lanoneus

Well I'm finished (with a 4.0, yaaaaa!) Do we really have to pay $150 to graduate? Ugh. Anyway, I think I was one of the last 5 week capstone people. They changed it some, and the instructors don't seem aware of the changes they made. They gave us a ridiculously low word count that would have resulted in a 6 page paper even though it was 30% of our class grade. The instructor finally just told us we could go over the word count if we needed to. They also seemed to have changed the format some, so the example papers no longer fit in as well. However, I just followed the rubric and everything was fine. It does help immensely to have the right topic. I saved research methods till the last class right before Capstone, so I would have plenty of time to decide before then what I wanted my topic to be on. It was still a bit too broad in the research class, but I had narrowed it down enough that when capstone came around, I was on a role. Keep in mind that capstone articles should for the most part be from the last 5 years, and look up your topic using those search parameters in the date field. That tells you if enough research is still being done on the topic to make it a viable one. Good luck everyone! And don't worry too much about "the list"; I had one of the teachers on the list, she did grade a little bit harder, but if you're a decent writer, you will be fine. Always look at the educational background of your instructor, that will give you an idea of what quality of writing they expect.

ACEN and CCNE refer to the program accreditation. You definitely want one of those. But national and regional accreditation refer to the college itself. You want regional accreditation, not national. National is kind of a made up thing by for-profit colleges to give themselves an air of legitimacy; however, credits from a nationally accredited school do not have to be accepted by any regionally accredited school. Here is an article from wikipedia on regional accreditation and the agencies that do it. Regional accreditation - Wikipedia And in answer to your question, it sounds like both are regionally accredited, the other one just paid extra for national accreditation. Make sure both programs are approved by ACEN or CCNE and you should be fine with either.

Hello again, asking one last questions for the "old-timers" that did the 5-week program. Our last assignment for the class is a 1500 word paper that includes all of the following: Students will develop a 1,250-1,500 word paper that includes the following information as it applies to the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need profiled in the capstone change proposal: Background Problem statement Purpose of the change proposal PICOT Literature search strategy employed Evaluation of the literature Applicable change or nursing theory utilized Proposed implementation plan with outcome measures Identification of potential barriers to plan implementation, and a discussion of how these could be overcome Appendix section, if tables, graphs, surveys, educational materials, etc. are created So I asked the teacher basically if that was the capstone project. Her answer confused me and I've asked a follow up but she won't respond before tomorrow. This was her initial response: It is one paper for the final paper, which should include your prior works in the course in to a final culminating document. I do not monitor the word count unless it is grossly over or under. So my question is: if the final paper is 1500 words worth 300 points, where do the 20-40 page products that I've heard tale of and that they have samples posted of come in?

Ok, another stupid question related to PICOT/Capstone. Is our capstone project the final product of all the assignments in the Capstone class? That comes up to a minimum of 5,750 words. Aren't most people's papers longer than that? Also, does anyone know where on the GCU website they have previous Capstone papers posted? The librarians told me once but I didn't mark it and can't find it again.

5 Week Capstone/1st week question: Hi everyone, especially everyone that graduated under the old program. I will (hopefully) soon be an alumni, but I have a question about our first week's assignment for this class. Besides the lit review of 8 sources, we are supposed to turn in a 500-700 word description of the capstone project, including the problem, setting where it can be observed, description regarding the problem, impact of problem, significance of problem, and proposed solution. That's assignment 1. Assignment #2 is basically the PICOT statement in a 500-700 word paper that "clearly identifies the clinical problem and how it can result in a positive patient outcome." So, the PICOT statement should be part of assignment 1 right? The picot problem and the capstone project would be the same, and the proposed solution in assignment #1 would be the evidenced based solution? It seemed like an odd way to break down the assignment, just want to make sure I understand it correctly. Thank you for reading!

I start the Research class next week as the predecessor to my (5 week) capstone course. I remember reading that some said you could get most of the paper done during the research class, can anyone elaborate? TIA!

Tokmom, have you heard anything else about this? I'm trying not to flip out, since I've only got research and capstone left. I've been searching state website and looking for news about a new law but haven't come up with anything. I'll call GCU tomorrow, but I don't really trust them to know or give me the truth. :/

Hey 4mranch, we are in the same boat. 8 down, 3 to go. are you in the traditional PICO group or did they switch you over the the new group? I start research next month. Pink, I'm pushing 40, but I don't think your ever too old. I've been in some version of school on and off for 15 years (took me a while to settle into my forever desire for nursing cause we move a lot). I don't regret any of it. It keeps your brain active, keeps you young, and certainly doesn't hurt job prospects.

