Guest1142305

Just got my Wisconsin license this week. …. Note to self, do not cut off patients foot. seriously though, maybe this nurse had a psychological breakdown of sorts.

1) 18 months is grueling. I do not personally support the direct entry MSN model as being good for A) mental health B) safely teaching nursing. 2) The professors were by and far excellent. 3) Milwaukee 4) They have integrated ATI and it is sufficient preparation. I did utilize Mark Klimek lectures and strongly recommend them as an adjunct to ATI. 5) First semester was during COVID so there's no comparing really. The program has improved markedly. 6) I would not say the course load is manageable; caveat, unless you're young and childless with no social life. You will have to choose (2) from the following (3): good grades, good health, social commitments. You cannot maintain all three in a DEMSN program.

I am set to graduate December ‘22. Passed NCLEX, first try, and became licensed November ‘22. Alverno, for all it’s logistical faults, gave me a solid and challenging education.

You forgot one very important thing to look at; the conflict of interests and funding source disclosures. Always know who paid the bill.

? Yup, that’s me today.

I was letting you know I was being measured in my response because a lot of people online are not. I share their frustrations, but I am also cognizant that some of it was expected. Not all of the treatment we received was excusable. I am being quite pointed in my statements because I want you to receive a realistic picture of how difficult it will really be. You better be tough, or it can break you. It is not a forgiving program. I am a very intelligent individual, and I have struggled in particular classes that seem to act as gate keepers for the program. If you go down this road, watch you studying habits for basic and advanced patho classes, basic and advanced pharma classes, the class covering metabolic imbalances, the research project class, and advanced health and assessment.

Clinicals were never really the issue for me. My instructors were awesome. I’m one of the lucky ones for that. I have lived in the PNW and I have lived on the eastern seaboard. I even lived overseas for years. I’m in love with Wisconsin. You should honestly consider grabbing a cheap flight and visiting both places. My friends from San Diego absolutely adored Wisconsin. Understand I’m being intentionally guarded with what I say here. I am being metered, careful, transparent, and unemotional. I am trying not to let my emotions cloud my judgment. It has been an incredibly stressful process. I would say last semester rivaled my experience going through Boot Camp twice back to back due to injury. But, it does seem to be getting better, and they have rearranged the course schedule to accommodate for the intensity they saw the original format had on everyone. The program is growing and developing, and new programs have growing pains. I will only recommend this program for young, single, and childless people. I am none of those things.

Looking through the sands of time, how much do you think the massive expansion of knowledge due to advances in technology has shaped medical and nursing education? I was struck by the shear volume of information expansion when I would study older textbooks (I’m a sucker for thrift store books) versus newer ones. Combined with the push to accelerate programs I think we are approaching an untenable situation where you have to pick two of three attributes: sufficient knowledge, program speed, number of prepared graduates. ‘My opinion is worth squat, but I personally don’t like the direction I see nursing education going.

I went part time and fell a semester behind my original cohort when my wife’s pregnancy became very complicated. Everyone I started with who was granted permission to test would have tested this year. They are currently using the ATI green light as the gate keeper to keep people from testing. I retake my predictor Monday. I look forward to knocking out NCLEX and moving forward. They won’t grant permission to test without it and you end up waiting until you finish the entire program otherwise. I have no doubt your MSN program was fruitful, but my goodness that sounds unpleasant.

That reflects all programs…. no idea what the numbers are for nursing. Overall they are producing competent nurses. My peers that have remained are all sharp and many from my first cohort already passed NCLEX with little trouble. I have *heard* this was not the case with the first two cohorts and that their NCLEX pass rates were abysmal, which is why we experienced a change in leadership and massive restructuring of the program. I see great improvement overall, especially last semester. I wouldn’t attend here twice unless I needed the fastest route to a BSN/MSN. In retrospect I have too large a family to handle the stress of such a compressed self taught program. ‘To answer a now redacted comment, I strongly prefer lectures on zoom or not at all, but I am an odd bird. My peers do not appear to profit from that format the way I do and many bemoan the method of instruction. I have found the ATI integration and NCLEX prep quite helpful. Before doing any substantial studying the predictor gave me a 90% probability of passing NCLEX. That was a few hundred questions, rationales, and hundreds of pages of reading ago. So the program in general is preparing those who apply themselves. I do not expect to have any trouble passing NCLEX.

Occasionally we are blessed with a concise PowerPoint or a study guide that lists topics, which may or may not accurately reflect the tests. I did straighterline (which I found excellent, as I actually did all the reading cover to cover) for my prerequisites. It is distinctly similar and sadly seems to be the direction most universities are going these days. Covid only exacerbated the problem. I will say we at least had excellent instruction in patho and advanced patho. Aging adults as well.

The WI program got better after a rough period of leadership shakeup. The current director of the DEMSN program is a godsend. You will be expected to essentially teach yourself in this program. Very little hand holding. Lectures become progressively less useful as you get further into the program since as a Master’s level student you’re expected to be a significant self starter. Some people hate that. They are integrating ATI into the program and it is helping. The pace of the program is entirely unbearable for someone working or with kids (I have a large family.) You have no say in your schedule or clinical site placement. If anything is wrong with the program, they always shift the fault to the students. They aggressively trimmed the fat from our cohorts when new leadership came on. Many people I started with are gone. I think maybe back then when Covid was hot they were admitting people they probably shouldn’t have. You will find your peers now are generally VERY smart. They are recruiting very astute students now. Overall, how I wish I could have had it be like it is now all the way through, but such was the idiocy of Covid madness and the world losing their collective mind. Everything was just a mess back then.

