vbgirley

we have a strong group, too :) we've lost seven (down to 23) but i would be surprised if we lost anymore...unless someone's family/personal life demands it. although, we are coming up on med-surg and i hear that's where you loose the most people. it's gonna be tough. care plans suck. most of those hours are research finding lab values, medications, interventions, diseases, etc. your prep for doing them won't be much. they expect you to step up and use your critical thinking skills, kinda forcing you to start thinking like a nurse. oh, and get ready for nclex style exam questions. not fun. if you have time now, go to your local library and check out a care plan and nclex book. just glance over them to get a feel for what you have in store. i would have loved if someone had told me that when i started!

i started in aug. of last year, and i really like mci vb. i would advise you to study for the teas and do your best. with my class, it came down to who did the best on the teas as to who got accepted into the program. i had a few classmates in pre-reqs, who had straight a's, not get accepted because their teas scores were just ok. also, these classes are not for the average student. total commitment is required. the first few mods of sciences (a&p 1&2, micro) and gen-eds are hard, but nothing compared to what comes after them. i just finished a round of clinicals, each of which required a care plan... each care plan took at least 10hrs to complete (i took even longer as did most), they had to be turned in within 48hrs after the clinical day, and was 8-10pages. normally you have 2-3 clinicals a week and the care plans have to be done for each one. i lost a lot of sleep that week. this is not an easy program!! make sure your ready before investing all that money :)

As I stated in my first post, MCI is under review for their NLN and should be nationally accredited by the end of next year (09'). After that, the AAS should transfer to any school in the US. The program at MCI is only in it's third or forth year, and for ANY school to be recieve their national accreditation they have to be functioning and meet requirements for a minimum of three years. No RN program can be nationally accredited from the day they open their doors. By the time any class, from here on out, graduates, they will have their NLN (national) approval.

I know the January start is their "down time" so it's a little easier to get in then. If you start everything now, you should be able to apply for Jan. Oh, and do your best on the TEAS entry test... it might be used as a tie-breaker later for acceptance into the program. Good luck!!!

The RN AAS program at MCI is accredited so if you finish the program, you should have no problem doing an RN to BSN program at VCU. If you don't finish the program, VCU might not accept/transfer credits earned to be used towards your first degree. MCI is under review for their NLN and should be nationally accredited by the end of next year. After that, the AAS should transfer to any school in the US. As for a job, you earn a degree at MCI, and a degree is a degree. You will have NO problem finding a job. There are TONS of certification/diploma programs that allow you to take the NCLEX to work as an RN- and that's without an AAS or BSN. Most students have a job lined up even before they finish the program. I had the same fears, and did tons of research to ease them. The program itself is expensive- I think it just went up to 37,000- it's fast paced, and competitive. I had several classmates with good grades not get accepted last week. You take a few pre-req. classes, write an essay to turn into the Director of Nursing along with three recommendation letters, have an interview with above, and then they go through selection for the program. No guarantees. You'll find out if you got in about a week after your interview. Sorry for all the info, but this was the stuff I was looking for when I first started my research on MCI. I hope at least some of it helps, and if you have any other questions, please ask

Thanks so much and Congrats to you, too!!!

I got into Sept. 15th days too!!! I can't wait :)

Thank you so much! I was worried that it would have to be done at orientation and that's in a week or so. I don't really think it would have effected the test, but you never know!!

I was wondering when you get your shots and drug screen if you are accepted into the RN program. I was at a party the other night and walked right into a room full of "smoke" . Anyone know?

I would love to get in on those notes!!! my e-mail is [email protected] I should be starting this class in the next week or so with VB MCI... anyone that has thoughts to share on their RN program, I would love to hear them. Still trying to decide if I'm going to go through with it... I can't seem to find a lot of info on them. Seems like every link I click on leads me right back to the MCI website.