Noelani

It was easier than I expected. I wouldn't worry about it. It's mostly common sense questions. If you read the study guide and know the healthy birth practices you'll be fine. Good luck!

When I was considering certification last year, I decided to take both ICEA and Lamaze childbirth educator seminars. At the time, I wasn't sure what the differences were between the two and considered getting certified for both. After attending both seminars, I decided to just get certified with Lamaze. They are both WONDERFUL groups with admirable goals, but I found that Lamaze suited me a bit more than ICEA. If you want to teach in a hospital setting, you should call around to the hospitals in your area to see if they have a required certifying organization. Most of the ones in my area require you to have Lamaze, but some will accept either Lamaze or ICEA. If you want to teach in the community, you can teach any method you like, and browsing the organizations' websites can help you find one that fits with your beliefs. They are all a little different. Here's a few links of some of the ones I've heard of: http://www.lamaze.org/ http://icea.org/ http://www.bradleybirth.com/ http://www.hypnobirthing.com/ http://www.cappa.net/ http://www.birthworks.org/site/ For Lamaze, I had to attend a Lamaze childbirth educator seminar, document practice teaching experience, and take the certification exam. There are seminars all over the country, some even outside the country. How long it takes just depends on how quickly you can get practice teaching experience and work through the study guide. I was in nursing school at the time and took a little longer, but most of the people from my seminar took the exam about 7 months after taking the seminar. And although most of the hospital childbirth educators are probably already nurses, and some hospitals require you to also be a nurse to be a childbirth educator, most of the educators I've met that teach privately are not nurses. Good luck!

I just looked back at the letter and it's dated November 5th, but I don't remember exactly when I applied. It seemed to be a very quick response, as far as college acceptance letters go. I wish I could help you with where to live, but I'm from out of state, too. We live in Creve Coeur/Maryland Heights area. It's about a 25-30 minute drive to campus. I know that most of the students in this program live near campus or within a 10-15 minute drive, but not actually ON campus. I don't have a clue what CWE is. Hopefully more people will respond! Good luck!

The letter they sent me just said I was conditionally accepted pending completion of theology or religion. I'm pretty sure all I needed was a C to get credit for the course and stay accepted. But the school didn't even get my last transcript until after the program had already started.

They say they start making decisions in the fall prior to each May start date, but there's no firm application deadline. I think I applied in October or November. You have to complete the transfer admission application, along with a separate nursing based essay and 2 letters of recommendation. I didn't have all my prereqs done before applying. As long as you finish them before the first day of school, you're fine. I remember I took an online religious studies class in the spring before the program started. My GPA from my previous degree (B.S. in human biology) was about 3.2, and became 3.3 once the A's from nursing prereqs at community college were factored in. I think their minimum was 3.0. It didn't seem like a long wait before I got a letter of acceptance (provided I completed my last prereq on time). I never had to interview, although I think the website says they might ask for one. A few months after I was accepted, we all got letters notifying us of the new generalist MSN program for second degree students without a BSN or RN. I wasn't really interested in it, but it's something you might want to consider. There's also one application for all the SLU scholarships, which is very nice. I have only known one student receiving any financial assistance from SLU, but I'm sure there are a few more. It is a pretty expensive program, but a few students have managed to work at least part time, although it's strongly discouraged.

