APmedics

Practice your dosage calculation questions. No study guide that I know of, but you can find plenty of books on dosage calculation or Google dosage calculation problems.

The California Board of Registered Nursing does not approve out of state schools. All of the schools you see on California BRN's website are in-state schools. Nightingale College's curriculum, however, is in compliance with California BRN and as such allows you to take the NCLEX in California upon graduating and ultimately practice in California. Pharmacology I is all dosage calculation, Pharmacology II is medications. Placement test is very basic. Don't stress about it, just study the review guide you're given.

Oh okay. I just used practice questions/tests on yourbestgrade and some that the professors gave during our weekly webinars.

Not sure if they provide material to test out. I just took the HESI for dosage calculation. It wasn’t bad, what’s the minimum score they’re requiring to test out? I used “your best grade” but it is kind of pricey.

Credit cards that offer travel rewards points. American Express Platinum / Gold Chase Credit Cards Hotel credit cards or Airline Credit Cards. You can see the offers these cards have and if they'll be beneficial to you. They usually have some sort of minimum spend that you have to put on the card, for example $3000 within 3 months and receive 100,000 miles. Something to that effect. But again, be responsible with your credit and only use it as you would cash. Don't maintain a balance.

I don't think there is any particular reasoning behind the sites they assign you. There are some who live closer to Reno than me and they got other states/cities. If you do end up enrolling, I'd suggest getting a travel credit card. Don't create additional spending just for the sake of getting the points, but it'll help a lot with travel expenses. The sign up bonus points I got from a card covered my travel and hotel.

I've heard if you transfer in everything the shortest can be 20 months. I'm not an LVN, but I have a prior bachelor's degree. They allowed me to transfer all of my general education units, the only thing I had to take was a 3 credit technical writing course. Join the facebook group "We Love Nightingale" you will see a lot of information there from prospective students and current, they also have some staff that answer some questions there.

It's not bad. It is almost 100% self-directed learning so know that. We do have weekly webinars for classes that are an hour long, but we don't have lectures like a traditional school does. A majority of your learning will come from an online learning platform called Sherpath. The program works for me since it allows me to continue working while pursuing my degree.

I live in California and am in the remote program. I'm only in my second semester though and the first in which I have clinicals. Your clinical site will be assigned randomly, you don't get any preference on what location you receive so be prepared to go anywhere in the country. For this semester, I will have 4 days of clinical in Reno, NV, Monday-Thursday. The remainder of the semester is completely online. The 2-3 weeks you're hearing about is in your preceptorship, which is your last semester.

For the immunizations you have to upload your records, if you don't have them ask for them then do so. For Hepatitis B you require a titer. The drug screening, you should have selected a site to obtain the screening. Following that you'll receive an e-mail titled "Action Required: Electronic Drug Screening Authorization Form." Print this page out and take it with you to the lab. Call the location to ensure you don't need an appointment, some are appointment only. Make sure you do the drug test ASAP. Mine took 2 weeks to come back and almost risked getting dropped from the next semester's classes. You also require your full COVID series, Vaccine 1, 2 and the booster.

I'd call the school you're looking to apply to and ask. Given that we have had COVID impact classes and a majority had gone to completely online, they should be accepted. Mine were accepted by the community colleges I was applying to. The classes from Barton are regionally accredited so there should be no issue unless the school is strictly against online labs.

Honestly, California is a very difficult state to be admitted to nursing programs (ADN/BSN), unless you have very good grades. The private schools will take you, but you'll pay a lot of money. I'm not sure of each school's retake policy, you'd have to contact them individually. Private schools aren't as picky though from what I've seen. If you still have Pell Grant eligibility and can take out loans, private schools may be an option. Just ensure that they are accredited. Once you obtain admission you can apply to programs such as HPSP (Health Professions Scholarship Program) through either the VA or Military and if you're accepted they will pay for your education in exchange for you working for them after you graduate and become an RN. I took my prerequisites at Barton Community College. They offer all of the prerequisites online. I took A&P I and II, and Microbiology in the Summer in accelerated sessions. I had a great experience with them. https://bartonccc.edu/online

Thanks for the information. I'm located in California. I've seen threads from previous cohorts in 2019, you might have some luck posting there if they are still subscribed to the threads.

I applied for Mercy recently probably looking to get into their later cohorts since Fall admission is likely too late. How long did they take for you to be accepted into nursing after the normal school admissions?

They no longer do rolling admissions so you won't be considered for admission until after the first deadline. It is in your interest to apply by the priority deadline, however. I'm not sure exactly how you could best boost your application, aside from having most, if not all of the prerequisites completed and a high GPA. I wasn't really provided any feedback when accepted. It took 24 days from the priority deadline in Fall for me to get accepted.

@Jay55 yes this is an accelerated program. You need a previous bachelors degree for admissions.

