MrsBond

Hello! I am currently in Block 2 at the GCU Boswell campus, so yes I am taking classes now :-) We were emailed about the optional site orientation sometime a week or two before classes started, and the email came from the site director. You are always welcome to come visit the campus any time it is open (M-F 7-5). I would imagine they will have another optional site orientation before the beginning of Fall semester, but you can always contact the site director to find out for sure. If you don't already have her contact information, your nursing admissions advisor should be able to give it to you. I just want to stress again the site orientation was optional - pretty much a meet and greet with some of the professors and a site tour. The important information (books, medical stuff, etc.) will be discussed at the main orientation which will be held on main campus sometime ~month before classes start. You also have the opportunity to meet with your site director at the main orientation. Congrats and good luck with everything!

Hi stephatron289: I just wanted to clarify re: the GCU religion comment. They do indeed consider themselves a Christian university and you will find that well represented in their mission statement, etc. With that said, they welcome students from any or no religious background, and while we are required to take a 3 credit religion elective course as requirement of graduation, there is no emphasis on religion in any of our nursing coursework, outside of the inclusion of religion/spirituality as part of your nursing assessment. The religion/spirituality component of nursing assessment is something you will learn about in any nursing program. In any event, I think posters here have given you a lot of information/resources to get you started, and you can find even more specific information in some of the other forum threads. Best of luck to you! MrsBond

Hi stephatron289 - I am currently a nursing student at Grand Canyon University, which is a private school in the Phoenix area that offers their nursing program at several different locations in the metro Phoenix area. Their nursing program is generally well-regarded (as are the Maricopa CEP programs and the Arizona State nursing program, from what I have heard), and while they may be more expensive than the Maricopa CEP program or Arizona State, they offer generous GPA-based scholarships that can bring your tuition costs down significantly. You also can take all of your pre-reqs for GCU (and ASU) at any of the community colleges in town, which as kdrm mentioned, can really help with costs. I would highly recommend you consider getting your BSN if you are planning on working at a hospital in the Phoenix area as the hospital systems here are really gravitating toward BSN-prepared new grads. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about GCU. Good luck to you in your endeavors! P.S. You can always visit the AZ Board of Nursing website to find a list of currently approved nursing programs in AZ, as well as up-to-date data on NCLEX pass rates for those programs. This information helped me quite a bit when I was deciding where to apply for nursing school.

Hi! First, you may want to edit your post, it is against the ToS to include names of professors etc. With that said, I had the professor you mentioned at Phoenix College last fall for the 205 Hybrid course and she was great! You will have some online assignments to complete, and you need to show up to lab every week as she lectures on stuff in addition to doing lab stuff. But she gives you everything you need to know to ace your tests, including a very comprehensive study guide, and each test has extra credit questions. You will need to memorize a lot of stuff, but if you pay attention and do the work, you will have no problems doing well in the class. I am in Block 2 of my nursing program and still remember a lot of stuff from 205, which is kinda surprising, but I attribute that to how well she taught the class. Hope this helps!

This. I know when I was first looking at GCU I attended an information session and the packet of information I received talked about the scholarships. You can certainly check with your adviser once you get your acceptance to clarify the scholarship info, but it is something that will be applied to your account automatically if you meet the requirements.

Hello hsimons38! I just started Block 1 in January at GCU-Boswell, and it is my understanding that they look at your GPA as follows: 1) They evaluate the GPA of all of the required pre-req courses (sciences, english etc.) to make sure you meet the overall minimum GPA requirements. This is also the GPA they will use to evaluate qualification for academic-based scholarships; and 2) They specifically look at your science GPA as another factor for admission. Not sure how this is weighted, but say you have a science GPA that is better than your overall pre-req GPA (for instance, my science GPA was better than my overall pre-req GPA) - this is a positive factor in your favor, however, I am not sure how much they weigh this in terms of all the other criteria, i.e. TEAS score, overall GPA, whether you have a prior degree, current hospital affiliation, etc. Hope this answers your question, and good luck to all of you! If anyone has any questions re: the program, feel free to PM me. Cheers :-) MrsBond

