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Update: Sadly this no longer applies to my original post. I went into preterm labor with my son at 22 weeks, and despite our best efforts, we lost him. Thank you for all those that gave me advice on the pregnancy and finding a job front. Unfortunately, I still have no job, and now no baby. :''( I'm still hoping for the best for those of who are Preggo, and in a job. Zyrasmom, just tell your DON when you feel comfortable telling. They can't fire you for simply being pregnant. They will have to work something out for you. Best of luck to you!!

I hate to tell you this, but you are going to have to get over this fear very quickly if you are accepted into this program. I am a graduate from the 2011 cohort, and this program LOVES group projects/presentations. You will have 2-3 per semester to complete. Practicing is a wonderful idea, especially if you are uncomfortable with public speaking. Your presentations skills can make you or break you during the group interview portion. If the group interview is anything like mine was, you won't be expected to memorize the info they gave you. I would however be VERY familiar with it, but memorizing the info they give you is not necessary. Assuming nothing has changed they will give you the same info during the group portion of the interview. Using the info they gave you, you will have 20-30 minutes to create a group presentation pertaining to that information. This is why I say be very familiar with it, because you don't have much time to create a presentation. You don't want to waste that time, just trying to figure out how that information is important to the nursing profession. Each person will be required to speak during that presentation. So, don't be the shy one who barely speaks or barely contributes to the creation of the presentation. If you are, they may decide to pass you by, and go with someone else who is more comfortable working in groups, and speaking in front of groups. The same can be said for those of you who like to take the lead. Do not be overbearing or rude to your assigned group members. They want to see that you are a teamplayer. Best of luck to all those participating in the interviews! Just relax, and be yourself! They don't want perfection, just someone who can roll with the punches.

Thank you Ashley! We are very excited to become parents! :) Thankfully, my husband's salary provides very well for us. Therefore, it was never a necessity for me to work. I think I would enjoy working, and the second income would always be nice. My husband and I attended college together (I earned a psychology degree first). We graduated, got married one week later, and moved to Houston for his career. I was a stay-at-home wife in a brand new city with the opportunity to become anything I wanted, and a husband who supported my career aspirations. After debating grad school for an advanced degree in Psychology or a bachelor's in nursing, I chose nursing. After 4 years of hard work and dedication, I graduated nursing school, and shortly after was a newly licensed RN. Therefore, I want all my time, educational commitment, and hard work I have put into earning both my Psychology Degree, BSN, and RN license to actually pay off at some point. Even though I don't need to work, my husband would be disappointed if I didn't try to pursue my career in nursing, seeing as non of that education was cheap. We did talk tonight, and we decided that it would probably be best for me and our family to wait to apply for jobs till after the baby is born. I know I will want plenty of time with my baby, and would just be miserable when leaving my very new baby to go to work. Maybe, summer of 2013 will be my time that my career can get off the ground. Becoming a successful mommy is just more important to me right now. :) I do have to admit that I really hate that women have to make the decision to raise a family, or have a successful career. Men are never faced with these ethical dilemmas. It's never a problem for them to have a successful career and be a father. I can't wait till the day that true equality in the workplace exists for us women.

Unfortunately, there are always those few that will belittle your efforts regardless what the situation is, or regardless of age. Trust me, it only gets worse once you're in the nursing program. I can't even begin to tell you just how annoyed I was in nursing school to walk out of a killer exam, and see all my classmates standing outside chomping at the bit just to see how you think you did. They did this not out of concern, but simply to rub your nose in how they think they did better than you. Eventually, I just started telling every person that asked, that it was the such an easy exam regardless of how difficult it was. After all, my grade is none of their business. Those of us who often made top grades, or were recongized as top students in clinicals always kept our mouths shut. I would hear comments made about my friends such as suck up, brown noser, and she thinks her ***** doesn't stink. Seriously!! What mature behavior for Second Degree BSN's to have, especially since we were all a bit older than your average traditional nursing student (Our youngest student was 22). Try to brush it off the best you can. Don't worry about them. Focus on yourself. You're going to need those awesome grades to get into the nursing program. Keep doing what you're doing girlie! Best of luck to you!