@DD_futurenurse I'm changing careers and wanted to get the program done as soon as possible. I chose to apply to out of state ABSN programs that are 1 year in duration. I'll be starting nursing school in January and finishing in December. I'm also relying on my GI Bill educational benefits for covering the costs so the duration and course delivery format was important in that aspect.

Hello everyone! I didn't end up applying to Brandman but I thought this information might be helpful. Those of you who already have a Bachelor's degree in another subject from an accredited university are waived from completing the Brandman specific prerequisites of: LBSU 302 Information Fluency and Academic Integrity (3) LBSU 304 Liberal Arts Core Foundations (3) Faculty/Staff may not be aware of this as many told me this was not possible and that I'd have to retake it. Reference the catalog here, section titled "Second or Additional Bachelor’s Degree at Brandman or Chapman University" http://catalog.brandman.edu/academic-policies-procedures/undergraduate-credit-hour-degree-requirement/

I'm currently taking General Chemistry I through Barton Community College online. They're part of the EDUKAN network. The course is essentially self taught, as with many online courses but we are provided with numerous resources. The course grading is broken down into 5 sections, Multimedia (20%), Tests (20%), Discussion (15%), Lab (30%), and Final (15%). You must earn at least a 70% on your labs or you fail the entire course. Instructional methods are through powerpoint and through online multimedia key concept instruction and practice comprehension questions. The lab is a physical kit which you do at home (order directly from the manufacturer rather than from the school, it is cheaper). My professor has Exam Review documents in every module which are more or less similar questions to what you'll see on the exam, but with different figures. Exams are not proctored but you do use RESPONDUS Lock Down Browser. So you can't do anything else on your computer aside from take the test. Overall the course is not difficult, but it does require dedication to complete the workload. The multimedia assignments sometimes take a while to do. I would recommend this course to others. I completed the remainder of my prerequisites at Coconino Community College. They are located in Arizona but the course are available online. I'm a career changer and decided I wanted to be in nursing school January 2020 back in February/March of this year. I completed Anatomy and Physiology I, Anatomy and Physiology II, and Microbiology in Summer of 2019 at Coconino. They were accelerated courses, with A&P I and A&P II being 4 weeks each and Microbiology being 10. The courses demand time, just like Chemistry did but due to the accelerated format it was even more time consuming. The labs were a major component of each course. A&P I and A&P II have lab manuals that you order from the school and most of the experiments you can conduct either online through virtual dissections or are models you make with materials you buy locally (play-doh for example). Microbiology is a lab kit that you order from a manufacturer. The course content was laid out well and I believe that I was able to learn a significant amount from these courses. Course schedules vary at Coconino, typically they're semester long courses but in summer they offer the accelerated blocks at times. It is feasible to get an A in all of the courses but you can't skip out on your readings. The textbook was essential for these, especially Microbiology. Both institutions are regionally accredited and credits have been accepted without issue.

I'd recommend going to West Coast. There are a lot of negative reviews about them and their business practices. They are for-profit also so they've got that stigma associated with them as well. The Department of Veteran Affairs is also leaning more toward not providing payments to for-profits so there is a danger that midway through your program the VA will no longer certify payments. There are numerous nursing programs available throughout southern California, I'd suggest applying to those first and even consider moving out of state. You want to have a solid education at a reputable institution. Community college may take longer but it will be far cheaper and can actually be covered in full from the payments you'll receive through Chapter 35. Look at the local community colleges to see how they rate their points system. Do everything on that list and you should be set for admission.

This is a little late, but the program is new. It started its second cohort this fall and the first is expected to graduate Spring 2020. It really depends on what you want out of your education. Vanguard University is a Private Christian University and along with that they incorporate a lot more of the "how do you feel" into everything. Lots of class time is wasted on this based on personal accounts from my peers who are in the program. Clinical sites are luck of the draw and depending on what is available. The program had some trouble starting due to the fact that other schools in the area fearing clinical site saturation. In order to mitigate this many of Vanguard University's clinicals are on evenings/weekends. Some hospitals are good, some students also have been placed in Skilled Nursing facilities for their clinical sites. This is terrible considering what you're paying for the education. You're also required to attend chapel on-campus, which will be anywhere from 20-30 a semester depending on whether you live on or off campus. There is a strong preference for current Vanguard students admission to the program, but as with any there are far more applicants than there are seats. Know also that you will be required to complete additional religion courses on top of your nursing curriculum to graduate from Vanguard. For the price you're paying and given the move there are many other schools that you can apply to. The education at Vanguard's nursing program is still to be determined. The nursing program's staff has been a revolving door from the first to the second year.

I submitted mine on 8/27. Overall GPA: 3.3 Prereq: 3.74 (Chemistry in progress)

Congratulations everyone !

Hey everyone! I just got an update via email that my status had updated. I’ve been accepted for Spring 2020 at the Phoenix campus!

I also applied for the Phoenix campus. Looking forward to hearing back! Did anyone else apply through NursingCas? On there it only allowed you to select one campus, was the school website different? Are you considered for all campuses or only the one that you selected on the application?