Sunnyrah

Thank you, that was very helpful! I submitted my application last week.

Is there anyone currently in one of VCU's MSN programs who would be willing to share their thoughts on the program? I have applied to the Pysch NP MSN but have general questions that probably anyone could shed light on :) I currently live in Norfolk, VA about an hour and a half away from Richmond. I am single (no kids) and I hope to keep working full-time (3 12-hour shifts a week) and do the MSN full-time, staying overnight with my brother who lives there, when needed. Does this sound doable to current students? Are there any clinical rotations available outside of Richmond, or would I have to move to Richmond for the clinical year? Any other thoughts on the program? Thanks in advance for any responses!

I am looking at distance-accessible MSN Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Programs. I came across Husson University's program via NursingCAS, and the curriculum looks really good, and it looks affordable. Has anyone been through this program who would be willing to share information about it? Specifically looking for how much you're able to work during the program, length of program, satisfaction etc.

I absolutely agree! The hospital I work for is part of a large healthcare that pretty much dominates this region of my state, and they have a policy that current employees must be considered for openings before outside applications can be hired.

Definitely agree with #1 -- it's not that I don't think it should be done, but that they required us to get CNA license before starting our RN program and I am in the program to learn new things, how to be an RN.

I'm a senior in a BSN program (you get your gen. ed and pre-reqs at a college and then "transfer" into the 2-yr nursing program) and they required us to get our CNA license before we could transfer into the nursing program and start clinicals. I also currently work on a med/surg floor as a cna, so I see both sides to this situation. I definitely think it's important to learn from the ground up and get that ADL experience. I was really offended on my first day off orientation whenfor some reason I couldn't get an oral or axillary temp from a total care patient and when I asked the RN what she recommended, she replied "I don't know what YOU GUYS DO when you can't get a temp!" Uhhh, seriously you never had to get a temp before?! That said, I think that there's definitely a point where you have mastered that and need to focus on developing your RN, critical-thinking skills. Last spring, my clinical instructor made us provide hygience care, vitals, and blood sugars for every patient on the unit whether or not they were our assigned patient. This fall of our senior year, the clinical instructors said that we were not to provide ADLs/hygiene and that we were not there to be "mini-CNAs" and we needed to develop our critical thinking skills.

In our program, I would say first semester was the hardest. We had a total of 7 classes, the most in one semester (they were a variety of credit hours) so that was a lot to juggle, plus yeah I would agree that it really is learning a NEW WAY to think. Although the content gets more challenging later, it's easier to manage because you know what to expect and there are fewer classes. Also we had the most papers of any semester so far our first semester. Regarding the clinical experience getting better --> it depends on your program and your individual instructor. During our fundamentals clinical first semester I felt like I was learning nothing, but later I came to think that that first semester was really all about getting oriented to the hospital environment and getting comfortable touching/assessing and interviewing patients. (Our program is a BSN that requires you to get general ed & pre-req classes and get a CNA license before starting the 2-year "nursing" program. so we already knew ADLs and vitals.)

In our program, I would say first semester was the hardest. We had a total of 7 classes, the most in one semester (they were a variety of credit hours) so that was a lot to juggle, plus yeah I would agree that it really is learning a NEW WAY to think. Although the content gets more challenging later, it's easier to manage because you know what to expect and there are fewer classes. Also we had the most papers of any semester so far our first semester. Regarding the clinical experience getting better --> it depends on your program and your individual instructor. During our fundamentals clinical first semester I felt like I was learning nothing, but later I came to think that that first semester was really all about getting oriented to the hospital environment and getting comfortable touching/assessing and interviewing patients. (Our program is a BSN that requires you to get general ed & pre-req classes and get a CNA license before starting the 2-year "nursing" program. so we already knew ADLs and vitals.)

Poo and diarrhea. Particularly scraping and emptying bedside commodes and bedpans. Haven't puked yet but definitely have gagged a few times!

Oh my word, that is terrible! My dad is a doctor and he says he has a lot of respect for nurses but that he and a lot of doctors think that nurses have "sticks up their you-know-whats" when it comes to rules and that's one reason some docs don't respect nurses as much. I didn't really understand what he was talking about but I'm pretty sure this would be an example of it! I'm a senior in a program with an excellent reputation and we do not have uniform inspections, or at least I have never been checked for my watch, etc. I frequently forget mine! And we are allowed to have phones on the floor, for the most part it's actually EXPECTED because they provide us with a nursing software program with meds, injection sites, lab results etc. to be downloaded to our iPods or smartphones to use in the clinical setting. I agree with those who are advocating honesty. Reheorifice what you would like to say until you can get all the through it calmly a few times. Write it down if you have to. Your clinical instructor's behavior sounds ridiculous. I would request a private meeting with the dean in this matter, or at the very least ask that the dean attend this disciplinary meeting. If she continues to interrupt you in front of the panel, I would say simply in as neutral a tone as possible something like "May I please be allowed/I would like to finish my statement without interruption?" I would hope that if she berates you like that in public, that some of the faculty on the panel would see how you could be too scared to admit that you forgot your watch!