I need some advice from all our wonderful nurses out there. As my title entails I graduated in December of 2011 with my BSN. I searched high and low for a GN residency position. I was contacted by 4 hospitals total (2 hospitals were just narrowing down thier 1,000 applicants, and I was honored to be at the very least be contacted), I went on 2 interviews (kind of), and still no job. I live in Houston TX. It's very competitive here, and more hospitals each semester seem to be limiting their GN internship residencies due to budget cuts. One hospital even turned me away within 2 minutes of the interview, because I had graduated 6 months earlier than the newest new grads. I was told that I had missed my opportunity and that they weren't looking to hire "old" new grads. Still a sore spot for me, but I digress. A month later after the you're an "old" new grad therefore we don't want you nonsense, my husband and I discovered that we were pregnant! :) We of course are extremely thrilled, and can't wait to become parents! What makes it even sweeter is that my due date is April 19, 2013, with April 19 being my birthday too. Talk about the best birthday gift EVER! The part that I struggle with ethically is whether or not to apply to GN Residencies that start in January 2013. My husband and some trusted former professors have said "Yes! Apply!" Since I've already got turned away from one job because I was a "old" new grad, my husband is afraid that if I wait to apply for jobs till after the baby is born that I will have NO chance what-so-ever in finding anything. Therefore, I have put in some applications for the January 2013 internship season. However, every time I hit the submit button I begin to panic. What if I actually get called in to interview?!? ! I am now 14 weeks pregnant, and my baby bump hasn't begun to show quite yet. So, I could make it through an entire interview without an interviewer knowing that I'm hiding a HUGE secret. However, make no mistake that when I show up for my first day of work come mid January, I'm going to look every bit the 27-28 weeks pregnant that I will be. What will my DON and manager say? What happens if they say I really don't have any of the integrity I actually spoke about in my interview by not disclosing how pregnant I was from day one? What happens to my maternity leave seeing as FMLA won't apply to me? Will I be expected to be back on the job within 2-3 weeks after giving birth because I won't yet qualify for maternity leave? Let's face it 2-3 weeks isn't even enough time to stop my postpartum bleeding, figure out breastfeeding schedules, or properly bond with my new baby. This is why I'm so torn over this! My husband tells me that they legally will have to accommodate me and work something out. I'm not so sure about that. True, they won't be able to legally fire me, but they could make my life so miserable that it forces me to quit. If I get an interview, should I be upfront with them from the beginning and disclose my pregnancy? This may lessen my anxiety over what will happen when they find out come January. Since I am already licensed I thought maybe I could convince them to let me start a little earlier than the rest of the group. That would ensure that I had plenty of time to accomplish my preceptorship before the baby arrives. I'm torn because full disclosure of course places me at a higher risk of not being hired at all. Who really wants a pregnant lady in her third trimester trying to figure out nursing, only to have her go on maternity leave a few months down the road. If I were the hiring manager I would choose a different candidate for sure. What are some of your thoughts? Keep applying and go on interviews (if I'm asked to of course), or wait till after baby arrives? In an interview, keep pregnancy to myself, or full disclosure? I know I don't have to legally disclose this information, and they can't legally ask. So that's not the type of answer I'm looking for. This is more of an ethical dilemma for me. What is the ethical thing to do in this situation? Thanks all for reading this long post, and any input wouldbe greatly appreciated.

