour clinical. I would say it’s convenient having a car to go purchase groceries (dining options are super limited on campus during the summer) and get to clinicals. You can find someone to get a ride with to clinicals but I wouldn’t count on that. If everyone in your hospital group lives off campus and you are the only one living on, there’s a slim chance they are willing to come pick you up on their way to the hospital. Honestly, the hardest thing about this program is dealing with is the disorganization by faculty. Bellarmine has so many different programs (traditional, 2 year, 3 year, and accelerated) that they don’t pay as much attention to one program. They spread themselves thin. If assignments were explained in a detailed and clear manner, the program would be so much easier. However, it seems like faculty purposely makes it unorganized just to make this program hard. (They don’t actually, but I don’t understand how you can be so disorganized without purposefully doing it). So I would say the ones who really help you make it through this program are family, friends, and other students - not faculty. You really need a strong support system outside of the program.

Hello everyone, I am 3.5 months away from graduating from Bellarmine's Accelerated Nursing program and I would like to give feedback on my experience via pros and cons. All of these statements are based off of my own beliefs and experiences. Pros: 1. I have met people from all over the country (and some from out of the USA). You spend 8+ hours with your classmates 5 days a week (and if you live in the dorms you spend more time with them), so you grow to become really close with each other. This above all is the best thing that has come out of this program. 2. Professors are a hit or miss. I personally, have liked all the professors I've had; however, some of my peers would say differently. Some professors don't teach at all and you are required to teach yourself, but that's basically 'college'. In addition, all of my professors are very competent and passionate about nursing. 3. Starting the accelerated program in the summer meant you had the whole campus to yourself and your classmates. Parking was available and the library and gym weren't busy. Cons: 1. Bellarmine is money hungry. They will charge you for everything, even if you don't utilize/benefit from the fee. 2. Parking sucks. The school doesn't charge you for parking passes; however, they give out more permits than available spots. Thus, you might end up parking on neighborhood streets because there aren't enough open spots on campus. Don't park in a spot you don't have a permit for because Bellarmine will be more than happy to give you a ticket. 3. Giving feedback doesn't benefit you. Bellarmine nursing faculty will send out evaluations after each session, and they say they take those into consideration; however, they consider it for the next cohort. Thus, if your cohort is having a problem with clinicals being back-to-back, the faculty won't change your schedule, but will take that into consideration for future cohorts. 4. Professors assign unnecessary busy-work. Students don't benefit from such assignments because they don't contribute to any additional knowledge. I understand having assignments for traditional nursing programs; however, accelerated nursing students don't have the time. This program goes by so fast that you want to spend as much time studying for exams. 5. Certain classes should be online vs being an actual in-class lecture. For example, I am currently in Session 5, taking Leadership, NCLEX review, and critical care. The NCLEX review and leadership courses have been a joke. I really like the professors; however, we shouldn't be sitting in a 3 hour lecture when it is something we can learn in 30 minutes. 6. Pathophysiology, research, and religion can be transferred! The Nursing department didn't tell us (before starting the program) that pathophysiology, research, and religion courses, that had been previously taken, could be transferred. If students who were accepted to the program early would have known this information, they would have been able to complete the course at a community college/online and have the credits transferred to Bellarmine. This saves time and money for the student. Bellarmine doesn't tell you this because they want to charge you 1k for one course. If you do this, make sure your course meets transfer requirements!!! I recommend taking these courses before you start at Bellarmine because then you will take 2 courses while everyone else is taking 3. Ex: if you didn't take a pathophysiology course previously, you will take that course along with two other required nursing courses. People who have taken pathophysiology previously, would only be required to take the two nursing courses. 7. Bellarmine expects people to fail out. My cohort has been the first cohort to retain most of its students. There are 4 sections (A1, A2, A3 and A4) that students will be placed in. My cohort started out with 140 students and we are down to about 80. Usually there are 4 sections that students will be placed in and Bellarmine usually reduces 4 sections down to 3 (A1, A2 and A3) at the end of the program. They do this because they expect students to fail out; thus, they don't have to pay as many professors to teach. However, my cohort has apparently been the first cohort to retain this many students. This has created a problem for the nursing faculty because they are having to find bigger lecture rooms and more professors. For example, my section has been placed in the basement of a dorm building which has been make-shifted into a lecture room. This is fine, except the building smells like a sewer. No joke. The basement literally smells like poop. 8. ShadowHealth. ShadowHealth is an online tool used for learning how to assess a patient. This program costs an addition $100 and you rarely use it. My class had to purchase the program two different times ($200) because one was for health assessment and the other was for pharmacology. It is ridiculous to pay for such a program when it is hardly utilized. In addition, it didn't add to our learning at all because you need hands-on experience when it comes to assessing a patient, not virtual experience. 9. There is no consistency. Some clinical instructors will let you out of clinicals early and not require you to fill out hospital paperwork. Other clinical instructors will make you stay till the very end even if your assigned nurse has left and you are sitting alone. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you have a big exam the day after clinical, and your peer is at home studying, (because they got out of clinical early) and you are watching tv with a psych patient (because your instructor is making you stay) - your peer is more likely to get a better grade on the exam because they had more time to study. (Sorry for the run-on sentence.) Yes, of course, you're happy your peer got a good grade; however, it isn't fair that you got less time to study. 10. There isn't a pinning ceremony. Many nursing students see a pinning ceremony as an important event that signifies their hard work and commitment to the nursing profession. Bellarmine doesn't provide this ceremony for their students. 11. Communication lacks. Assignment due dates are inconsistently labeled on the syllabus and online. Clinical instructors will tell you one thing and the professor will tell you another. It's such a mess. 12. My cohort had a pathophysiology professor who was part of the biology department and not part of the nursing department. This made it difficult because he wanted us to learn things that aren't necessarily highlights for nursing. Previous cohorts have had a nursing faculty teaching the course, but they didn't have an available professor this year. In conclusion, these are my thoughts/experiences with Bellarmine's Accelerated Nursing program. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every single professor in their own individual way; however, the nursing faculty as a whole is a mess, and so is this program. If more clarification is needed, I am happy to provide because my grammar isn't always the best. I apologize. I wish everyone who is applying to nursing school(s) the best of luck!

@ellelle I applied to Rochester and had an interview. They said I wouldn't hear back till March which is kinda late considering I'd be coming from the West. I got into a couple other schools so at least I know I'll be attending somewhere this summer!

Sad. I didn't get in...but best of luck to all of you!! Congrats to those who got in!

Thank you! Will update when I know. Yeah! Made the mistake of putting all my eggs in one basket last year and didn't get in. So this year I spread them all over! haha

My checklist disappeared as well. Seems pretty late to still get an acceptance but I'm hoping for good news! I applied 9/10.

Has anyone's checklist disappeared and got a rejection?

@kittyxgram Oh! I didn't know they reviewed applications before the deadline, but that's great to have it early! Have you heard back? @everyone Congrats for getting an interview! Can you please tell me what kind of questions you were asked? Are you from NY?

@pattytomtom and congrats on finishing your interview!

@pattytomtom thank you! I called and unfortunately Nancy is out of the office till next week:( Do you think I should send my transcripts again?

Hi! Did you guys end up attending Bellarmine? If so, how is the program so far?

Hi! Did you mean you had your interview Nov 9th? I applied, but haven't heard anything. I'm also super sad/dumb...I've been really busy lately so I haven't checked my application checklist till now...and I just saw they don't have any of my transcripts! I sent everything in August! Now I'm freaking out since it's already been 16 days past the deadline and I haven't heard anything!