jdarcy

I moved to Pueblo to finish Nursing School. I have finished my RN/ADN program at Pueblo Community college. Excellent School experience and I feel very well prepared to take NCLEX in a few weeks. I looked at my RN to BSN articulation at CSU Pueblo and at Beth El in CS. My experience has been like night and day. I walked into the CSU pueblo offices and the program secretary (who is WAY more important a position than people give credit for)..was utterly disorganized and unprofessional. Her major focus seemed to be who you might be related to..in Pueblo. She had a disdain for "outsiders" and spoke a spanglish mixture and gang speak to confuse and intimidate. When she realized I speak fluent spanish she stopped talking about gringos with her partner. but I could see the embarassement. She couldnt find what classess I needed, couldnt tell me what instructor to talk to, couldnt tell me when the chair of the program would be in, couldnt set up an appt. with the chair of the program and generally "couldnt". I decided right then and there that this would be a last choice scenario. I have talked to and worked with more than a few CSU pueblo Nurses and students and am very well aquainted with several former instructors there. The students are less than prepared for boards...they are less than well prepared in clinical situations and dont really hit the ground running. Beth El on the other hand was a fantastic experience. Very organized, got me an appt to talk with the right people I needed to see who gave me concrete direction on how to proceed. We were able to work out several different scenarios and find a way for them to work for me. I have decided to do my RN to BSN with Beth El. So, tho' you are just starting out as a new prospect into nursing I would suggest that you look at the Beth El program and not be intimidated by the requirements that they have such as the 3.3 gpa. You want that...you want to be with the the best as it will inspire you to be your best. Nursing isnt about just getting the degree and then passing boards it is the training you need to save lives and improve lives and be a part of our ever more evidence based driven profession. Good lUck. john

I was curious about that too. We were told that it would be about a month from the time we recieved our transcripts, sent them to the board, paid pearsonvue, etc. ...before we would recieve permission to test. I realize that you are thru the process now and I hope your boards went well. I recieved my transcripts Tuesday 17 June. Sent them to Board of Nursing w/fees, paid pearson vue and am waiting to hear back. Nothing is available on board website so... should I think middle of july to test?

I would be very afraid that you would do one of two things with that kind of schedule. The first is that you would fail one or the other. The second is that you would pass both and not learn a dang thing from either one. That is actually a WORSE scenario than the first as you are going to desperately need all of the Patho knowledge you can get in MedSurg and OB. I know that there is this feeling of just want to hurry it up so I can get to the "show" (nursing school) but the truth is that if you dont have the foundation really strong when you start and I mean STRONG, then you will be horribly frustrated and confused and possibly failing to make the cut. Remember the Grade expectation goes up...and most of the 4.0's I know from pre req's are desperately grateful for an 80% © on a test. Dont skimp on the basics just to get in sooner. Cause it wont help if your house falls on your ears in when the wind really starts to blow.

Well, all Nursing Programs should be "hard". At the very least they should be intense. This La junta program (like most) will require all your time. ALL of it. I only know a few people that worked during the semester and passed. People were driving ungodly hours to attend here...those hours begin to add up and they didnt make it. My experience has been that you need every hour you can get. When we started they told us their philosophy which was they didnt care if they graduated 2 nurses out of 35 as long as the two nurses were going to be good nurses. (thats fine...I hear that.) And that if you do everything you are supposed to do. Know everything you are supposed to know. Do all the things in clinicals you are supposed to do...you will get a 77% (lowest score and still pass). The testing has proven that philosophy holds. We had 5 exams including the final in OB PEDs (9 units). If you scored less than 77 on any one exam you were probably done. Lot's of 4.0 students got C's. Thats the way it is. Is it hard? Yeah, they put the pressure on and you better figure out a way to handle it.