Fort Hayes University is all online, supposed to be one of the cheapest programs around, around $200 a credit hour. WGU is also cheap, but is priced by 6 month terms, I heard it was more like $6000 per term. Very few people complete it in one term, even 2 terms is pushing it but a lot of driven folks due it. 3-4 I think is their average. Fort Hayes is more traditional. WGU just does pass/fail, so your GPA for grad school is considered a 3.0 I believe. Both programs are regionally accredited and accredited by CCNE ACEN.

Hi guys! Sorry to ask more PICO questions, and I'm still under the old program (start the research class/literature review next month),so the veterans can answer best.... someone mentioned getting hours signed off working on the PICO? Do you need to do a lot of work at the facility? I thought it was mostly research? I ask because I'm in Hawaii, not licensed here, and not working. I can probably volunteer on the military base (they will take any state's licensure), but I don't really have any connections. How much work do you need to do "on-site?" ETA: I do want to work and get licensed here, but they have weird rules, and if I license before June, I'll have to pay $130 to license for 6 months, then $240 to license again in June. So obviously I'd like to just wait until June and pay the $240 then.

Yeah, no school is going to let you graduate with less than 30 hours of courses from their school, no matter how many degrees or hours you have from other schools. If you want to go fast, WGU's program is self-paced, and I have heard that a few people have done it in 3 months, but that is very rare. It costs the same if you do it in 3 or 6 months, after that I think it charges in 6 months increments.

Hey, can someone spell out capstone for me? I'll start on it in April, but I want to already have a plan when I do research in February/March. I'm on the old program. I don't have a job right now, so will I need to find a facility and a mentor to do something in? Or is the mentor through GCU?

That was me on the early doubling up. I did it for the first 2 classes. Wasn't unmanageable, but everything's due at the same time for each. I wrote everything for one class on a saturday before it was due and everything for the other the sunday it was due. It was a bit stressful and sucked up all of my weekends for 5 weeks, so I didn't do it again. They did act like it was a big deal, but I had a good GPA from some graduate level online classes I had taken, so I assured them I would not have a problem with it. They just want to know they can trust you; I assume the advisors are kind of responsible if you fall on your face and they let you take extra classes.

As a student at a for-profit, and a former human resources professional, hear are the pros and cons. It probably will not matter. I say probably, because I will tell you that as a manager, if 100% of all things being equal, I will take graduate of a more traditional school over a graduate from a for-profit if I had to hire without an interview, but they are both going to get the interview call. After the interview, the better experienced, less jerky candidate will get the job. There are some people that may not make that call, so you will always deal with that. However, once you're one year past your degree, successful work experience matters more to managers than school reputations. All of the schools' programs you listed are accredited by ACEN or CCNE. However, Aspen appears to only have national accreditation of the overall college: FAQ for Students. It's always better to go for regional accreditation vs. national. WGU is a great program from all accounts and can be a cheap option if you're highly motivated, but I believe it gives you the equivalent of a 3.0 GPA because all classes or pass/fail. I'm a GCU student. They do big discounts for veterans, and I needed flexibility with scheduling. Fort Hayes is a very inexpensive program and has a good reputation, but they do a more traditional school schedule, so you would need to be able to accommodate their schedule. Texas programs require a state history of texas class, but UTA and Texas Tech both have good reputation. When researching, be sure the college you pick has an interstate agreement in place with the state you live in. For example, I wanted to do the BSN program at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, but at the time (not sure if it's changed), they did not have an agreement in place that allowed them to offer the program to residents of Maryland. It's a weird interstate commerce rule, so just ask the question to the enrollment counselor early in the program and make sure you get the answer in writing.

Just a note in Perrla...... I ended up using Perrla complete this year, I think it was $30 a year, and it's been awesome. It's like the regular Perrla program, but I've found it easier to use, and it's online, so you can log into a computer anywhere and work on your paper there. I hate change, but this was actually easy to learn and I find it better. Here's the website: (not an affiliated link or whatever, I'm not schilling, just sharing.) :) Welcome That's weird, don't know why it did that. anyway, it's http://www.perrlacomplete . com

In reply to the question about the longer capstone, they called me and tried sell me on switching over to the new program, but I didn't want to. They told me I had to finish the original program by a certain date (May 2017 for me) in order to not be forced into the new program. It was based on continuous enrollment from my start date, so since I had to take a several month break due to moving, I worked out with my advisor when I had to go back in order to finish the program under the old course schedule.

Hi everyone! I'm back, I was going steady till last sept/october, when I got two jobs and had to call it quits for a while. I'll start patho in January, Research in February, and Capstone in April (still graduating under the old program/5 weeks capstone class). Right now I'm scheduled to finish Leadership before the Christmas break. I'd like to push things forward a little faster--right now I still have two week breaks scheduled between classes. Would you recommend skipping the 2 week break and going straight from Research into Capstone? Or will I need/appreciate the time in-between? And is patho really bad? So far, I haven't had trouble with most of the classes (other than hating all the subjective religion papers), but I know a lot of people say patho is tough? Thinking about stacking the last week of leadership with the first week of patho to speed things up. Thanks for any info!

