Getgoing

Las Vegas, Nevada. 3rd year as a school nurse. Large school district with about 200 School Nurses. Assigned to 2 public elementary schools (approx 1600 students combined). Work with First Aid Safety Assistants (FASAs) in each school's health office. My FASAs are awesome. 8:15-3:21, M-F. Paid on Teachers pay scale with a higher starting salary than a 1st year teacher Teachers' health insurance, vested pension after 5 years. Love holidays, winter break, spring break, and summer off because I have wife & kids of my own. Opportunities to work extended school year, summer school, Child Find for additional pay. Paid year round. About $47,000 a year starting in the fall. Teacher pay scale is public and can easily be found on the district web site. I'll probably never go back to the hospital!

We do have union hospitals in Vegas. There are union payscale posters posted in various public locations. If you work med/ surg, ratios are usually 6:1 days and 9:1 nights. Sometimes an extra patient is pushed on to you. IMC can vary but I hear mostly 3:1 or 4:1. Critical care mostly 2:1, 1:1, or 1:2 depending. Cost of living and traffic are lower but so is pay compared to Cali. New grads in my hospital start at $27 and change / hr on medsurg.

Updated interview guide link: http://nursing.jhu.edu/life_at_hopkins/student_resources/center/documents/interview_guide.pdf

Hi beagle75, I'm assuming you've already asked the NSC SON staff about switching. If you haven't, you might ask them if it's even a possibility. Let me just tell you up front that what worked for me might not work for you. Some people have to study a lot to get As and others can study less and get As. My kids were 7 months old and 4 year years old when I started the accelerated program. I think my wife would have divorced me if I spent 90 hours in class and studying. I would put in a little time reviewing material for an everyday class and then do lots of hours studying for exams and writing papers when they came along. It also helped that I became friends with some really smart classmates. We studied together at times, did happy hour, lots of class projects, and pushed each other to get good grades. For me, Maternity and Peds wasn't as stressful as first semester skills pass offs. Maternity was maybe a little more challenging because it's specialized and the tests were difficult. My grades didn't fluctuate all that much throughout nursing school. I believe that most of my classmates were consistent in their grades as well. My thinking is if you got As and Bs so far, you'll most likely get that grade level throughout. If you are able to learn concepts quicker than average, are confident in your study habits and usually get good grades, I think the accelerated track might be a good fit. Study Tip: The ATI RN Edition Content Mastery Series Review Modules books are helpful to study with. Sometimes you can find them used on ebay for really cheap. They simplify and prioritize concepts.

I just graduated from the NSC Accelerated BSN program in August 2011 and wanted to share some of my thoughts about the experience. My classmates were awesome. I made some lifelong friendships. We bonded over the challenging course material and clinical experiences. We studied a lot but also had a lot of fun. I'll miss seeing them all on a regular basis. The accelerated track was fast, doable, and challenging. I think it would be very hard if you had to work part-time or a single parent with little ones. The start of every semester brought some anxiety but after the first exam, test-off, or clinical day, you generally got into a rhythm. You just had to be flexible and adapt to each professor's teaching style and personality. The faculty is highly knowledgeable and experienced. Quite a few PhDs and DNPs on staff. The small class sizes made for a great learning environment. I definitely had the opportunity to get to know the professors well. The facilities were good. We utilized the Clinical Simulation Center on Shadow Lane a lot. On campus, all the classrooms were wired for internet and video. Webcampus was used effectively. The NSC libraries were accessible. Group study rooms at the big university library also came in handy for late night studying. Clinical rotations were available all over the valley (which is good). I got to rotate through Summerlin, Sunrise, St. Rose Siena, UMC, Rawson-Neal, Salvation Army, and the ECDC African Refugee Center. Clinical instructors were great and knew the facilities and staff pretty well. Now I hear it's even more competitive to get into a NSC BSN Nursing track. That's understandable considering it's probably the lowest cost fully accredited BSN program in Nevada. From my time speaking with a few RNs with AAS degrees, it sounds like some hospitals are pushing them to get BSNs. Good luck to all of those who have started nursing school this Fall. Keep your head up! -GetGoing