Sueall, None of the employers I interviewed with had a problem with me graduating from an accelerated BSN program. I actually was told by each of them, that I must be very ambishous and dedicated to becoming a nurse. I ended up being hired by a pregnancy medical/women's reproductive health and couseling services clinic here in Houston. My manager and CEO both LOVED that I had a second degree in psychology. The CEO has told me on numerous occasions that I bring so much more to the job than the traditional BSN graduate. I bring my maturity, my educational knowledge, my passion and talent to the organization that really enriches the profession as a whole. She told me that type of education and training are invaluable, and she had wondered why employers in the hospital setting had passed me over. Her exact words, "Their loss, our incredible gain!" That being said, there are those who feel that the accelerated BSN's could not possibly learn everything the traditional BSN student does due to the fast paced nature and time constraints. You will never be able to change those people's opinions. In my personal and professional opinion, both types of programs have their pro's and cons's. You really just have to know what type of student you are. The UHV program is not for the faint-of-heart. It is VERY fast paced. Not all accelerated programs will be for every student. Some students will really require a slower paced program, and there is nothing wrong with that. The end result is the same. While attending the program, I felt just as knowledgable as others from traditional BSN programs. At the end I felt 100% ready and prepared to take NCLEX. I took NCLEX and passed on the first attempt, and in 75 questions with no problems what-so-ever. So I find no difference between myself and a traditional BSN student. In the end we are both licensed RN's. I found it challenging to find my first job, but it didn't have anything to do with the fact that I graduated from an accelerated BSN program. Other student's from my cohort were less picky about where they wanted to start out, and were quickly hired. I knew going into nursing school I ONLY wanted to find a job in L&D, Women's Health, Neonatal Nursing (NICU), or Pediatrics. Those speciality areas are EXTREMLY challenging for a new grad with no experience to land. They do have some GN internship spots open up in speciality areas such as L&D and NICU in the hospitals, but not very often. If you do land an interview like I did, competition is TIGHT. I was contacted by Methodist, Memorial Hermann, and Texas Children's for either L&D or Pediatrics. I went on 3 interviews total. Each time I was competing with 700+ applicants for 2-10 open spots. At Texas Children's, I was competing with just over 1,000 BSN and ADN candidates for 2 NICU spots. That's right, just 2 open jobs! I made their first cut, but never got an interview. I was just honored to make the first round honestly. Therefore, I figured if I really wanted to stay in my chosen specialty area maybe non-hospital work would earn me my experience. Once I began to think that way, I found a job very easily. In fact, my job kind of found me. :) I am earning wonderful experience I can eventually take with me into a hospital setting when hospitals decide to stop with the budget cuts, which is what makes the competition so tight since they claim they can only hire a few GN's at a time due to our large cost. It takes $10,000 or more to train a new grad. Due to the large cost, and tight budgets, employment for new grads can get tricky. I do agree with you that the glut of unemployed GN's will evaporate in due time, but in the mean time GN's may need to be flexible.

I am one of the graduates from the 2011 class. I can with 100% certainty tell you that the school is still accepting new students. The conditional status will most likely be lifted in the fall of 2012, as the 2011 (most recent group of grads to take the NCLEX) cohort had a 90-93% pass rate on NCLEX! Yay! From reading threads on the 2012 class, I'm certain they will do just as good, if not better! :) I keep in contact with many of the professors, and they are always asking for feedback from past and current students regarding what works, what doesn't, and what could better prepare new grads for NCLEX, and a career in nursing. For instance, I recently told one of the professors that mock interviews would be very benifical for students in the last semester. Job interviews are stressful and can make or break your chances for a job. If you're like me, I hadn't been on many job interviews in my life, and would have found the practice and professional feedback very helpful. That professor LOVED my idea of mock interviews, and I think they were going to try to add that into the program for this year's class of cohorts. Best of luck to all who apply! There are quite a few threads from over the years about the interview process, so I urge you to check those out too. Very helpful info from those of us who have been there, done that, and now own the RN t-shirt.