Maybe your reaction the the narcotics and the insulin is what has them concerned. Honestly, part of their judgement call on how they will respond to your mistake is whether or not you recognize the gravity of it. I don't know how you responded in person, but you sound kind of flippant in your email.

It depends on what's important to you. Cost: check locally or look into Fort Hayes. Convenience/quickness/flexibility: Grand Canyon University, Western Governor's, Chamberlain. Just make sure the program is regionally (not nationally) accredited (all the ones I mentioned are), and either ACEN or CCNE accredited.

Hey, for our last class/big writing project, I think some have mentioned that a couple of the other classes can be helpful towards it. I know one was into to research; was trends the other one?

I graduated last December and got a job in a LTC facility in September (took the summer off to be home with the kids). It's mostly long term care with a few sub-acute rehab cases, some wounds and g-tubes, but nothing very major. The system is pretty archaic, we still do paper MARs and the nurses pass all the meds. I kind of hate it. I only work every other weekend (I still have an office job unrelated to nursing), and I feel like a person working on a factory line. I loved clinical in nursing school, and I know the real nursing world wouldn't be exactly like clinical, but I feel like my only jobs are to take vitals, pass a ****load of meds, and treat a few skin wounds. Our patient load is usually around 15-18. It's only 8 hours shifts so that part is nice. There is still so much I don't know. Training was terrible, a joke really. I'm going in on my own time to watch the skin care doc do his weekly rounds so I can hopefully learn a little more about that, but everything else I need to figure out is me googling it. And I feel like maybe I'm lucky I'm in a relatively low-skill level environment, because I'm already overwhelmed. I always end up working at least 2 hours late, I barely get my meds passed and get a couple of skin treatments in before the next shift shows up, then I spend the rest of my time finishing treatments and doing records. I pray nobody gets discharged, falls, transfers, or does anything that will require extra paperwork, cause then I'll be there another hour at least. Supplies are frequently hard to come by, and are locked away in a storage room that only the main supervisor has access to, and sometimes you really have to badger them to get you something. I resent that I have to waste so much time trying to get an ACE wrap. I don't feel like I'm "caring" for people", just keeping them medicated. I'm worried to go to a hospital because I feel like if I can't make it here, maybe I'm not cut out for bedside nursing? I do my best to prepare, I make notes on my patients, type them up at home and bring them back, I've created a continuity sheet to remind of all the difference passwords, paperwork, and processes we have to know, so it's not like I am not trying. I just didn't think it would seem so hard.

My husband is military, and we are moving to Hawaii, visiting family on the way, shipping a car, pets in quarantine, etc. I need to take a break for the sake of my kids and my sanity. :) Also, it sounds like the job market sucks in hawaii, so I should have plenty of time to finish while I look for a job. OMG the group project for public health is the worst! Has it recently changed, or has it always been this bad? Besides interviewing a public health official and doing physical assessment of the community, we have to write about 12 functional health areas. Like down in the weeds, one of the questions is number of public restrooms!!! Anyways, my group has some piss-poor writers. What do y'all think about editing other people's work? I mean, I'm gonna fix the citations and all, but what about content? It's definitely bad enough to get marked down right now, but I'm not sure I have the time or the will to go and fix 12 slides worth of problems. And I don't want to get blamed if it gets marked down anyways.

Hi everyone! One week and two days left on Public Health, I HAAAATE this class. The group project for the class is the worst! Anyway, not why I am writing. I'll need to take a break this summer because we are moving, and I should have three classes left at that point. Obviously the Professional Research Project is one; just curious what would be the other best two. I have already requested to have Intro to Nursing Research later on; I'm not ready to pick a topic yet. What would be your recommendation for the other one? Also, of the following other classes I have left, which is easiest? I need a brain break. Trends & Issues, Pathophysiology, Leadership & Management, Spirituality, and Ethics?

I doubled up my first two, Professional Dynamics and Family Centered Health promotion. It was pretty dang hard, but I managed. One of those, I think Prof. Dynamics, didn't have an assignment due the first week, so that was okay. I am glad I did not double up when doing Assessments, the last week we had two projects due. Two classes at a time is manageable but miserable.

As you can see, you will definitely need to have a thick skin. Plenty of nurses think badmouthing each other while working and in the nurse's station is par for the course and not unprofessional. Other occupations call it "gossip," we call it "expressing our opinions of a poor performance." If you're lucky, they will tell you what you're doing wrong to your face before they go tell everyone else.