BSN2010

I had sent out 50+ applications by the time I was finally hired at a SNF. I had a few people tell me that same statement but quickly realized this: how can you loose skills at a SNF if you have none to loose? As a new grad, we do have some skills. But in the eyes of the hospitals, we don't - that's why they aren't hiring us in the first place. The only way to "loose skills" at a SNF is if you worked at a hospital before hand. I've been working at the SNF for 9 months now and am starting to look at hospital jobs again. Although a number of them still say "1-year acute RN experience" (acute = hospital), a lot of them say "1-year RN experience" (no 'acute' requirement = SNF experience!) Additionally, what will cause you to loose your skills faster: Working at a SNF where you learn time management, interactions with MDs, patient & family customer service, management of nursing support staff, assessments, etc... OR staying unemployed?

Hi punkdmunkey, I am a Linfield grad and I am happy to tell you about my experience at Linfield. Sure, we may not have as much training in skills as ADN training, but we are not at any disadvantage compared to any of the other BSN programs around Portland. Linfield's not perfect, but every nursing program has its strengths and disadvantages. The important thing to remember is that hands-on skills are the easiest things to learn in nursing school. I know it sure doesn't feel that way when you first start. I remember feeling so overwhelmed in nursing school of all the hands-on skills that we had to learn. But as I continued through the program and starting working in the hospitals/doing my senior practicum, I started to realize that skills can be taught and learned by anyone over time. What Linfield does excel in is teaching leadership and a global/community view. When I say global/community view, I'm not just talking about community and global health (which they do spend a lot of time on). I am also talking about a global view on a particular hospital's community: how everything from a single hospital's policies to major national legislation affects how we take care of our patients; different types of personalities and communication styles so that we may learn how to best work with other members of the healthcare team to provide the best care possible; and ways to bring about change in hospital bureaucracies. This is stuff you just can't pick up from another nurse like you can with skills. I've been talking with nurse recruiters and applying for jobs and, believe me, if they see a list of leadership positions on your resume, it will look way better to them than a list of skills you have learned. Especially since different hospitals have different protocols for these skills so you'll have to learn the specific way the hospital does each skill anyways. I personally am very happy to have been educated at Linfield. But I know people have different desires of their education. Here's what I saw as Linfield's strengths so that you may decide if it is what you want: - Thorough training in psych-mental health nursing. This may sound like no big deal but let me tell you, no matter where you go in the hospital or in the community, you will be dealing with clients that have mental health issues: attempted suicides, abuse, deaths in the family, depression from loss of healthy state, etc. I have found the psych-mental health training (how to recognize these issues, what to say, and what to do about it) immensely invaluable. It allows us to provide more holistic care by identifying & treating the psych illnesses that inevitably with the physical illnesses. Some hospitals, such as the VA, where PTSD is rampant, prefer Linfield grads for this education. - A student body that is focused on life experiences. Although Linfield does pick their students based on GPA, grades are not the main acceptance factor. You have a very good chance of getting in if you've lived abroad, worked for peace corp, or other similar activities. Linfield's classes tend to have a higher percentage of people who have been abroad than the public. It made for very interesting and fun classmates! Linfield also provides studying abroad opportunities specifically for nursing students to learn and practice health care in different countries. It was more interesting to me to be in a class filled with people who lived different lives than a class full of 4.0 students. OK, this is getting long so I'll quit. Bottom line is every nursing school has its strengths & weaknesses. If skills are all you want to learn, you can do that for much cheaper with an ADN program. There is a long list of things I could complain about Linfield but I don't feel I am disadvantaged AT ALL. I think what Linfield may lack in teaching skills (and really it doesn't lack enough to deserve some of the bashing I hear), the school makes up many more times in what it does teach. Something to keep in mind, half of my class that graduated in December have jobs already, and that has to say something about Linfield's graduates considering how hard it is for new grads to get jobs right now. :) PM if you have any other questions about Linfield. OregonBSN or Barleynhops, you guys have anything to add about Linfield??

Agreed- shaving cream works the best to cut smell!

I don't think any particular CC would be better than another, just whatever one is most convenient to you. Some of the CC give you extra acceptance points for taking your pre-reqs there but I can't remember which ones those were. Maybe look at that in the application packets.

