casn

I was in the Sacramento program - poorly administered, unprepared instructors, bottom of the barrel clinical instructors, and very expensive! Get used to hearing things like "be flexible" and "get your big girl panties on".....don't expect to learn much from your instructors or labs, and everything costs lots of $$. They don't have any special "ins" with hospitals so you won't get any preference when it comes to getting a job. Do Sutter instead and save yourself $50,000 if you want a job in nursing or do Sac State and save yourself $40,000 if you want the BS.

Sacramento....(not good!!)

Save your money Moni. Program is very expensive, very disorganized, and the instructors are useless. Have you checked out CSUS or Sonoma? Much better values...

Hi Nicolie, If you don't like it then you shouldn't be doing it - life is too short. I'm still a bit unclear about what you don't like. You mentioned the lack of challenge and being underwhelmed. Nursing school has a lot of bs and not enough hard core patho type courses...some programs are worse than others because they don't have the faculty who understands the patho well enough to really teach it! My question is, how do you feel during clinicals? Do you like working with pts? You just finished your 1st semester - was it in LTC? First semester in many programs essentially gets you to CNA level - not much. Med Surg will certainly be challenging....critical care will be really tough - if you get into it. I've seen a lot of students just kind of float along. Nursing School is one of those "you get out what you put in" sort of things. Clinical instructors really run the gamut ... I've had 1 nightmare clinical instructor who didn't know her stuff (and I consequently ended up paying for it) and 4 clinical instructors who were awesome. Nursing really is a "calling". You can make decent money, have decent job security, etc. but bottom line there are easier ways to make money. We do things that most people cringe at. The flip side is when you have a patient who's got half a dozen lines in them, who is embarrassed by being reduced to having a student nurse perform personal hygiene on them, say to you "thank you so much, you're really an angel from heaven".....I've done a lot of things in life and made very good money but imho there is no financial reward that comes close! So, the question is, are you the sort of person who is willing to do what other people don't want to do - and like it? Because if you are forcing yourself to do it for money, job security or whatever, then you won't be the kind of nurse that you would want your grandmother to have - and you're going to be taking care of somebody's grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter......

For what its worth, I just completed a stint with the LC as part of my Maternity Rotation - she had me do all the pt teaching including showing the moms how to hold their breast and how to place the nipple for good latch. I didn't have a single problem or anyone ask for a female. The LC commented on how professional I was and that I spoke directly and clearly to the mom. I also tried to incorporate the dads so they saw what was happening and understood the importance of positioning. This reminds me of all the concerns guys have about caring for females in general - just do it and be professional. I see each pt as a pt - period. I am there to solve a problem/provide care/ease suffering/teach.....I've never had a problem.

Save your money unless you're going to the Oakland campus - otherwise you'll find the program to be horribly overpriced and underorganized (I know its not really a word!)

Listen to Amy! She is dead on. Absolutely the worst experience I've ever had in academia - and I hold 2 degrees. Try to get into a community college or SFSU/CSUEB/SJSU if at all possible!!! Save your money!!!