goingCOASTAL

The Houston area is still hiring anyone with a license ... a lot of people who need general hospital experience for other things (grad school, specialty niche, certifications, etc.) will come and do their time and move on. No reason why you couldn't move here for 6mos to a year and move back with that coveted "recent hospital experience."

Family considerations may have me considering a California move in the next 6-12 months. I'm currently in the Houston market, and am wondering which areas more closely resemble the economic climate there (salary, real estate, crime, etc.)

I've been a nurse for 17 years, and all of it has been in the South (mostly urban areas, though). When I started, I was still "in the closet" professionally for the first 3-4 years, and it wasn't until I was in a larger city that I was more open about it. By open - I mean, if someone asked, I would answer their question, but it wasn't (and it still isn't) something I broadcast. Sometimes I feel like I'm being treated as "one of the girls," and sometimes I'm not. It doesn't bother me either way, and during all of my time as a bedside nurse, the only overt bigotry I ever received was actually from patients (one using the F-word before ordering me out of the room, another who didn't know about me said she like our hospital best because we didn't have all those Q-words running the place like a competitor) ... but, in seventeen years of nursing, I can count those instances on one hand. My advice - don't look for instances like that to happen, and if they do: ignore them. These attitudes are dying out and aren't pervasive enough to influence your practice one way or the other. If you find yourself in a really unfriendly environment - find another job. Most hospitals are STARVING for bedside nurses and only care about your enthusiasm and experience.

I am in the process of enrolling at WGU, which, if you read their story, will probably be the leader of the pack of online educators in the next 10-15 years because of their innovation in education technology, and because of their extraordinary value (it's now cheaper than many state-supported universities). While WGU and Aspen share many of the same accreditations, Aspen is not, however ... and I repeat NOT ... regionally accredited, which is the gold standard for academic excellence. You will hear people "rag" on WGU for it's competency units (as opposed to GPA), but it is still regionally accredited. Without that accreditation, you will not be able to transfer any hours to another college, nor will a lower level degree be accepted for admission to another grad school. This is an absolute standard across the board at higher institutes for learning. Aspen makes no mention of this in the website, so who knows if they're even pursuing it or not ... but, without this, your degree is just a piece of paper with ink on it to another university.

I graduated last year, so I'll attempt to answer most of these for you. Pros and Cons of UTA RN-BSN Pros: 1) It's still relatively cheap, although the price does increase every year. If you skip a session, your next class will be at the market rate. In my progress, it stayed the same because I never skipped a term. 2) I could do the clinicals in my workplace. 3) You get the same degree that the campus-based students that UTA students get when they graduate (and you can go graduate with them if you so choose). Cons: 1) There's really no interaction with the online professors. They create the syllabus and the rubric, and record the lectures, but your interaction is with a third-party course instructor (or coach) who is not an employee of UTA. They're all nurses, but they work for Academic Partnerships - and some of them are very nice and accommodating, and some of them treat their sections like tiny fiefdoms. 2) It's not the cheapest anymore. It was when I started, but if I were to start now, WGU would be cheaper. 3) The online resources on the main school website (like MyMav) can be confusing, especially at first. The website has had a couple of do-overs, but it's not very organic, and is very much the product of a heavily bureaucratic traditional university. Other advice ... don't be in a hurry. I started off taking one class at a time, and liked it so much, that's about all I did. I know of one student right now who's doubling up and is having a very difficult time. Taking one class at a time earned me all A's except one B - but it's your choice. If your career track requires emergency action - take two at once, otherwise, don't risk it. And if you do, don't take their stats, college algebra, or research class with anything else (or together). Some of the classes were hard, but I was surprised that many were relatively easy. I am a nurse who had 14 years under my belt at the time of enrollment, and you'd be surprised how much you know because of your experience. If I had it to do over again, I would probably have still chosen UTA back in 2009, but know that I've done the research ... if I had to take it over again today, I would probably go to WGU, which is cheaper and competency based (which means you can go through the material you already know MUCH quicker). I was considering them again for my MSN ... but, I've recently decided to go with WGU for the reasons I've mentioned. I want good value for my dollar, and after carefully researching them, they seem to have that hands down.

Every accreditation and certification known to man has an expiration date. UTA is the largest nursing school (physically, and online) in the state of Texas, and I'm most certain there are people who have the job responsibility of not losing any of their accreditations. They will continue to have that accreditation.

This class was a bit intimidating ... I think it was the second class I took after Professional A&B. The textbook was boring as Hades, so I made sure I focused on understanding the definitions and terms for the different types of research and that I aced all of the assignments. Perhaps the MOST important factor is to be active in the research group they put you in. My group had five students - one of them dropped the first week, and two of them did almost nearly no work at all. It was just me and one other student that did almost all of the work for our group project (that we all got the same grade on). My motto for this class: don't wait, participate! If you decide to ride the backs of your teammates ... you'll get whatever grade they get (and me and my workmate wanted to make sure that WE got A's, even if that meant unfair workloads).

I finished their program a year ago ... yes, there are assignments due EVERY week. It's really only "self-paced" in that you don't have a physical classroom to be in across campus at 2:25pm. Most of my classes had assignments due by the end of the week, but others had discussion questions or other things due as early as Tuesday ... it really depended on who you had for an instructor. I would definitely take the suggestion that vle4 said - take a laptop. If you go two weeks without uploading assignments - you may find yourself dropped from the class, or worse ... having 40% of your grade being a flat zero.

very interesting that you consider $6,000 a year as "expensive." i have my adn and bsn from two state schools, and with tuition hikes by the legislature here in texas, wgu is now cheaper than my tax supported alma maters. additionally, the "competency" remark is also unfounded. wgu is very explicit that their competencies are equivalent to a "b" grade, so someone who has a wgu degree has the equilalent of a 3.0 or higher. a "c" student would pass any undergraduate university in america - they wouldn't pass wgu. whoever wrote this reply also doesn't understand that the "southern association of colleges and **schools** (the replier got that wrong)" doesn't accredit schools in every state ... only schools in most of the south. wgu gets its accreditation from the same regional accrediting body that accredits every university in wgu's home state of utah, the northwest accreditation commission. the poster is also incorrect in calling it a proprietary school. wgu is a non-profit university, not a for-profit corporation. i think this replier is confusing wgu with uop, devry, etc. those other schools are mostly interested in profit ... wgu is interested in innovation in higher education. check it out before blasting it without the facts.

