Taylor13

Hey! Did you end up continuing with L&D at Edmonds? I will be starting my residency there this August and I am wondering how it is!

The alternate form is not first come, first serve. If you are close to making it (maybe 34th and they allow 32 then you would be 2nd alternate after the 33rd person) then they will have you decide if you want to be considered as an alternate if one of the 32 decides to not start at Shoreline. For my cohort, one person came in from the alternate list.

There is no minimum to be considered, they just take the people with the 32 highest point totals. This varies from quarter to quarter and Fall usually ends up being the highest. The minimum for my cohort was above 105, but I have seen lower recently. Just try to get points in every section that you can such as volunteering and retake classes for higher grades if you can.

If you have time, try to up your volunteer/work hours since that is a big section to get points in! Another big point area is experience in a setting addressing health inequities. Another thing you could look into is other schools if that's possible for you. I applied to multiple schools for Fall 2020 since they all have different requirements. Some are less grade-based than others and the point systems are not as challenging as Shoreline's.

Thanks! And congrats on your acceptance! This quarter our first quarter students are still doing some classes online, so that may change in the Fall, but they have classes every day. Mondays are usually clinicals 0600-1100 at a hospital or long term care facility, Tuesdays are also clinicals 0600-1100 with communications theory 1300-1600, Wednesdays are communications labs (time depends on your group), Thursday is foundations theory 0930-1230 and then Friday is skills lab (time depends on group). So it’s very busy, but as you go on you have school less days of the week.

OB! My unit will have L&D, postpartum and a special care nursery so it’s a fun mix!

We didn’t pick the speciality, but they give you 4 hospitals to choose from each quarter and you rank them 1st to last choice. Then most hospitals have a few units you can see, but they are usually randomly assigned. Sixth quarter is the only one where everyone goes to the same hospital (Swedish First Hill) and you just rank your preference on the type of oncology unit you want to be on.

First quarter is long-term care, second is med-surg (I did ortho), third med-surg again (I did neuro plus one day OR observation), fourth is med-surg and psych (I did stepdown/telemetry and general medical plus an inpatient psych facility), fifth is OB (L&D, special care nursery, postpartum) and then sixth is management (basically just attend first quarter clinicals and give students feedback and practice leading groups) and med-surg (oncology). I am doing a residency and so are most of my peers! My residency is at Swedish and they give you something like 5 years to get a BSN, so they definitely hire you before you’re working towards it. I know UW was really good about that too, I just don’t know their timeline. I’ve heard it helps to work as a nurse tech at UW while you’re in school if you want to get your foot in the door at UW. You can do this any time after your first quarter and you just work per diem!

There just isn’t one! Most schools you have one set up for you and you focus on clinicals and transitioning to practice whereas shoreline is still very theory-intense in the end and we just did another round of med-surg clinicals. We do 4 med-surg rotations, so it isn’t particularly helpful or anything. It’s not a dealbreaker, just a difference. And yes, once a week at UW and then light online work.

I 1000% recommend Shoreline. My only complaint is that we don’t get a preceptorship/senior practicum like other schools do, but financially it’s a good option. It was about $12,000 total (or less) for the 6 quarters. I started in September 2020 and graduate in June, so it was a little under 17 months plus I got the Summer off (mid-June to late September). I got a job lined up for after graduation in 5th quarter, so absolutely no difficulty there! Lots of people in my cohort have jobs lined up now. Plus BSN is only 4 more quarters and it’s once every other week if you go to UW Bothell (or online programs exist), so you can work as an RN while getting your BSN. And most hospitals will help pay for that part once you work there.

I think I had 106ish! The NLN has no impact on getting in, it’s just required to apply. GPA impacts getting in since it is part of the points, but there are so many other ways to build points, so it is just based on overall points!

I am graduating from Shoreline's 6-quarter program this June if you have any questions!

I got my offer on the spot (paper sheet with intent to offer info) at the interview and then I got the official email offer a week later!

Have you still not heard back? I applied to both around March 21st and have already interviewed with both and received an offer from Swedish. I only applied for perinatal though, so not sure if that makes a difference!