UPDATE: I did end up being offered a volunteer RN position with a crisis pregnancy center here in Houston. Even though it's a non-paid position and not acute care, I decided to take it. Plus, they grabbed me up as soon as they could, and couldn't understand why with my educational background I wasn't being offered anything in the hospitals. My director's exact words, " Your portfolio is AMAZING! You aren't getting hospital positions?!? Well their loss and our indcredable gain!" I plan on volunteering with them for a few months while I continue to job hunt. At the least, it gets me out of the house, and I'm able to utilize my some of my nursing skills. I was told that after a few months of volunteering, I will become eligible for a paid staff position with them. :) So, maybe the hospital is just not where I'm meant to start out or be right now. I have a feeling God knows what he's doing, and my getting turned away from my interview was a blessing in disguise (even though I for the life of me couldn't understand why at the time.) My husband and I just actually found out we are expecting our first child!! If I had actually been interviewed by St. Luke's and offered the GN position, I would be working 12 hour shifts around God only knows what type of bacteria and germs, and killing my back while I'm pregnant. Likely, I wouldn't have been given much time off when my baby is set to arrive in April because I wouldn't have a full year in to earn good maternity leave. At the crisis pregnancy center that I volunteer at, It was hugs all around and lots of support when I told my director and nurse manager I was expecting. They immedatly told me that they wanted me to modify or just not do some nursing skills all together (like lifting heavy objects, or handling urine for clients pregnancy tests) because the most important thing is my and the baby's safety. I hardly doubt I would have this level of consideration when working in a hospital, esp. when it comes to patient transfers and lifts in med/surg. So, I guess even the most heartbreaking event can have a positive outcome. Don't give up or lose hope GN's! We are needed, and some actually understand that! Even if it's not in the hospitals right now. Let's face it, the hospitals are digging their own grave right now by not hiring new to replace the old. I feel that in a couple of years they will have no choice but to start hiring any RN that walks through the door due to poor burnt out RN's who refuse to stay any longer. Keep moving forward! :)

saw46, i am a graduate from the 2011 class, and i hopefully i can help address some of your questions. the nclex rates that are reported from tbon are from the first and second class. it is a new program, and only 3 classes have graduated at this point. the 4th class is set to graduate this december. for some reason, some of these students from the first two classes didn't take the nclex until after the results were posted (up to a year after they had graduated). while i was attending uhv they continously stressed the importance of taking the exam as soon as possible after graduation. this not only helps their pass rates to be more accurate, but ensures your success as well. you are more likely to pass on the first attempt while it is all fresh in your mind. if you wait a year, chances are you will have a harder time remembering key concepts. my class raised the nclex pass rate to 93%, and those 2011 pass rates should be released sometime this fall. the majority of my graduating class took our nclex exams in mid january and throughout february and early march. i took mine in early feb. and really felt that was the perfect amount of time. it allowed me to take a short break after graduation, and still gave me plently of time to practice and prep to take it. since i had been exposed to nclex all year, and had taken the time to practice and prep, nclex was a non-issue for me. i easily passed it in 75 questions. many others from my class were the same. i can honestly tell you that by the time graduation came around i felt 100% ready to take nclex. they addressed the low pass rates, and came up with a plan to change it. they start to stress nclex on day one of class. you are also required to take nclex style exams in addition to your final exams in order to continue on in the program. at the end, every single student takes an exit exam that accurately predicts the student's probability of passing nclex on the first attempt. every single student is requried to score at least a 70.7 on the exit exam (that's a 90% chance of passing nclex on the first attempt) before they are allowed to graduate. if you don't pass with that 70.7, they will require you to do a nclex prep course, and retest in 2 weeks. as for jobs, nursing is not reccession proof and in general things are a bit tighter right now. some hospitals have even cut their new grad rn residency programs due to many budget cuts. the biggest advice i can give you is not to be picky about what your first job is. i was, and i have had difficulty finding a job. i really wanted something in nicu, pediatrics, or l&d. these are very difficult specalitiy areas for new grads to be hired into. when spots do open up for them, it is highly competitive (700+ applicants for 2-20 spots). i went on a few interviews, and was contacted by my dream hospital (texas children's), each time i was competing with so many people, that it really is no surprise that i haven't found anything as of yet. (texas children's recently had up to 1,000 applicants for 2 nicu spots, and a few cvicu spots). so, as a new grad you have to be open to the idea that you may not land that dream job right away. many who were less choosy in my graduating class where able to find jobs a bit easier. i have now started to apply for any and every new graduate rn opportunity i can find. i have realized a year in med/surg may be just what i need to get my foot in the door, and will give me the experience and skills to help me to achieve that dream nicu job in the future.