Hey there, welcome! I took pre-reqs, including the entire A&P series at PCC. I applied to Linfield and OHSU accelerated programs and Mt.Hood and Clackamas community college. I was invited to interviews at the community colleges and accepted at Linfield's accelerated program. Denied from OHSU but that was because my 1st bachelor's GPA wasn't high enough (OHSU looks at cumulative GPA of all college courses, other schools look at pre-req GPA only.) Here's another thread you might find interesting: https://allnurses.com/forums/f169/oregon-2008-how-i-earn-my-acceptance-letter-308916.html I would suggest downloading the application packet for the community colleges you want to apply to and look at their point system, work on earning those points. For the accelerated programs, start thinking about how you would answer the question of "why nursing"; beyond the GPA, a strong essay is key. Good luck with the pre-reqs, they go faster than you think!!

madrecarga08, I took the HESI this morning. It's no big deal at all. All we did was the reading comprehension and they just want to see where we are. We get an hour to do the computer test, which is more than enough time. The answers of the multiple choice are written like NCLEX questions, preparing us for the thinking process required to pass the NCLEX. Hope this helps!!

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for clearing that up marachne :)

You know, I often wonder what kind of effect the tort cap loss has on all students of OHSU. Now that OHSU can now be sued for any amount of money until a new tort cap is put in place, it makes me wonder if any kind of a drawback on the amount of hands-on work for students occured due to fear of lawsuits? I could be completely wrong about this, students may not have much hands-on clinical experience to start with due a lack of experience. I just wonder if there is any other affect on students besides tuition increases and a decrease in the med school class size.

i will be attending: linfield, accelerated bsn, start june 25, 2008 i was originally planning on attending an adn program as the rns make the same salaries. however, i knew that i'll eventually want to continue my education to get a masters in nursing later in life and found out that nearly every masters program requires that you have a bsn to apply. so i just decided to get it all out of the way now so that i may enjoy my years as an rn without having to worry about when i will have time to do an adn to bsn route. my husband is choosing to do get his adn now and do a bridge course later. either way has its perks and drawbacks, whatever way works best for you. my prerequisite gpa is: mt.hood cc, clackamas cc, linfield 2-year & accelerated look at prereq gpa: mt.hood cc: 3.81 clackamas cc: 3.91 linfield: prereq support gpa 3.69, science gpa 3.72 ohsu accelerated looked at accumulative gpa (from all classes ever taken): 3.11 my thoughts on prerequisite courses: nutrition, stats, chemistry and genetics done in my first bachelors spr '07 - developmental psych, wr 122 sum '07 - a&p i fall '07 - a&p ii win '08 - a&p iii, sociology spr '08 - micro, cultural anthro all classes within the last year taken at pcc. first word of advice, talk to a pre-nursing college advisor before starting. they have a lot of good info and brochures, are familiar with the classes you need for nearly all the nursing schools in the area, and can help you plan a good and quick way to getting everything done. a lot of them are pre-nursing advisors for multiple ccs in the portland area so know intimate info about schools other than the one you are taking your pre-reqs at. a&p is the tough stuff. i know it's considered a 4 unit class while bi 112 is 5 units, i don't know why because you spend way more hours out side of class studying for a&p. think of a&p as a 6 unit class. because they are considered the most important courses on nursing school applications, try to take them on their own per quarter if you can. i had a year of a&p in high school and then took a quarter of refresher in college so the material was very familiar to me. however it still took an incredible amount of studying to get a's. and word of advice, ap ii is the hardest of the series. api is really just brute memorization. do not expect the same kind of class for apii. i know a lot of people who did fine in api and then apii took them by surprise because it is different kind of course than api; learning concepts, not memorizing things. apiii was mainly applying the concepts of apii to other systems in the body but still a lot of work. all the rest of the classes were fun, interesting, and relatively easy after a&p. micro takes some work but it is such a fun class that you don't really mind it. i worked full time while taking classes in the evening. evening teachers are generally pretty cool as they know the majority of their students have full time jobs, families, etc. applications were due for ohsu, linfield, and hmcc in the middle of winter quarter so for ohsu and hmcc i just needed to finish a&p iii and micro. for linfield, i applied with 4 classes left to get grades for (a&p iii, micro, sociology, cultural anthropology) but was still accepted so if you have a plan to finish your classes by matriculation, apply apply apply!! clackamas cc app was due apr 15th so i was in the midst of taking micro when applying. i applied to: 2008 linfield accbsn & 2 year bsn (same application) - accepted to accbsn 2008 ohsu accbsn - denied 2008 mt. hood cc - invited for interview but took myself off the list 2008 clackamas cc - invited for interview but took myself off the list my thoughts on the application process: like spotty44 said get your transcripts early!! i had the same problem where i received my transcripts from all of my colleges (including california) within a few weeks while pcc took 2 months via fax (and that was with calling to prod them) i was told by pcc that it is much faster to order the transcripts through mypcc and it did take only a few days by that route but for those of you who do not go to pcc anymore and may not have access to mypcc, ordering transcripts the traditional way takes forever. and, as linfieldnursingguy suggests, write your essay early! i started mine in early dec for jan 15 ohsu due date. i had many people read it over. but then i let it sit for a few weeks and then changed it up for linfied for the feb 1st due date. i definitely felt the linfield version of my essay was stronger than the ohsu version and i think that is because i was able to put it down for a few weeks. kept all my application materials and correspondence in a file and kept a list of all things to be done in my day planner. words of encouragement to future applicants: say something nice! you start you pre-reqs and you think, man i have a long way to go before i can even start nursing school. but let me tell you, time has a way of disappearing while in school. especially if you are working full time; i work all day, then take the class all evening for 3 days out of the week and before i knew it the week was gone. just start, keep focused, and you'll be starting before you know it.