I'm in the program now and LOVE IT. I started in May and will graduate next May. Summer semester was pretty difficult, but I'm told it's the hardest semester and it was still definitely doable, as long as you can make a serious time commitment. I honestly believe the directors and instructors want us to succeed. They seem to understand the rigor of the program and adjust their teaching methods and course structure accordingly. I have yet to have an unfair, boring, or less than expert instructor. This is just my experience, though. We took the first hour of a three hour pharmacology course, clinical decision making, health assessment, and communication during the first half of the summer (ended before the July 4th weekend) and pathophysiology and lifespan I (combination OB theory and clinical) during the second half (which ended the first week in August). During the fall semester, starting this Monday, we'll take evidence-based practice and the 2nd two hours of the pharmacology course. We also have lifespan II for the first half of the semester and lifespan III for the second half (I think that's peds and gerontological nursing). Half of the students take public health in the fall, while half take it in the spring. Whichever semester you don't have public health, you have psych/mental health. Spring includes lifespan IV (I think it's adult nursing), community health and a couple of other classes I can't recall. We have plenty of breaks. We'll get a fall break and Thanksgiving break, a spring break and Easter break. I'm now at the end of a 2-week break between semesters. You have the option of taking one elective in fall and one in spring. If you are interested in critical care, you can get a critical care certificate by choosing certain electives, like fluids and electrolytes or cardiopulmonary nursing. Fluids and electrolytes is supposed to be WONDERFUL, but very difficult. I don't know what this means as far as job opportunities go, but I imagine two comparable new grads applying for the same ICU position could be differentiated based on these extra electives. There are also other electives such as end of life care and adolescent sexuality, pregnancy and parenting. These might vary from one year to the next, but I'm pretty sure the critical care courses are a constant. Our schedule has pretty much been 8-4 or 8-3, depending on the day, and our OB clinicals were from 7-5 twice a week. Fall semester for us is lecture Monday 8-3, Thursday and Friday 8-10, with clinicals 3 days a week (Tuesday and Wednesday, and either Thursday or Friday). There are a wide variety of students in the program. There are many whose last degree wasn't in the sciences or in a health care related field. There are a lot of parents, and several older adults returning to college after long careers in another field, as well as students coming into the program immediately after graduating from their last bachelor's program. Sorry I can't offer you more, but I've only completed 1 of the 3 semesters. Hopefully someone with more experience with the program will respond. PM me if you can think of any other questions I might be able to answer. Good luck!

It sparked my imagination! Thanks!

My school has a dedicated education program where randomly selected students attend all their clinicals at the same hospital, and tend to get more hands-on experience. There are 25 spots available, but the number of spots reserved for interested male students is much higher than what would be proportional to the number of males in the program. The idea is to make sure male students are adequately represented, but it's throwing randomization out the window.

You're so amazing. An inspiration to us all!

That's wonderful that you have such a supportive family to help with childcare. Nursing school is time-consuming and being a single mom at the same time sounds like a huge undertaking! I have my first bachelor's in biology, and just started a 12-month accelerated BSN program. In many areas, ADNs are being phased out and many hospitals require a BSN. You could still probably get a job in LTC, but it seems like healthcare is moving away from ADNs, at least in cities. I'd check your local job postings to see if "BSN required" is typical in your area. Maybe even call a couple of hospitals' HR departments and ask if they hire ADN-prepared nurses. Many of the hospitals also offer a BSN differential if they hire both ADN and BSN nurses. I'm certainly not saying you have to have a BSN, or even an RN, to be a great nurse. Definitely not the case. I'm just talking about job prospects in the cities I've lived in. It was an easy decision for me since I have a previous degree. It would be at least 2 years to go through an ADN program, and the traditional pace of a BSN program would take 2 years. My area (St. Louis) has several accelerated BSN programs, and other schools offerred 15 to 21 month programs. I figured that if it would take less time for a BSN program, and if it would ever impact if or where I could get a job, I'd rather go with the BSN. Good luck! I hope you find something that works for you!

I'd call the recruiter back and just politely say you're checking on the status of an application. But if it's only been 3 days, and she said to give the manager a couple of days, I'd personally give it another 2 days or so. It's great to seem eager but there's a fine line between eager and potentially annoying. Maybe try calling the recruiter on Monday morning.

In my program we take half of pharm, then patho, then the rest of pharm. I think it depends on how the classes are taught. If patho is a prereq for pharm where you are, then pharm will probably be taught assuming you know all about patho and they won't give you much background information. On the other hand, it seems that most of the community colleges I've encountered teach them as independent courses.

Where I used to work, food would be sent up to isolation rooms on disposable trays with all disposable utensils. The kitchen staff would not take it into the room like they did for everyone else, but would instead leave the tray at the nurses station for the PCA to take in, after donning all required PPE.

I'm at SLU now in the accelerated program. We have ALL kinds of majors, including religious studies, philosophy, engineering, finance, and French. Like others have said, as long as you have the prerequisites, you should be fine.

And yes, being a CNA is very physically demanding and always thinking about body mechanics is essential to protect your back (same as you'd have to do as a nurse), but I would make the same decision all over again. The experience was more rewarding than I could have imagined.