According to the NCSBN, for quality control purposes, every NCLEX is scored twice; once by the computer at the test center and then the result is verified after the examination record has been transmitted to Pearson VUE. They state on their website that the proctor doesn't know if you passed, but I make a bet that they do know. The results are immedatly available, the only reason why they don't release them to us is to cross check the results to make sure you really did pass. I was thankful for the glitch in their system which creates the Pearson Vue trick, otherwise I would have gone bonkers waiting 2 days for my results. Well, I still kind of did until I saw my name pop up on the Texas Board of Nursing site, but at least it took some of the edge off. Lol!

I figured since interviews have already begun. I saw it posted on Sunday or Monday, but was just too busy at the time to go through a lengthy application process. Had some time today to actually sit down and do it, but sadly it was gone. Oh well! Maybe next time. Good luck to everyone!

Have they taken the posting down for the August start date? I found it the other day, but didn't apply to it because I got busy. I thought about it today (3 days later), and can no longer find it.

I also agree Kaplan is most like NCLEX. I used Hurst and Kaplan. I ditched Hurst after awhile and turned to strictly using Kaplan because I really liked how their program improved my critical thinking skills.

Congrats New Grad RN! The pop up worked for me as well when I took my NCLEX in Feb. I also passed in 75 questions. I actually knew I passed before I left the testing center. The protor of my exam accidently slipped up and gave me a high-five when I was walking out of the building. LOL! As soon as I got home 30 minutes later, I had the good pop up. My name and license number appeared on my state's board of nursing website 2 days later. I am jealous that you only got 5 SATA! It felt like every couple of questions on my exam were SATA. I was once told that the more SATA questions you get, the better you are doing on your test. However, I'm not sure how accurate that is. I've spoken to several people who passed who got several SATA, and some who only got a few. So, not to worry about how few or many SATA you actually had. Go celebrate your success! :w00t:

Thanks modernhippie! Congrats on becoming a recent graduate! That is an accomplishment all on its own, and you should be very proud of yourself! :yeah:I wish you all the best of luck with your job search, and do hope it doesn't take you too long to find a spot that fits you. I am sorry to hear that she was rude with you as well. I don't understand why so many interviewers seem to be on such a power trip, it's not just St. Luke's. My husband wants me to contact the head of HR to let them know how I was treated, and what a bad impression it made for their hospital. I agree with him, but don't feel they will actually listen or even care. I've been speaking to my friends who graduated with me, and discovered that the few who applied and interviewed with St. Luke's were treated in a very similar manner. They also had their interviews cut short or didn't even get to interview. Keep in mind they were interviewing during what would have been that "window of opportunity" she kept telling me that I missed. Instead of being told that they missed their opportuntiy, they were told that they didn't have enough experience to even apply for the GN Residency. I'm still trying to figure that one out since a new grad residency program is specificlly designed for the recent RN grad that has NO experience. So, my nursing school friends and I are wondering if they are intentionally turning away applicants from my BSN program. I sure hope that's not the case, because that would mean that they are not an equal opportunity employer, and I do belive that is illegal. Like I said, St. Luke's will not be the hospital for me. I will never apply for another position at their facility. I was shocked at the level of unprofessionalism their hospital has shown me and other graduates from my university. Sad too, because I believe St. Luke's missed out on a great opportunity to hire some exceptionally talented, passionate, caring, and goal oriented nurses.