Gecko27

And for amberzon...I forgot to mention that we almost all used our laptops. Most of the instructors will post a powerpoint before class that you can add your own notes to. Take advantage of the free printing at school. Seriously. I printed literally thousands of pages of powerpoints and notes so I would always have them available if I happened to go someplace where I would have a chance to read them.

Community hours are seperate from the regular hospital clinical hours that you have to do. For your first semester, you will be doing your hospital rotation (it's med-surg) 2 days a week for 5 weeks. They break you up into groups of about 8-10 and all but one of the groups did their rotations from mid-September to the end of October. I don't know what the scheduling will be like for you guys because you are a much bigger class than we were (since they combined traditional and collaborative...or whatever it is that they did). In the spring we did 3 weeks of med-surg, 3 weeks of OB, and 2 weeks of peds. As far as community clinical is concerned, you have to do about 30 hours the first semester (you do get 2 hours of credit for orientation). There are sign-up sheets for the rest of the hours and you will do them at places like the Day Center for the Homeless, the OU Diabetic Clinic, OU Peds, and Healthy Paseo. You are also required to do 2 nights (4 hours each) at the Bedlam Clinic, which is a free clinic that is staffed by mostly medical, nursing, pharm and other students and residents. Some of your hours are just observation (like OU Peds) but at others you will be doing stuff like taking vital signs, health histories, and stuff like that. 30 hours may not seem like a lot but there is so much other stuff that you have to do and it sometimes becomes a burden. There are also usually exactly the amount of spaces available as there are students, so it's really hard to find extra hours if you get sick or something and have to miss. Don't let people freak you out though. It CAN be done. I can't believe I am already a senior. The past year flew by. It wasn't easy but I can honestly say that I learned more in the past 2 semesters that I thought I would be capable of learning.

They love to wait until the Friday before the semester begins to tell you what the exact class schedule will be. It's not impossible to hold down a job but I really wouldn't recommend it. If scheduling is an issue for you, my biggest piece of advice is to RUN to sign up for community clinical hours as soon as they put up the sign up sheets. If you wait even a day all of the good slots will be taken and it is almost impossible to get all of the hours you need.

Congrats Honeydawn! If you have any questions or just want a few pointers, pm me. I was so excited when I got my acceptance letter last year...but it quickly turned into "Holy crap, what did I get myself into?!" I've found that it's much easier if you can find a friend along the way who has been there and done that.

I got into the traditional BSN program on the Tulsa campus.

Don't be too discouraged! I was missing a pre-req when I got in. I felt exactly the way you did.

I got mine in April. I think it was the 14th or 15th.

I know you posted this a couple of weeks ago, but I was just wondering how your application process was going. I've been on 2 interviews so far and I got a little discouraged. The department I want to work in is really competitive and they basically told me that I probably wouldn't get in because the people on scholarships get the first choice of places to work. I am probably just going to go wherever offers me a position first. I figure any paid learning experience has to be a good thing, right?

I took my CNA class @ Interim about 2 years ago. I learned SO much and I really think it helped prepare me for my BSN program that I'm in now. The first couple of days are little boring because it's all book work but it's fun when you get to actually start doing stuff in the lab. When I finished and went to take the state certification test, I felt like I was well prepared. I took the night class, which is a little tough when you work full-time during the day. We did our clinicals @ St. Simeon's and OSU Medical Center. I had a few classmates that got hired by both places while we were still in class. Good luck! You will learn a TON, especially if you haven't ever worked in the nursing field before.

I'm not really sure what the "average" GPA was for the people who are in my class, but from what I've heard I think it was in the mid-3 point range. Of course, there's always somebody brilliant who comes in with a 4.0 or something close to it...but most of us had some B's and C's. I don't think it's as impossible to get into as people make it out to be. Nursing school is hard, but it's manageable. You just have to budget your time wisely. First semester isn't terrible, it just takes getting used to. Get a good planner or calendar because you will be doing something different every day (especially the first 3 weeks or so of every semester). As far as grades go, the worst part for me is the nursing school grading scale (93% for an A, etc...) If it had been that way in the prerequisites, I definitely wouldn't have had a 4.0 in all the science classes.

I'm a junior on the Tulsa campus. I had about a 3.2 overall GPA, but I had a 4.0 in my science classes. I have a whole bunch of hours from a previous major from the Norman campus, which I think helps. I took all of my sciences @ TCC but all of the other basics (like Comp 1 & 2, History, etc..) @ OU-Norman. Good luck to you guys :) I remember how stressed out I was waiting for my acceptance letter. I didn't know anybody who was already in the program, so I felt completely lost. Feel free to ask any questions.