bash75

Stick to the E book packages. You can search for info much easier with e-books. You can also copy and paste info to develop study guides. Some of the info from the tests are from the text and are not covered in the power point lectures. But if you get the e-book packages you will be fine.

That is not how the program was advertised, but because it is easier for the staff and so many of the teacher's and the staff have quit (at least at the glendale site) I think they are trying to extend the program to 16 months to cover themselves in the case of disgruntled students. It basically just allows the administration time in Norman, OK to process the official transcripts at their own convenience. It also allows instructors to not have to rearrange the schedules in the final semester to try and fit every requirement into 10 weeks. This may not be a bad idea, but it takes some of the luster off of the "14 month" appeal of the program.

I talked with one of the reps from ATI. He said that the research showed that students do better taking the NCLEX as close to the end of school as possible. The longer you wait, the less successful students are. ATI has a predictor test that will extrapolate your chances of success on the NCLEX. Mine was like a 98% chance that I will pass when I took it 6 weeks ago. Unfortunately most of the material you are tested on in the NCLEX you learned in semesters 2 and 3. The 4th semester was a lot of leadership and community material exclusive to BSN nurses. Both ADN and BSN nurses take the NCLEX so it doesn't focus on leadership and community. A week of studying before the NCLEX should be suffice if you are a decent student and not too much time has transpired from the original curriculum.

I wouldn't worry to much about the NCLEX and study materials. ATI is included in the tuition, but you can always take a Kaplan course if you are unsure. Most of the local colleges including community colleges include ATI or some prep course. The schools NCLEX pass rates are an important part of every's school accreditation, thus most schools spend a fair amount of time to help study for it. The San Diego site was far more organized than the Glendale site. An example of this is with community hours. It is set up for you in San Diego. In Glendale it was supposed to be set up for you, but every semester some instructor quit or got sick and it was up to the student to acquire those hours in time. There is less of a shortage in San Diego, thus it seems hospitals attempt to hire more educated nurses. In L.A. most of the nurses in the hospitals are ADN nurses. The hospital we were at was 60-70% ADN nurses and the hospital had longstanding relationships with the local communtity colleges. Most hospitals don't want to pay the price to train new grad nurses, thus they would rather hire ADN nurses with experience over new grad BSN nurses. Times have changed in the last year and a half with the economic climate, hopefully BSN nurses will be given preference in the future.

A little extra info for you guys considering the OU ABSN in Glendale. The sites clinical instructor just resigned and is taking a position at a local hospital. We have had 4 different clinical instructors over a 4 month period and I don't see it getting any better with them phasing out the program.

I would ask the students/administration how long after finishing does it take to post transcripts and send it to the board. At OU it was an extra 7 weeks so the saved time may be worth the extra money.

During my Peds rotation I talked to some of the San Diego students and they were just as bitter about the program. I understand your dilemma if you want a MSN. Its important to keep in mind an ASN makes as much money as a BSN in a hospital setting.(It is true that a BSN and MSN makes you a better candidate for management positions though) Don't count on getting a nursing position right away.Right now hospitals wont even interview you until you are licensed. Because the school doesn't post your transcripts until 16 months you won't be eligible to sit for the NCLEX until about the 17th months after you start the program (This defeats the whole purpose of the accelerated program and makes the curriculum harder than it needs to be) Hope your experience is more positive than mine, but if you have any other options I would strongly recommend you consider them. I'm not trying to be too much of a downer, but I'm just being honest and want people to know what they are getting into. Maybe when SDSU takes over the program it will get better. I think one of the biggest problems with the program right now is that no one in administration at OU cares about the CA programs. They are phasing out and selling both programs. I would assume this would make them less student-oriented then they already are.

I just finished the as the 1st cohort in Glendale. The program is awful. If you are planning to apply, I would urge that you reconsider and go somewhere cheaper that is more student oriented. First they boast it as a 14 month program but it isn't. You finish the curriculum in 14 months, but it takes an extra 2 months for them to post the transcripts and send them to the state board (what's the point of an accelerated program, if you still have to wait). Next they originally quoted $31,500, but after 1 year it was up to $35,000 which doesn't include books and other expenses. We had to do our pediatrics rotation 3 hours away in San Diego at our own expense (the school did not offer any re-imbursement for hotel/driving expenses even though they were at fault for not aquiring a local peds rotation in the largest metroplex in the country. They act as though they have a good relationship with the hospital, but the HR staff for the hospital is quick to let you know your resume will be added to the queu with all the other applications. Currently it is hard to attain a job as a new grad (hospitals don't want to pay for the training), thus it would have been nice to have had jobs lined up after graduation. OU actually ****** off some in the hospital administration, because they wanted preceptor positions to run a certain way that was disadventagious to the hospital. Ultimately I spent $40k of my savings for an over-rated OU nursing education inferior to the local community college (which costs about 7k. Don't make the same mistake I made.

Hello, maybe i can be of some assistance. I am currently in the 1st cohort from the University of Oklahoma(Glendale) site. The program is very unorganized and seems to be getting worse as it goes along. We are working on our 3rd site director and yet we've only been open for 10 months. They don't pay their staff enough, because they are used to paying Oklahoma salaries. Yet they have no problem charging private school rates even though it is a state funded institution. The tuition for a 14 month program started at $31,500 ten months ago and it is now up to 35,500 which doesn't include some of the nickel and dime stuff you end up paying for. The curriculum is as difficult as the regular university program but at a faster rate with very little instruction. If you fail 2 classes (anything under a 75%) you flunk out of the program. We've had several students in the two cohorts who have had to drop down a semester for failing a class or have left the program entirely. There has been minimal opportunity for tutoring for the struggling students and the university is very unsympathetic toward the plight of the students. We currently have to travel from L.A. to San Diego (a 5 hour commute on with our own money) to do our pediatrics rotation because the university could not establish a rotation at any of the hospitals in the los angeles area (the second largest city in the nation). I carry just under a 3.5 g.p.a and am originally from the state of OK, but I don't know that I would currently recommend the program to anyone unless they didn't have a lot of other options.