Hi Madrecarga08, I am in the summer entry program at Linfield and our orientation is June 23. I think that we are scheduled to take the HESI in early July though. I don't think it's that hard or important, I think it is just to see what reading level you are at: "will you be able to keep up with the readings assigned or will you need extra help to keep up" kind of a thing. I'll let you know more information when I get there though.

Great analysis Dental Hygienist, I always forget to factor in the amount of money one makes as an RN after graduation, that's a good point. 2xtrouble, it sounds like you have your mind made up and you are just nervous about getting in. I think that it's a great plan and it would be fantastic to have extra time with your kids. Justification for the tuition is hard, my husband works with some Linfield students at his CNA job and hears the common complaint that they pay a lot of money in tuition and yet don't really feel it's reflected in the Portland campus (maybe a lot of that money goes back to McMinnville?) I didn't really like hearing that complaint but in the grand picture of things it is still a great school and I still think their program is the best choice for me. Good luck on your interview, I'm sure you'll do fine... if you've been accepted into one place your chances are pretty high you'll be accepted into others as well!

One last thought. If you look at the class schedule for community colleges, about 12 units out of the 15-17/quarter is nursing classes, the last units are dedicated to support and pre-req classes (microbiology, writing, etc) so if you have these done before starting the program you will have more free time. The accelerated program as 15-17 units of nursing classes and no time for support classes. Personally it would drive me nuts to be "half into" nursing classes when I could be in full time, get the schooling done, and start my real education in the hospital. However, I don't have kids and I think the CC route would be a great way for someone who has children to take care of. Or if finances are important, it allows some extra time to have a bit of a job while in school and further reduce loan load. Just another thought for consideration.

I completely agree with LinfieldNursingGuy. I am in the same boat as him in that I know I will eventually go on to higher education (masters or Ph.D.) so it is worth it to me to complete a BSN right away. I would look closely into the costs of RN to BSN bridge programs. My husband was thinking about that route (community college and then go back for a BSN later) and I remember him mentioning that they were quite expensive for 1 year. I cannot remember the exact costs he mentioned (this was a while back) but I want to say something like $10,000? I could be very wrong on that number though. Take a look at the prices of these bridge programs. That being said, you might be able to find a hospital that will pay for their RNs to return to school for BSNs. Either way is, of course, doable and just requires one to determine if time or finance is more important at the moment. One thing I've noticed about Linfield is that they have a very dedicated financial aid staff team and include on their web page a whole list of resources for loan forgiveness programs (and there are a lot - federal level, state level, military/air force/navy, even Legacy hospital system will pay $8000 towards tuition loans on top of wage). I too was concerned about the money until I realized that, unlike most professions, there will be plenty of opportunities to have my loan forgiven if I feel that I've had it around too long. Good luck on your decisions!! It's a stressful time for sure!

Suzanne4, that makes a lot of sense. It's not as complex as what I make out in my mind and I will do just fine with whatever interests me. Thank you.

Good point about the trauma level. Thanks so much for your insight ERRNTraveler!