If you seriously want to someday master the art of managing nursing (administration), you first need to learn the art of knowing and understanding and managing the stress your staff will go through for most of their career. The best nursing administrators are those who have served their time - and mastered it - in the trenches. The one's who "put in their year" before escaping to grad school are often the worst at administration, and speaking as someone who put in fifteen years before pursing a grad degree and a management job - if you think your patient load is causing you stress, wait until you're managing 50 or 100 nurses. You will wish you had your bedside job back. Learn your profession before trying to manage those who will probably spend their entire career at the bedside. They'll appreciate your hard-earned knowledge (and the booksmarts that come with your later improved education). If you don't - they won't pay attention to you. And why should they ... if you dont' have the foggiest clue about how to relate it to real-world experiences?

A BSN degree really prepares you to be more of a consumer of nursing research than an ADN degree, which just prepares you to perform professional nursing. You do not get Nursing Research, or a holistic in-depth approach to all of the facets of nursing practice, not only to the whole human in all of their age ranges, but within the community as well. I don't speak about this from a point of arrogance ... I was an ADN nurse for 14 years before I went back to school for my BSN ... and yes, I really learned a lot I didn't know before, and the biggest thing was about learning how to improve my practice through evidenced-based research.

I would go for something more general (RN) that will allow you to get a broad experience initially, then specialize in an area you're comfortable with later. With specialized health degrees, there can be less "wiggle" room when it comes to specialization, and then you're just stuck with a degree that allows you to do one kind of work. You can literally work in ANY arena in health care - be it a bedside nurse or an insurance case manager with a BS in nursing.

I would highly recommend getting your BSN. The nursing "shortage" is turning into a "graduate glut" - a lot of Houston area hospitals are no longer hiring new grads, and when they do, they're focusing on BSN students. I've heard the same thing about UTMB - if the drive is not too far, you could also consider UTHSC in the Medical Center. The choice would be yours, but I wouldn't pay too much attention to "who people would rather work with" - I can tell you that the trend among those that HIRE nurses are 1) experienced first, and lacking that, 2) BSN only (for new grads). There were a LOT of new grads in 2010 - BSN and ADN alike that could NOT find jobs in the Houston market. Some of them had to work in nursing homes until they could find something, and with the NASA layoffs in the next few months, the "trickle down" effect here in Houston could make it even worse. Please, please, please ... ignore the rhetoric about ADN-vs-BSN ... your best opportunity for WORK in the next few years will be with your BSN.

I just finished their program in May, the RN-BSN completion program, and I really learned a lot. The reason I chose that program over places like Phoenix, etc., was because 1) it's from a traditional university, with a REAL nursing school, and 2) I wanted to keep my options open RE:grad school (I always hear bad things about grads from "online universities." The thing that REALLY sold me was the low-low price ... I have not found a program this cheap, but I think it's only this low if you live in TX. Plus, I work in a partnership hospital, so there was even a larger discount. You can do really well IF you follow some common sense rules 1) take only one class at a time if you're doing the 5 week courses. The "general" courses (pre-reqs) used to be 5 wks, but they're mostly 8 and 16 wk courses now. I would probably double those up ... BUT (and it's a big BUT) ... do all of your "generals" first. Reason: some of the nursing classes are only offered once every 7 or 8 sessions, and you can get them ALL done sequentially if you don't take a break with your nursing. If you decide to take a 5 wk break, or take a general class in the middle, you could wind up graduating late because you couldn't take a specific nursing class until next year ... this happened to one of my friends. Overall, I would recommend this if you can get in, if you can afford it, and definitely if you're in a partnership hospital. Several people in my facility are doing this program. With the RN-BSN, the "clinical" is following a manager or director "X" amount of hours during your management class ... MOST of your courses are writing papers, research (a LOT of both). I do have a friend taking the initial licensure BSN class - but, she's still doing general courses, so I don't have any information on that - I would imagine that program is a little more difficult.

Yes, this is a very "emotional" subject. I've been an ADN nurse most of my career and have recently obtained my BSN. I once believed - as most do - that there is no difference, but I saw the writing on the wall, as one has already stated "BSN-only" being the standard for all opportunities outside of bedside nursing. Not that I was trying to educate myself away from a bedpan, but as I enter my middle ages, I've seen more than a few nurses at or past retirement age that were really struggling at bedside nursing - not mentally, but physically. I have absolutely nothing against the noble art of bedside nursing - it is the bedrock of our career - and it will always be an option for me, regardless of where I'm at in life ... but my thing? I didn't want it to be my only option - because it can be hard, grueling work. And ... when I went back to school ... I actually learned a few things! I didn't know all that could be known, and it really enlightened me to all of the wonderful things going on in nursing research, one article in particular that showed lower death rates when hospitals have higher rates of BSNs. So, it's not just an opinion anymore (like I once thought), it is becoming established scientific fact. There are reasons why hospitals are pushing this, and if you need proof, google "Education levels of hospital nurses and surgical patient mortality" that was published in JAMA.