I am at La Junta. We just finished finals. Class started with 32 and I think there are about 16 or so left. I mean this semester, as the fall semester was about 37 or so. I think. Grueling but challenging. Lots and Lots of paper. I am not all that sure about the State schools, which I think you may have mentioned you were going to tranfer into, but the Comm. College System can get pretty strange. When I went to take Mirco they tried to convince me I had to take Gen. Biology first and to take Gen Biology I had to take some pre biology course. (I dont know what's pre biology? sort of like pre history I guess...) I just blew them off, got an instructor signature and took the class. Merril Emmit at Front range in Westminster, CO will absolutely rock your world. May have been one of the finest instructors I have ever had. I did good but I loved the class. AP II is well, Aand P. Dont skimp on it or it'll bite ya. Dont let them gloss over the reproductive or electrolytes or renal or whatever so they can teach you their favorite system...Get the basics or it will eat ya in Patho and MedSurg and ESPECIALLY OB!... What I guess I am saying is that the "counselors" I have had at Community college level are sorta clueless as to the Nursing Track... Heres one more thing. Take a look at the school...not just the numbers like NCLEX pass rates. Talk to the students. See what they think. We have people who drive 3 hours a day to come to classess. I drive 3 hours to get to clinicals in Pueblo...I have to stay in Hotels in Csprings cause there isnt the clinical spaces here...Lots of people try to go to school here cause the "wait list isnt that long". True...but I think they might graduate 12 RN's this year. (some of these have had to take the courses twice, some came from other schools as LPN-RN transfer and about 9 are from the original incoming class two years ago. (a class of 37 probably very bright people) So, think about it. I will get my LPN and transfer I think. Speaking of which I need to sleep. I spent 10 hours today writing up questions to prepare for 3 sim's tommorrow. (4 hours of SIM) You spend about 1/2 hour on paperwork for every clinical hour and easily spend 3 hours reading for every class hour. I would say have fun but its just not right now...maybe later I will see the fun but for right now it's just hang on by your teeth and pray. Good Luck.

I am speaking from experience as I have taken AP2 and micro at the same time. Yep. It's hard but wait until you have MedSurg and OB/PED's and Patho at the same time. You will look back on that semester of micro and AP and say..."Ah, those were the days when I could actually sleep 7hours, had a semblence of a life and knew my own name...) Trust me. I am about to finish year one of Nursing school in Southeast colorado. I suggest you do it cause if you dont at least get a 80% or above you will have a heck of a hard time in nursing. I am actually suprised that your school doesnt require the Micro...at one pt. you will thank yourself for taking it. Make sure it has a Lab attached because w/o the lab it will be useless and you'll end up taking it again. Micro is fun. Bugs are fun. Good luck.

:redbeatheTweety, I was looking for something else when I saw your story. Even though you would think that the medical community would know better we still have a tendency to think of Alcoholics as down and out wino's on skid row or the guy strapped to the bed who keeps tearing his IV's out. I am an alcoholic and I am in nursing school. I didnt start out being an alcoholic but I didnt start out wanting to be a nurse either...one was a calling and the other was just falling. (you figure out which is which cause sometimes I get confused...) I have been sober for 6 years and most of the people I go to school with dont know I am clean and sober but they know I dont drink. They know I show up on time, am dependable, happy, hard working, kind, good with people and love what I am doing even when it's hard. I dont hide my recovery but I dont wear a big sign on my chest either. We dont look like skid row but that is where I came from. 6 years ago I had a sign with "God please help me" on it standing next to the freeway exit, a warm bottle of vodka was my only friend and I wanted to die but just couldnt quite step in front of your speeding car to do it....I didnt smell too good and I hadnt bathed in a while and didnt know where I would sleep that night nor did I care. With the help of God, AA and good friends I am in nursing school, about to take an OB final I am deathly afraid I might fail...but I know I cant fail...cause I didnt drink today. I wont drink no matter what...but for now I wont drink today. You realize it isnt a moral issue...it's a whole different something...and there are probably more than a few nurses who will need my help so that they can help others. Thanks for helping me. Nursing school in Colorado

Oh, the numbers on the pass rates. go to http://www.dora.state.co.us/nursing/education/RN-PassRates.pdf I was wrong about Pueblo. It's 70.2%!! the average of since 2000 for first time pass rate is 75.4%

yeah, i saw that coming and signed up for the Patho and Math 103. It looked to me though the CCCS system didnt require either of them, most of the colleges just added both of those to their cirriculum. So, I figured why kill myself...take em now. I am pretty sure you will get grandfathered.

