sassybunny

Have you taken any of the nursing electives yet? I'm trying to decide which ones to take!

Classes vary in difficulty and rigor. I've completed 17 of 31 credits so far (1-2 classes per semester), all online. I have 3 nursing electives and community health remaining. I went to CCBC evening/weekends for undergrad, while working a full time 9-5 job in IT. In general, I've found this easier than earning my ADN. Most of my classes have followed the same format: 1 module per week, which consists of several reading assignments (textbook, online articles, power points, online modules) and a discussion board assignment. The discussion board is typically one post due by mid-week and responses to 2-3 classmates by the end of the week. These aren't usually incredibly difficult, but can be very time consuming. Most require (good!) sources outside of the assigned reading, with APA formatted citations. Sometimes I spend as much time looking for sources as I do working on the posts. Again, how closely scrutinized and graded these are varies by class. In addition to the weekly modules, there are typically somewhere between 2-5 exams. All of the tests so far have been online, open note, open book, open internet (except one class required a proctored head to toe assessment). You just can't receive help from another person. These are not usually like the exams like you took in nursing school; There is a right answer and most are definitions, facts, and such, as opposed to application of nursing concepts and judgements about which right answer is the MOST right answer. Each class also had at least one paper (sometimes more) and a group assignment or other project or presentation.

Maybe everyone else already knows this but you don't actually get your ATT unless you've registered at Pearson. I sent my application in the mail to the MBON and waited a week. Then I talked to some friends from school and they said I'd never get that ATT until I also registered with Pearson.

Status finally updated today for RN-BSN. Provisional Admit! YAY. now I just have to finish these horrible pre-reqs. UGH.

Has anyone heard about the RN -> BSN online?

In my experience, the quality of clinical rotations vary greatly based on your clinical instructor. Some let us do much more than others. And some hospitals have rules about how many students can give out medications and what students can do. I'm not sure where your rotations are matter that much when applying for jobs, unless you have the option to do a rotation on a unit where you might want to work later. My peds rotation was at Mt. Washington and I really enjoyed it, but I obviously can't speak for the other sites. There were a lot of young nurses there who seemed happy to have students and willing to give you work to do. We did psych at JHH. There are apparently 2 psych floors; one is geri-psych floor, which is kind of relaxed... a lot of depression and pain management and the other one is more intense with patients with schizophrenia and such. So I'd look into which floor you'd get and consider what you want out of your psych rotation. I've also heard Sheppard Pratt Towson is pretty nice.

Did anyone else apply to the RN -> BSN online program at UMSON?

I don't know if they've changed things since I went (graduated May 2012), but we didn't have any choices at all about which classes we registered for or which professors we had. Each semester, there were specific classes and specific sections and everyone in your class registers for. You are in class with the same group of people for the entire program. I did the E/W program at Essex, so it might be different for days or on different campuses.

I did the E/W program at the Essex campus, starting in 2010. There were about 50 of us.