EM-RN

Have you tried http://doctorsofnursingpractice.ning.com/forum/categories/dnp-student-concerns/listForCategory?

This is a 2-year-old thread ... On June 1st, I'll start mine, a 12-month program broken into 3 semesters with 4 weeks + 3 days off total, including Thanksgiving & X'mas breaks and Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr., & Presidents Day holidays. The hectic schedule will give free time a whole new meaning. But many people before us have survived it, and many people after us will pursue it. Therefore, you and I can do it.

california department of education has a list of dhs-approved schools that offer cna program: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/rp/cna.asp#s

:yeah:Congrats!!! What a looong wait!!!!!

I just PM you.

2 looong days. BTW, I got accepted into San Mateo.

I was there this morning and didn't see you. Actually, it was much worse than 16/270 because each of the 270 people there had different number of tickets on their hands ranging from one to six or even seven. Congrats to your being accepted. I hope mine is on its way.

Similar feelings here. Tomorrow I'll attend a lottery drawing at a local CC, and the private ABSN I'm interested in will send out acceptance letters this week. I'll come back and post. Hang in there!

I tallied up the number of NCLEX takers in California between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, and the grand total amounts to 9102*. Assuming a 10% nursing school drop-out rate, there are more than 10,000 seats for RN-wanna-bes in California. Let's assume further that the average NCLEX passrate for all schools are 85%. There were close to 8,000 new RNs flooding the job market during the 2007-2008 period. Do we still need more nursing school seats when new grads can't find jobs within the state? Consider also that many older nurses are not retiring as planned due to their evaporating 401k/IRA savings, thus are not making room for the new grads. * The top 3 schools that produced the most number of NCLEX takers during 2007-2008: 1) Samuel Merritt - 355 2) Fresno City College - 303 3) West coast University (LA) - 243

hospitals' relunctance to invest in new grads because it doesn't make dollar sense when there are a plethora of experienced nurses to choose from while nursing schools churn out thousands of graduates each year speaks volume of the inefficiency (waste) in the system. the california nurse education initiative (04/13/2005) painted such a rosy job picture for nurse-gonna-be's, ignoring the difficulties faced by new grads in transitioning themselves from inexperienced students to working nurses, in addition to projecting a false sense of job security that fuels the number of nurse-wanna-be's: "california graduates fewer than 6,000 nurses annually, but studies show at least 9,500 new nurses are needed each year to keep pace with demand. currently, the state’s hospitals have a shortage of 14,000 nurses and over 40 percent of applicants for nurse education programs are turned away each year due to lack of program capacity. california’s shortage has national as well as international implications, since almost one-half of nurses working in the state come from outside of california (source: http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/2046/)." when will the policy makers and the media catch on to the reality that there is no nursing shortage, but a new grad glut in california?

A harsh reality faced by an SMU ABSN graduate (It could be ours soon):

gdmartinez0903, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You seem to know what you want and are willing to work for it, placing youself way ahead of many people your age. Good for you! Congrat once again and best of luck with your nursing school and career!

Why did SMU make its decision on the "top" SF candidates only? What about the "top" candidates for the 2 other campuses? May be they are too inundated with applications this year to make fast enough decisions? Right on! It's up to us to do the due diligence to avoid a large regret in both our personal finance and education.

Did you send in the deposit? Will you go to SMU in April? Congrat , BTW. Your guess is pretty good. That explains why SMU has to wait with sending out the rest of the acceptance letters after 2/20 so that it can make a closer estimate of the number of SF seats left for those who don't get their first choice in Oakland.

My GUESS is not the entire SF cohort has been notified. SMU admitted some candidates based on early acceptance, which is for those who were waitlisted (probably for Oakland) for the previous semester. I may well be wrong.

While we are waiting anxiously to follow in the footsteps of former/current SMU ABSN students, are we fully aware of what's in store for us? This is from a current Oakland ABSN student: Note: The above quote does not include the entire original post. What a super inflation! $55,000 sure doesn't buy much. How hard is it to swap out the lazy pediatric instructor for a competent one, especially with experienced nurses not finding job now (Please, good nurses out there, go get a master degree if you're done with bedside nursing)? I read somewhere that SMU pays some clinical nurses $80/hr to just show up and sit around until the hours are over. Letting a couple of rotten clinical instructors get away with no-show & nonchalance is demoralizing to the few good & dedicated ones. With instructor no-show and cancellation of rotation, how does SMU claim that they fulfill the mandatory clinical hours?? Are good prospective students, after reading negative SMU posts on allnurses.com, being discouraged from attending SMU? Does SMU care about protecting its reputation? Finally, are we paying a French Laundry* price for a McDonald's level education??? * The French Laundry is the only SF restarant awarded Michelin three-star.

48 seats per campus. I don't know. Lizzie just emailed us that we have to wait until the 1st week of March. I'm hoping to hear from them earlier though. Hang in there!

The start-date notification order was an unscientific guesstimate of mine. Around this time last year, SMU (renamed from SMC) applicants of the 3 different campuses received notifications at about the same time. So I'm not sure how it goes this year. I did mark Oakland as my 2nd and SF as my 3rd.

:ancong!: :ancong!: :yelclap: IF notificaton goes by start-of-program date, then the Oakland applicants will receive acceptance letters before the San Mateo applicants do.

California NursingHomeSearch allows us to search for all kinds of long term care facilities by zip code: http://www.calnhs.org/. The search results even come with ratings on staffing, quality of care, quality of facility ... Good luck!

Just revisited the BRN site showing the NCLEX passrates: http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/passrates.shtml. A bit surprised that SJSU's drops to 75.6%. De Anza also has a lower rate. Glad to see SMC's still flies above 90%, which doesn't serve as an arguement for a much much higher tuition though.

It's tough, having spent so much time & energy to get to where we're now, just to realize that the hardest parts of our career goal still lie ahead of us. We're talking about big money here; money that could be used instead to buy up some dirt-cheap foreclosed home, or be put into the bleeding stock market -- alternatives foregone if we decide to use the $$$$$ on SMC ABSN. Compared to local CC's and state U's, SMC is costly but fast and more "user-friendly". I've heard horrendous stories about how CC instructors, under the premise of graduating only the fittest, degrade students, often with threat of removal from the program. The question is: how much are speediness & ease of going through the program worth to you? Regrets may start piling up when it comes time to repay the loan. Just hope that we're healthy enough to work beyond the usual retirement age. Besides, staying active mentally & physically may slow aging. Yes, the job market is unwelcoming now. But don't let it deter you if working as a nurse is what you want. A part of my choosing nursing is because of its relative competitiveness, which tends to bring out the best in me.

Last year SMC summer ABSN applicants were getting notification as early as Feb 07. There are more applications for evaluation this year, but I'm hoping to hear from them before mid Feb. Our roadmap to RN: SMC acceptance ---> Money for tuition ---> Surviving theory + clinicals ---> Passing NCLEX ---> Getting hired ---> Being capable to handle the job ---> living happily ever after! Good luck to you all!

Right on!

As those of us who received the latest email from Lizzie know, the above numbers have been revised upward. Here is what was revealed: Total Applications: 313 Oakland: 166 San Francisco: 74 San Mateo: 73 It looks like that the competition for acceptance is more intense this year. Good news for SMC. Judging from some SMC posts from last year, some of us may start to get notified as early as Feb 06-09, although Lizzie said late February. Please keep each other updated when "the big yellow envelope" shows up in your mailbox. Good luck!