Just1nRN

I'm not sure if you're currently enrolled as an LVN in an RN program and are thinking of continuing on with the RN-BSN at UTA? Or if you're already an RN with LVN experience who hopes that the LVN experience could be used in lieu of an elective? Keep in mind that UTA's program is only for RNs. Regardless, the national certifications that can be used in place of an elective are certifications like CCRN for critical care or CEN for ER nursing. You'll have to speak with an academic advisor for an exhaustive list. If you have one of these certs, you can send documentation to your academic advisor and pay $15 to get 3 hours of elective credit. If applicable, this can reduce the amount of time you spend taking courses at UTA. Most places of employment will reimburse you for exam fees and study materials and may even give you a reward/bonus for becoming certified in your speciality which is an added bonus as well.

Yes, but you'll need to take two nursing courses at a time (at one point I took two nursing courses and an elective for a total of three). To save time, you'll also probably want to use a national nursing certification in place of an elective (which I did). I was able to finish in 9 months.

Taking Medical Terminology with Prof. Nursing A/B is very doable. There are 3 or 4 (can't remember) 50 question multiple choice tests that comprise your grade. No other assignments besides the tests. The tests basically cover medical definitions.

This is what they say, but I was able to enroll anyway and nothing ever happened to me. Not endorsing this...just saying I did it without a problem (enrolled in other nursing classes).

I took Professional Nursing A&B along with Medical Terminology (elective) and Older Adults. Made A's in all of them and didn't stress either. Totally doable.

Sometimes, if UTA doesn't have an exact equivalent of your course at their instutition, they will simply transfer the course as something generic like "biology transfer," but you will still get credit if your academic advisor approves that course as being equivalent for their program. For example, I took American Literature since the Civil War at another instutition (that also offered American Lit before the Civil War). However, UTA's American Literature class combines both before and after portions. They transferred the course as "English Transfer", but this satisfied the literature requirement. Same for statistics, I took PSYC statistics, but UTA doesn't have this course. It transfers as "psychology transfer", but it counted as my stats course. Whatever is on your course map is exactly what you need to complete the program (excluding electives, of which I recommend taking Medical Terminology). Medical Terminology is completely online and your grade is basically made up of 3 or 4 online, multiple choice tests. Very, very easy.

Discussions (one each week for 6 points (6 pts * 5 weeks = 30% of your grade)) - the discussions are typically very straight forward and minimally time consuming like the other courses in the program. Journal entries (3 points each for 4 weeks = 12% of your grade) - these are basically 1-2 paragraphs of writing each week answering a prompt about your RN to BSN experience and your professional growth/development over the program. Again, minimally time consuming. Journey paper (10% of your grade) - basically taking your 4 weeks of journal writing and putting them into a formal paper at the end of the program with some modification. This takes probably a few hours of time. Capstone project (42% of your grade divided into 3 parts) - Basically, you develop a presentation (PowerPoint) from the perspective of the nurse as a leader, educator, or clinical expert. The perspective and topic are completely your choice. Your presentation must have information supported by a minimum of 9 peer reviewed research articles cited in APA format. The presentation itself as well as a few planning documents and evaluation forms comprise this portion of the course. Resume - Basically, submit a professional looking, error-free resume at the end of the course for 6% of your total course grade. That's it! No quizzes, no tests, no shadowing a nurse leader, nothing outside of your home. Easy course. Ended up with an A+++ (almost a perfect score). Everything is very straightforward. Follow the directions, meet all criteria in the rubric, and you get an A. The curriculum continues to use the scaffolding style in which each week's assignment builds on the previous week to culminate in a larger final assignment (such as each journal entry being used in the final paper, and each week's presentation portion building up to the final submission at the end).

Having finished this program, the references to state laws primary deal with things that are either common sense or exist in various forms in other states. Things typically discussed include: -Safe Harbor: you have the right to protect your license from sanctions by the BON if you object to an unsafe assignment but management refuses to make accomodations -Peer assistance: Specifically, Texas has the Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses (TPAPN). These programs exist in other states too but may have different specific rules/regulations. There is a quiz over this in the Professional Nursing course, but most of the answers are easily looked up on the TPAPN website and/or in the lecture/notes provided -Laws, rules, and regulations aimed at professional conduct, malpractice, and patient boundaries: these are thoroughly discussed in the lectures/notes and are primary common sense. Don't come to work drunk, don't have sex with a patient, don't accept financial gifts from patients, et cetera. There are plenty of people from out of state that have completed this program without any issues whatsoever. You are just slightly disadvantaged because most Texas nurses are already very familiar with these topics and Texas' approach to them.

As a Texan, I can attest to the fact that we are a little full of ourselves... hence why our government mandated this lovely course that doesn't apply to out of state students.

This flyer: http://www.uta.edu/nursing/files/RNonlineflyer.pdf Gives you a course-by-course breakdown of exactly what you need to complete, including the two electives required, in order to graduate. College algebra can be taken at a local community college instead of at UTA if the on-campus final is an issue. However, many community colleges will also require in-person exams for college algebra because it is so prone to dishonesty (can easily use applications/websites to solve the problems).

amyrnfa is correct, you will need something that has the full functionality of a computer. A netbook or ultrabook might prove to be more portable than a traditional laptop. An example of a netbook would be the Acer Aspire One. They are miniature laptops with the full functionality of a PC, but are extremely light and have very long battery life.

They had no problem accepting PCCN. Keep in mind that PCCN is a relatively new certification, however, it is on the list of approved certs (and the academic advisors aren't nurses, so I don't know why they would say anything about not recognizing it)... A few weeks later, I had to email my academic advisor back because I never heard from them about it... so you have to stay on top of them. They are slow and inefficient...

Here's the Syllabus for Professional Nursing A/B. N3645_Syllabus_AP.FALL.11.pdf

If Tech Writing is full, see if you can't take speech, philosophy, or an additional literature course instead. Your advisor will let you know if any of these courses are available that qualify as a substitute for tech writing.

LGJMan, Clewi102 is correct, Tech Writing (or equivalent) can be taken concurrently with Professional Nursing A/B. You may have to get your academic advisor to manually register you for this if the online system is prohibiting it. Sometimes the system isn't "smart" enough to know that you are actually meeting the requirements, and it just sees that you haven't done Tech Writing and stops you. I would email your advisor.