Good stuff here. Actually a lot of the schools had a sudden shortening of the wait times because the acceptance requirements changed. GPA, Math, Micro instead of Patho, Nutrition etc...the biggest was the GPA. some who were on the wait list got bumped because their GPA for Requirements was less than 2.5. -this is from the Chair of one of the community colleges. - Heads up on Trinidad: The way their program works is you go to Fall Semester, Spring Semester then take your LPN course work in the summer (if you want..) then you SKIP the following Fall semester and come back in the spring semester and finish with a brutal Summer semester. They dont have the hospitals enough down there for local clinicals and some of your clinicals are two days a week in Colorado Springs? You pretty much HAVE to get a hotel for two nights every week for a semester. (add that into your cost of school...) You can mapquest the driving times. it is probably brutal. I went down and checked the school out and really liked it. I saw some very good equipment but they also did something kinda strange that bothered me a little. Because the school has a campus in alamosa and a class in Salida as well as trinidad they didnt have teachers enough to go round...so they told me they would have a teacher giving a lecture in a classroom in Salida (example) with 12 students and the lecture would be "broadcast" via internet to the class room in Trinidad with it's 15-20 students...maybe even to the Alamosa class as well. It was interactive so you could talk to the prof. in Salida as well as the class but it still seemed like a heck of a large class size. (sure, there are only 12 people sitting there but...as many as 35 or more in a class) ...made me uncomfortable that there was such short staffing. Just start checking out the schools...you will be suprised what you learn by sitting down with them and talking one on one with the chairs...or the nursing admin assistants..(they REALLY know the inside stuff)

I understand your frustration. I felt much the same way. What it required was some research on my part to find the best school with the shortest wait list. I am currently a student at Front range and would have loved to have gotten into that program but the wait list is about 3 years. So, I did the footwork and went to the smaller schools in Colorado and talked to their nursing program chair's and looked at their NCLEX pass rates and physically looked at the schools and talked to the students. I went to 5 schools and then narrowed it down to 3 with 1 school being my choice. I had chosen Pueblo CC with Otero JC as a second. After thinking it over for 5 months and being on their wait list (at 104) I decided that I really did like Otero Better than Pueblo. I called the head of the CCCS Nursing program and she switched it around while we were on the phone. No headaches, no disasters, and it looks very good for Otero come the fall. Otero has had an excellent Pass rate (currently @ 100%) and they really do a great job with their program. Pueblo has about a 75% pass rate and that worried me. Their program chair didnt really respond to my questions about their program in a forthright and straight forward manner. She qualified all her answers and never quite answered the question. That worried me. Trinidad has a good program but the way they have their clinicals set up made me very nervous. Do the research. If you arent tied to one place geographically then look at the smaller schools. You will find them really wonderful. good luck.

HELP!! My girlfriend is badgering me to get my CNA before going to Nursing School for my RN. (I start in the fall of 2007 @ OJC La Junta) She was a CNA and is an OT now and she believes that Nurses who have NOT been CNA's are probably not as good at their jobs, or may be less Empathetic to CNA's that work under them. She feels that RN's who havent been CNA's dont get the same respect from their peers or from their staff. I dont know what to believe. I believe it depends on the individual. I mean, if you are going to be a mean spirited, unsympathetic jerk of an RN you are going to be one wheter you have your CNA or not. :trout: I need the forums help. Should I take time out of a hectic schedule next semester to take the 5 units; become a CNA and almost NEVER really work in the field.(maybe for 2 months in the summer)..or should I just go straight into Nursing school without it. I dont believe it would be a waste of time and money but would it be overkill?

I am currently about to finish AP202 and Micro in the same semester. I had an idea that AP202 would be easier and Micro would be a death march to finals...well, guess what? It was sort of the other way around. In many ways they complemented each other and I was stronger in each individual class because of the other class. ( if that makes any sense). I was worried because I hadnt taken Gen Biology. or any of the other pre-req's either. I am not a genius but I am willing to work hard and am getting at LEAST a B in both. (probably an A in Micro) So dont let this worry you. Go for it!!

I would check into that again. If ACC is Arapahoe Community College then they are part of Community Colleges Colorado System. Go to their website at CCCS.edu and check the nursing requirments. I know that with AP201, ENG121 and Psy235 you can get on the Waitlist. The waitlist isnt controlled by the individual colleges anymore but is done by the CCCS. You can contact CCCS nursing and Heather? is great about answering mail. The Acceptance requirements are the AP202 and BIO204. Suggested that you also get the Math for Clinical calculations and the Pathophysiology out of the way as well. I think you also need a social science now ( History, Anthro...something like that.) Dont let the system get you down. It seems big and complex and impersonal but you can do this....it's like the old joke..."How do you eat an elephant? ...one bite at a time....