snickersBRaccel

New grads at OLOL start at 19.75/hr. There will not be another orientation class until January, so enjoy the holidays :)

OLOL's new grad pay is 19.75/hr

In the beginning there were papers to write, and every class had some type of project, but it usually wasn't something you had to spend more than a day or so on. There wasn't enough time to research something for weeks to write a 10 page paper :) Tons of careplans.

I did do the contract, and it's true that another hospital can buy it out. However, I'm not sure in this economy that a hospital would be willing to spend more on a new grad. But it is possible. Feel free to ask anything, and vent often... we did it alot :)

"I'm a 35 y.o. single mother of 2 boys (9 & 13). Can you tell me more about the "type" of students that actually completed the program? i.e. age, etc."-- As for the type of student, we had young twenty-somethings who were single or dating, and we had more mature students with husbands and children. All did equally as well. It can be challenging with kids from what I hear, but it was definitely doable for my peers. The biggest thing to remember is that your life will be nursing school for 10 months, then it will be NCLEX prep for another month or so. Then you'll get your life back :) "What was the typical schedule like per week? And, how was the employment outlook/salary?"-- schedule wise, after pharmacology (only about two days of school a week, no clinical), you'll have probably 3 days of classes a week, then pre-clinical (and the night full of care plans) and then two full days of clinical each week (clinical can be on weekdays or weekends.) I tried each week to have an evening to myself with no nursing school work. I napped often, and it kept me sane. Employment wise, we were offered a contract with OLOLRMC for 3 years in which they paid our tuition. As far as I'm aware, all of my classmates got jobs, but it can take a couple months before you actually start work. I finished Aug 6, 2009 and didn't start working until Sept 21st. I took the NCLEX before I started working so I wouldn't have to worry about studying while in orientation. Salary wise, it depends on the schedule you work. Base pay is $19.75 for new grads at the lake. $4 evening differential (3pm-11pm) and $5 night differential (11pm-7am) and $5 weekend differential. So obviously, it depends on the schedule you work, whether you work M-F 8 hr shifts (approx $41K/yr) or seven, twelve-hour shifts a check on the night shift (approx $61K/yr).

well, I finished this program in Aug '09. It is intense in the sense that you will never have time to let your brain rest in 10 months time. It's tough physically... there were many sleepless nights filled with care plans, and clinical during the day. If you have a strong hold on anatomy and physiology, I believe the program will be a little less challenging. My word of advice- study the notes the instructors give you. Memorize them. Then seek clarification from the text books if you have time. It will take a little bit of time to think in the way you need to learn to think, so don't get discouraged if you don't make the grades you're used to making right off of the bat. Statistical wise- 40 students went to orientation, 39 came to the first class, 38 took the first test, and 18 finished the program. Most of the students who didn't finish the program moved to the 2 year program and either have finished, or are doing well and will be finished in May. Good Luck to you, and don't give up!

From what I understand, it takes about 3 weeks from the time your transcripts are sent to to the LSBN until your temp license comes in. Also I don't think the job market in the NO area is great right now. They're talking about 7% salary cuts and hiring freezes. I'm not sure if all of the hospitals are affected, but in general it's not looking great right now.

1. Is there something we can do now to start preparing for these things? –yes! Know your A&P like the back of your hand. So much of the exams is understanding the physiology. If you know your physiology, you will understand why you do the nursing interventions. 2. do you just take one class at a time or are you taking all of them at once for a term? –The first two classes (Intro to accelerated nursing & Pharmacology) are taken concurrently, after that, it’s one class at a time. 3. I heard that one of the tests is on 23 chapters. Is it true that you are tested on an ungodly amount of material at once? –We usually have between 3 -4 exams per class, so if you were to take the whole textbook and divide it into exams, you can expect at least 10 chapters per exam (and yes we have had tests covering many more). That being said, don’t expect that you will have time to read all of it. The first thing you need to study and know is the notes the instructors give you. If you know all of that, you can pass the test (passing is 79.5, and not 79.49) without reading the textbook. The books will mainly be for clarification and “good-to-know” knowledge, not “need-to-know.” However, if you are the type that has to read the book for your own peace of mind, go ahead and read it. I do have a friend in class that reads everything, and does very well on the exams. 4. How many started in your program? How many are left now? For the ones who are gone, what do you think happened? We started with 39, we have 20 left. We lost the most people in pharmacology (7), mostly because they got caught up in trying to learn from the book. Learn the notes they give you and what they say in class. 5. Is there any possibility of a life outside of school? –I think the instructors would like to pay those of us who are finishing to say that there is not life outside of school, but really, if you never do anything fun for 10 months, you won’t make it through because you’ll be so burned out from studying non-stop. There will be opportunities to do “daycations”, but I would leave any prolonged vacations to winter-break (2 weeks long) and spring break (1 week long). Other than those two breaks, there are not any significant breaks. 6. Are they helping you all find jobs?- no, they haven’t offered any advice on finding jobs 7. Were you guys eligible for grants? Or are student loans the only option?- we are not eligible for grants bc we already have bachelor’s degrees, All of us took out loans, unless you have built up quite a savings account to pay for tuition and living expenses. OLOLRMC did offer our class $12,500 for tuition if we signed a 3 year contract with them upon graduation. But if you sign the contract and don’t finish the program, you either have to work in whatever position they want you to for 3 years, or you have to pay back the money within 30 days. The checks from the hospital are disbursed semesterly. 8. So you are saying we will attend clinicals over the weekends when required. –absolutely. And they probably won’t allow you to switch with a classmate either. 9. How was it for you when you first started and what suggestions can you advise new students starting the program? –When I first started, I thought it was going to be really easy bc pharm is all understanding A&P (which I had just finished) and memorization. Then I got to fundamentals (which is probably the worst class schedule wise) and I learned I pretty much can’t function without naps :) My test-taking advice, besides learning the notes first, is: if you think you can prove your answer on the test by using the textbook, absolutely go to the instructors and state your case. There will usually be a question that you can state your case and receive credit for. And lastly, act humble and professional at all times. Please don’t be rude when you’re exhausted and stressed