No. Im almost done with the program as well. Long road. I’m happy to report in my two years here the program has improved markedly.

Classes and tests are mostly in person now. Clinical is one day a week semesters 1-3 and bumps up to two days a week starting fourth semester. The education is EXCELLENT, but it’s not for the feint of heart. It is a rigorous program.

I strongly agree with your point about NCLEX after the BSN portion. That should be a requirement. I think what’s essentially happened is the first few cohorts had a mix of new program disorganization and Covid related degradation in material delivery. The program does seem to be going in a good direction. There have been some unpleasant changes such as block scheduling with little to no says so in your schedule, but I think the new Dean has implemented these changes in order to simplify administration and focus efforts on improved content and in person classes. I wouldn’t mind writing a thesis, but I have a background in research and writing. Unfortunately I see a similar dichotomy developing in nursing as I found in theology. Different tracks for researchers vs those involved in praxis. The ideal would be the marriage of researcher and practitioner.

My spouse presented with atypical antepartum preeclampsia. Intractable nausea and debilitating headache x 3 weeks, visual disturbances, but remained technically normotensive. 20pt difference in systolic from one limb to another, unstable spikes in bp, but again and again the doctor refused to deliver at 36 weeks. Ultimately she began displaying symptoms of partial seizures at the home and I had to advocate to get her hospitalized because I believed she was experiencing cerebral autoregulation dysfunction secondary to endothelial dysfunction induced by the preeclampsia. That night her systolic finally swung over 140 under close monitoring x3, she ended up on Magnesium Sulfate drip, and by morning had an emergency cesarean. Mom and baby are both fine now. I learned a valuable lesson from that even as a lowly nursing student. Advocate. Doctors don’t know everything. You spend more time with a patient or family member than they do. Not everyone fits in a box. Trust your gut.

My understanding is there is a final summative project that involves real world application of the knowledge gained to solve an actual identified health problem. I lack 3 classes for the BSN and have only taken 1 of the MSN courses. My 3rd semester got split in half as I suspected my wife would have problems in this pregnancy (emergency cesarean for atypical preeclampsia with severe features at 36 weeks so I guess I was right!). The MSN level course was advanced pathophysiology. So far it has been delightfully rigorous. I much prefer it to the BSN level work which I found repetitive and often tedious. Alverno definitely appears to crank up the difficulty, content, and application expectations at graduate level. I understand where you are coming from on having certain expectations of a Masters level course. My wife is from another country where higher education follows a European model. She holds a terminal masters and has written two thesis. Her father holds four graduate degrees (2 licenciatura, 1 masters, 1 PhD.) I gained my love for higher education and research from them. When I studied theology there was a dichotomy in graduate degrees. There were degrees focused on praxis and those tailored toward research. MDiv -> Dmin. Praxis, working priest degrees that require practical projects. MAR -> MTh -> PhD or ThD. Research, theologian degrees that require significant contribution to the body of knowledge in the form of a thesis. In some ways I wonder if Nursing education and research will follow a similar pattern in the future.

Started in January, wife got pregnant again in February. Went full steam 2 semesters, split semester 3 in half. Finishing up 42 credits this year strong. Should have been 51 credits but it was too much with my wife’s high risk pregnancy (she’s slipping into pre-eclampsia and likely will be delivering next week at 36 weeks gestation.) Taking 9 credits in the Spring and will be done with the BSN/MSN in the Fall. Will *hopefully* be starting a post masters pmhnp certificate program immediately afterward as the Department of Veterans Affairs decided that was my best vocational goal. Expected graduation Fall 2023. Will likely forego immediate practice and do a 1 year Psychiatric NP residency (assuming I get into a slot, MCW looks promising) to bridge my lack of experience in an RN role. Accelerated is no joke, but I love Nursing so far.

I was being sarcastic.

Classes are a mixed bag. Some have free resources others don’t. There’s an expensive Pearson textbook set you buy in the beginning that covers a ton of classes. It’s manageable. I’ve heard later semesters have access to an NCLEX prep. I plan on paying for UWorld. It’s not that expensive and I’ve heard it is worth it. I dropped to half-time semester 3 because of my wife’s high risk pregnancy. Alverno has overall been a good experience. Unforgiving, too fast, and occasionally nervous breakdown inducing, but a good experience.

Only the final is closed book. ‘’honestly, it’s been a while since I took it, but I remember having to read FAST. So review your stuff beforehand.

I did both using the combo kit. Did all my dissection in one day’s time, took a few days to organize all my paperwork, photos, and answer questions.

I very carefully followed all the dissection instructions to the letter and took multiple of each required photo so I could dispose of that disgusting pig right away. They I filled out each lab and submitted. Took a few days to have everything in order. Microbio takes much longer because you have to grow cultures. A&P is pretty quick.

Order the lab kit now. You can do the labs separately and there can be shipping delays.

I just read the books and rolled. But that’s me. the labs were quick. I did the dissection of the pig all in one day. Took a few more days to fill out my documents and edit my photos for clarity (take lots of photos.) did the eye and heart another day. The longest labs I did were for microbio but they were actually fun. I bought a large dry bath off eBay missing the aluminum blocks for cheap and filled it with copper BB’s to grow my plates in.