Hello Eyestripe! Yesterday I attended the optional site orientation for Boswell. It is a gorgeous facility! Anyway, I imagine it will be as Toy described, but it sounded like all of our classes with the exception of 305 will be in Classroom 3, with 305 in Classroom 1. A few important tips they brought up: leave your house earlier than normal the first few days to get a feel for traffic that time of morning. Note that the facility does open at 7am so you can get there pretty early if you want. Also, the student lounge has 2 microwaves and 2 refrigerators if you are bringing your lunch. There are some places within easy driving distance to grab a bite, otherwise. Good luck to you and to everyone else starting next week! It has been a crazy journey so far, but I am so excited for this next phase! Cheers :-)

Ha, so I checked my schedule again today and it has changed! While I am now going to just wait to get an official email from GCU with my schedule (since they seem to be still tinkering with it), my new schedule *appears* to be: Tues 8-12, 1-4 Wed 8-12, 1-5 Thurs 1-4 Fri 10-12 Very interesting. In any event, when I have official confirmation of my Boswell schedule, I'll make sure to post it.

I know, it will be rush hour traffic for me too! Probably end up getting there early and finishing up coffee in my car or something lol.

Hi Toy - I checked my calendar again and there are no other classes posted on it, so maybe they are still trying to figure out lab schedules? I am sure I will find out soon! I may drive out to the campus one of these mornings just to see what traffic is like and how early I need to leave (not a huge drive since I am coming from N. Phoenix and going against rush hour). I can tell from the pics, though, that it is gorgeous. And I have been to Boswell before and kinda grew up on the "west side", so I know it is a nice area.

So, my GCU account appears to have been updated with my class schedule for Boswell starting January. I haven't received an official email about it, but it looks like my cohort's schedule is as follows: Mon/Wed: NSG 301 (Nursing Foundations) 9-11, and NSG 303 (Therapeutic Communication & Informatics) 1-3. Tues: NSG 307 (Pharmacology) 9-12 and NSG 305 (Health Assessment) 1-4 Thurs: NSG 307 9-12 Friday: No Class For any other Boswell-ites who want to check their schedule, I found this information on my Calendar for January under the Profile option in my GCU account. I know there were two cohorts of ~20 that started this Fall and each cohort had a slightly different schedule, so I am assuming this will be the case for Spring. Meanwhile I am busy finishing up the last of the health/immunization stuff. How is everyone else doing? I am way excited for orientation and to get our booklist!

Hey Andi - Thanks for posting the SHC schedule. I haven't heard anything yet about the Boswell schedule - did you just email your nursing adviser for the schedule?

Hi ryleea1 - I'm actually starting at the Boswell location in the Spring, but I have heard good things about St. Joe's. Re: your entrance exam, you have time to re-take the TEAS if you are worried about your score (or take the HESI if that is what they are requiring). If they are still taking the TEAS, you should talk to your adviser re: your score to see if they think you should retake it. However, here are my thoughts re: studying for these tests, for what it's worth: 1. Get your hands on a study guide and find practice tests for whichever test you are taking if you haven't already done so. You may have to spend some money but it is worth it if you think it will help you to improve your scores. I know when I took my first practice test for the TEAS, I was thrown off on some of the questions being asked in the Reading section (when they were asking about the Theme, etc.). It helped to have the study guide to see an example of what they are looking for when they are asking that type of question, and tips for telling the difference between "theme", "main idea" etc. I imagine the HESI will be similar, but you need to study for the particular test you are going to take. I mean, everyone should be able to read, it shouldn't be that hard, right? Well, you also have to learn what it takes to score well in Reading on their test ("they" = testing company). 2. I was getting questions wrong on practice tests because I was reading the question too fast and skipping over a few important words that made a huge difference in what my answer should have been. So, just be mindful to take your time reading the questions and understand exactly what they are asking. After taking a few practice tests, I was able to identify my problem areas and worked to improve them, which resulted in an improved score on the actual test. I know there are other forums here that specifically talk about study tips for these tests and I recommend you visit them; I definitely found them helpful for the TEAS. Cheers :-)

Just butting in to add that I was reading the Fall 2013 nursing student handbook (it's on GCU's site on the prelicensure orientation page) and I noticed in the section re: prequisites that they state Summer 2014 and forward students will need to have the HESI as an entrance exam. Just giving you a heads up to maybe chat with your adviser to confirm the entrance exam requirements for Summer 2014!

I'm at PC in the hybrid section!