My last final will be in about 4 weeks, so I'm almost done! Typically we had lecture 9am-4pm for two or three days a week, plus clinical 7am-5pm or 7am-7am two days a week. There is no clinical for pharmacology, but there are a lot of lab hours for fundamentals in addition to the clinical in the hospital. On average, you can expect 2 days off for any 7 day period, not always on the weekend. Also, for example, if you have clinical Saturday & Sunday, you will have preclinical for 1-2 hours on Friday to get your patient assignments in order to do your care plans. You can expect these care plans to take anywhere from 4-8 hours to complete Friday evening/night, so for the majority of the program, you will be completely exhausted Saturday morning for clinical. That is really the worst part of the program- trying to finish those care plan in the early morning hours when you know you have to work 10-12 hours on two or 4 hours of sleep. But the worst of it is at the beginning of the program: fundamentals... Adult I and Adult II will get easier as you get quicker with the paperwork. The other classes clinical components aren't that bad.

Hey y'all, I'm just finishing up the OLOL accelerated program in BR. I can give you some specifics as to what our tuition and fees were for this year, but keep in mind the tuition increase: Fall '08: 11 hours (Intro to accelerated nursing, Pharmacology, Fundamentals of Nursing) $3,640 plus $700 for books and $150 for scrubs & shoes. Spring '09: 18 hours (Mental Health Nursing, Adult health I, Adult Health II, Pediatrics) $5,326, plus another $300 or so for books. Summer '09: (Maternal-Newborn nursing, Adult health III) $3,348 plus another $150 for books. So that's about $13,600 for 10 months. Good luck, and enjoy your sleep while you can. Also a word of advice when it comes to studying for exams- FIRST, learn your notes, then when you know all of that, read the book if you have time.

the Mosby's 2009 Nursing Drug Reference has about 60 pages in the beginning of it that is excellent. If you study those 60 pages before school starts, you will be well ahead of the game. It outlines the different classes of drugs, their mechanism of action, common side effects, and examples of drugs in the class. Pharm is all memorization and understanding physiology, so if you don't remember A&P, review that, especially the autonomic NS, conduction system of the heart, and the kidneys.

the biggest topics so far are autonomic nervous system, heart (conduction system), & Kidney A&P, but everything physiology wise is important. Understand what the different hormones do to blood pressure, and what factors affect blood pressure. If you understand the ANS, all of the side effects for different meds will make sense and you won't have to memorize them.

first, in dealing with the college, keep copies of EVERYTHING you have to send them. We've had lots of problems with them losing papers. second, study your notes they give you and the notes you take in lecture first, then after you know them, if you have time, read the text books. There are several questions on the exams that come from the text book, but there are far more that come from what was discussed in class. Make sure you're good in algebra word problems. There are 5 questions on each exam that are dosage calculations. Hope this helps!

also, Pharm is all memorization and understanding A&P. I don't think someone could do well in Pharm if she didn't do well in A&P. Fundamentals so far has been mostly application of knowledge... and knowledge alone will not get you through.

I'm in OLOL's accelerated program right now, and there isn't any one reason why people don't make it. I know 3 students who were wait-listed for acceptance (but did get a spot due to people declining their acceptance) who made As in pharmacology (which we were told was the hardest class, with the highest drop out/failout rate.) ... so I just because someone isn't accepted initially, doesn't mean s/he won't do well in the "hardest" class. Here's how it went so far... 40 were accepted. 38 showed up to orientation/first day of class. 29 made it through pharmacology, and one more left in the middle of our fundamentals class to move back to her home state. So right now we have 28, with 3 weeks left of fundamentals, so we're at 70% retention right now. We won't know until January how many of us will continue, I hear a few students are now worried about passing fundamentals (79.50 is passing).