I can confirm that they do place a high emphasis on the TEAS test, I am in the current senior class and there were a few people who I met in my health assessment class at Sentara (they used to have you start taking some of the classes online before you were officially admitted into the nursing program, don't know if they have changed that) who did not make it in or get off the wait list because of their TEAS test. Yes, you will almost definitely have to take developmental psych, but they don't much care when or how, so pay a couple hundred bucks and take it online at a community college, just knock it out :) In the past they have always been real sticklers about pre-reqs. For example, they used to require that EVERYONE take public speaking. I had a previous B.A. degree and previous career as a teacher, so I went to them and said "I'm a teacher, I basically do public speaking for a living, could you maybe take my education classes and use those to count for my public speaking class?" NOPE. Huge waste of time and money to have to take public speaking at the local community college (where we met four times and I gave three speeches totaling less than 10 minutes of speaking time). But oh well, I got in and now I'm almost done, yay! (The next year they eliminated the public speaking requirement for second-degree applicants...arghh)

I am currently a senior in the BSN program, which will be the college’s second BSN class (the diploma program was over 100 years old before they switched to BSN). Personally I think it’s a really good program, not that I have a lot to compare it to, though As I spend more and more time on the clinical floor, I have heard directly from more than one Sentara Norfolk General staff nurse that our graduates are the best new grads in the area. Now some of this might just be expected since we are educated in Sentara facilities and so as students we become very familiar with eCare (the electronic medical record system used by Sentara) by the time we graduate. However they’ve also told me that we’re the best in terms of clinical skills and experience as new grads. Sentara makes sure that you get your experience from the ground up by requiring you get certification as a Nursing Care Partner (basically a nurse aide who can draw blood) before you are allowed to begin clinicals as a RN/BSN junior, and as things stand currently we have by far the greatest number of clinical hours of any nursing program in the region. On the floor where I have clinicals this semester, a new grad nurse from another local BSN program had to have one of our Sentara students show her how to change an adult diaper. This would never happen to a Sentara new grad, or at least I would be very very surprised :) We also have some really cool simulation labs on campus where we have the opportunity to provide care to pretty realistic robotic patients and get the chance to respond to patient changes/emergencies and receive immediate feedback without having to worry you'll screw up and hurt the patient. In terms of lecture and teaching, a number of the theory-based classes are online or hybrid classes so you need to be a good independent learner. And as in any demanding health science program, you need to have great study skills because there is a TON of stuff to learn and more than can be taught in class. In class be prepared to cover the overarching concepts and some special notes, and learn the details on your own. (From what I’ve heard from students at other schools, this sounds pretty standard for a nursing program.) The majority of the instructors are great…not everyone loves every teacher and personally there are one or two who are clearly excellent, expert nurses but that I think have room for improvement as far as lecture teaching goes, but I feel like I’m getting a great education. Most instructors are very accessible and willing to meet to go over tests or give you some mentoring advice, and many will respond to texts or emails over the weekend. The school provides a lot of instruction on NCLEX-style questions and provides us access to an online NCLEX test training and review program. Many of the tutorials and practice exams on there will be mandatory throughout various courses and they are excellent preparation. Papers: we tend to have a few important papers due a semester. If you’re comparing Sentara to ODU, I have a family member in ODU’s program and it sounds like they do a LOT more papers than we do. You will however do your fair share of writing in online discussion board posts. Like all nursing programs, it is demanding. The faculty recommend not working at all while a full-time nursing student, and if you have to work, not working more than 20 hours a week. I would follow those guidelines and make sure you have your financial ducks in a row to make sure you have adequate time to study, because if you can’t afford to cut back at work and you end up not being able to study enough and fail a class, you will have to sit out of the program for a year until that class comes around again. (And six months from failing the class while you are not a full-time student, you would have to start making payments on your student loans!) Last year Sentara graduated their first BSN class and they got a 96% pass rate on the NCLEX, so I figure the college must be doing a decent job. Their diploma program also had pass rates consistently in the 90s :) I hope this information has been helpful to you! If you have any questions, please feel free to private message me.