jezebelle

A friend did it, hated them, and returned for his money back.

Platt's NCLEX pass rates are ABYSMAL. The upper-tier area schools are in the mid- to high-90s, and Platt's at about 60%. Check the OK Board of Nursing site, because NCLEX pass rates are a pretty good indication of the quality of the education. It varies widely, and should definitely be taken into account.

Hi! I'm currently a junior in the program in OKC. My GPA was 3.75-ish, science 4.0, and it seems that that was pretty high. I think your chances are good. Given the chance to do it over, I'd have gone to UCO, though, so if you can, I'd suggest that you apply at least to those two. Good luck!

Affirmative. Dunno about the average washout rate.

I go in spurts. I can't PM, but feel free to hit me with your questions here, if you don't mind the public thing. I'm inclined to talk here, anyway, just so that if somebody else comes along with a similar question/concern, they can read too. As far as grad schools, I haven't heard much there -- I've heard from/about mostly new nurses and hospital staff re: which programs they prefer to get new nurses from. The word on the units seems to be that OUCN students aren't nearly as well-prepared as students from the other upper-tier area schools. I'm concerned about grad school, but am 1/3 of the way through the program and couldn't have transferred out anyway, for personal reasons, so I'll have to deal with any trouble as it comes. I've heard from several sources that a lot of the UCO students are really happy with and doing well in their program, and that they get a lot more hands-on time than we do. We get one two-hour skills lab and an eight-hour clinical day per week, but the UCO students are reportedly rarely on campus, usually at the hospital, working on their nursing skills. I can't say how well they do didactic, but I do feel that we don't get nearly enough practicum. We're told that while in school, we're learning the procedure for things, practicing them once or twice, then sort of actually getting to DO them only when we're out of school. That doesn't sit well with me, and the friends and family I've disclosed that to were uncomfortable with the idea, as well, from the perspective of patient/family. About a month into the spring semester, some things have improved. There's a LITTLE more lecture, but not much. It's still tons of reading, very little practice. One class just meets in clinical groups for skills lab and clinical, two classes are one two-hour lecture a week, at best, and one meets about once a month. Still mostly online, primarily Powerpoints, some recorded clips and lectures. I do okay with it, but I don't think it's ideal. Lots of students are feeling more confident, but there are still quite a few really struggling, and I still don't think the program remotely suits the learn-by-doing student. We lost about 25% of the class during/after first semester. If a student was considering OUCN, I'd actually recommend strongly considering the OCCC/OU collaborative route -- the students coming from OCCC do their first year there and second at OUCN, which doesn't seem like it would help much, but they really do seem to be happier with their program than we are with ours. Anyway. Hope that helps some!

Hi, I'm a new student in this program, seven weeks in, and I long for a time machine daily. I would NOT do it again. It's incredibly disorganized, 4/5 of my professors are rude and disinterested in teaching (did the reading, but don't understand something? don't ask -- they'll just tell you to do the reading, assuming that you're lazy and stupid), and there's very little in the way of practice time, skills labs, or clinical experience. They basically handed us a stack of books and a list of exam dates and told us to buzz off. The program's passable for book-learners (my style), but there's virtually nothing for auditory learners (NO lectures!), and the same for learn-by-do-ers. They say it'll get better, and it's not getting better. Word is that the program almost lost its license/accreditation to teach nursing a couple of years ago, though of course they deny it. Worst NCLEX pass rates by far of all the OU campuses, and I see why. I went to OU in Norman, live in OKC, had worked at the HSC, and didn't want to move, so I chose to stay with OU (and its reputation), but I would strongly encourage you to ignore that. OU grads evidently have a reputation for being the least prepared students from area programs, and it's mostly UCO grads (who get tons of clinical experience, very few campus classes, and [at least the ones I've heard from] are very happy with the program, learning and thriving [there have been a disturbing number of sobbing breakdowns from my fellow students -- it's rare that you're in this program and haven't come unglued at least once, by all accounts I've heard]) working at the OUHSC hospitals. It's too late for me to transfer (for personal reasons, I have to be out in two years, so I can't lose a year), but lots of people are sucking it up, calling this year lost, and planning on applying elsewhere for next year. I feel like I bought a pig in a poke -- the other HSC colleges have great reputations, and it turns out that OUCN is skating by on that. It's too late for me, so I have to spend the next almost-two-years struggling through an inferior education that even OU Medical Center doesn't want to hire, but please call around. Talk to friends. Nurses. Find people with no OU affiliation (or who have experience with OU, or OU and another area program), who will be straight with you. Use the grapevine for everything it's worth. Call area schools and ask what their program is like. (Ours turns out to be 80% online, which was not disclosed in ANY of the materials, nor on the website. I did my research, and I didn't come up with that. I wouldn't have chosen it intentionally. I don't know about anybody else, but if I were a patient and knew my nurse had gone to school online, I'd be mighty unsettled.) In short, this is a big decision, it will affect at least your first one or two post-grad years heavily (both in terms of poorer employment prospects and the personal cost of being less prepared, to say nothing of the possible cost to patients), so I behoove you, look at all area programs very closely. Ignore college names, ignore prestige, talk to people and think about your education. Good luck.