I would check your state's rules on this, but as the above poster said, usually nurse techs are already in nursing school. In my state, you need to have completed at least one term of clinical rotations in nursing school to apply for a nurse tech license. I agree that CNA would be the way to go, but you will need to complete a CNA program first and then get licensed in your state. CNA experience can definitely get your foot in the door though.

So far I am liking the program! Just be prepared for the "flipped classroom" model (I was definitely not since we did not do this where I did my prerequisites). Theory classes have switched to a hybrid format now, so some content is online, but tests and other content are in-person. Skills lab and clinicals are still in-person as well. For clinicals, you usually get a list of four clinical sites and you rank them from your first to last choice, then they try to get you into your top choice, so most people get clinicals that are decently located. Some of the previous clinical sites have been Providence in Everett, UW Northwest, Swedish Edmonds, Swedish First Hill, and Virginia Mason in Seattle. If you let them know about transportation needs in your site request form, they tend to be flexible and try to get you where you need to be. As far as points go, I am unsure. They have a new point system now, so I know it is a little harder to get points. Spring tends to require fewer points than Fall as well, but I am thinking it is still upwards of 100.

I got my CNA license in WA the same week I took my exam. I also took the NAR route to get experience sooner and that license was also pretty quick to obtain, but I don't remember exactly how long it took. I'm pretty sure I was able to work as an NAR during my CNA program since I remember missing another class that quarter for my orientation, but that was 2017 so it could be different now. You can do the AIDS training somewhere else if you're wanting to get it done sooner, but it is 7 hours and it is probably not worth it unless you can get licensed weeks sooner.

I absolutely recommend getting your CNA. I was a CNA before nursing school and it made me way more confident in the clinical setting. You learn the basics of patient care, so when it's time for clinicals you have more time to focus on the new nursing skills. EKG and phlebotomy really aren't as important since you should learn both in school and you probably won't use either of those skills until after your first term of school, so the info won't be fresh.

I don't think that is worth it, but it is up to you! ADN is much cheaper and it takes around 21 months to complete then you could do an RN-to-BSN bridge while already working as an RN. Most employers will also pay for the RN-to-BSN, so you would just need to pay for the cheap ADN.

I think you could do a light review, but I wouldn't worry about an in-depth one! Some nursing schools are different, but mine reviewed A&P before each topic so that we could refresh on the basics before learning the in-depth disease processes. Nursing school will teach you what you need to know to do well, so don't try to cram in more information.

I would give it some more time! My first quarter of nursing school was the worst. It was so busy and as you said, unappealing. I hated everything we did and I thought I would hate nursing. It got a little better in the second quarter and then way better in the third quarter. Clinicals can suck depending on your interests and where you end up, but if you just work through them and learn what you can, you can move on and eventually find somewhere you actually enjoy being. Plus nursing school is so different from real nursing, so sometimes people just have to power through it.

I think it would depend on the school you are at! I know a lot of schools around me prefer students who have worked as CNAs, but it is not necessary to work in the medical field. I looked around at the job descriptions for a sterile processing tech and it looks like it isn't necessarily related to hands-on nursing like a CNA is, so it may not be too important for an application. Bartending can be great for strengthening interpersonal skills, so that honestly could be better depending on how you explain it. Most schools don't ask about current employment unless you are already working as a CNA/MA/LPN, so it should not make you a less qualified candidate. I worked as a CNA ahead of time, so I got a few extra points on my application, but my school gave a few points for any other type of employment that was either non-direct patient care or non-healthcare.

This looks pretty similar to my fundamentals class as well! We did not dive into every topic, but it was mostly broad subjects such as sexuality, spirituality, ethics, development, and nursing history with some basic nursing knowledge like elimination, oxygenation, CNA skills, and vitals.

I am in the Seattle area, but the schools I looked at were all around Washington.

It probably depends on which kind of program you are in. I know schools around me will take transfers if the curriculum matches and they have space. You'd probably just finish the last section with that school if possible, but that could be hard since they usually require a certain amount of credits at their school to get a degree from them. Doesn't hurt to reach out and ask though!