Onik

Over the past decade we have seen a rise in the need for healthcare professionals, particularly nursing. Programs offering degrees leading to RN certification have seen increased applications across the board. While these nursing programs benefit from the added income of more students and use it to build new facilities or acquire new technologies, it seems that the actual students are often the lowest priority. In addition, due to the nature of the profession many of the teaching faculty do not hold doctoral degrees and/or have no formal training in education - which may be part of the reason the academic structure of some nursing programs are lacking. Everyone knows nursing is hard, but it seems to have been made more difficult arbitrarily. With many nursing programs reporting a 60%+ failure rate, the students cannot be the only issue. Students in nursing programs report bullying and favoritism by professors more than any other major. I have read numerous accounts on this forum of students being denied due process - being dismissed from a program without explanation or being given a poor grade or clinical review without being given a reason why, etc. I have even witnessed this behavior myself. Additionally there typically are much stricter requirements on nursing students. For instance, a student in another department can typically miss a week of class if they need surgery without issue but in nursing that often leads to expulsion/repeating a course. I know nursing students have clinical that they may miss in that situation but other colleges have internships and placements for on the job experience and still do not typically penalize the student for a medical issue. The nurse practitioner I see for my "lady checkups" has a daughter that wants to go into nursing when she graduates from high school, and she is encouraging her not to because she believes "nursing schools are too corrupt these days". That wasn't the first time someone working in healthcare has told me that. It seems to me that there should be some way to hold these programs accountable when they take advantage of or mistreat students. Unlike what I have experienced in other programs, nursing programs seem distinctly inclined at evading the truth and eluding action against them. I sincerely hope that the situations many of you have spoken about improve and that the mistreatment of student nurses at those institutions declines. I wouldn't want the next generation of nursing faculty and mentors to show as much disdain for teaching and their students as I have seen in the past few years.

There are many reasons you should think long and hard before applying to the University of West Alabama's Nursing Program, or really any nursing program. I could never fit them all in a forum response but this is at least something. Before applying to attend UWA's nursing program I had earned a BS and had left a PhD program in Psychology in order to pursue nursing. Theirs was one of the few nursing schools in the area that was still taking applications so I applied. After I had been told that my acceptance letter should be in the mail, I was told I'd have to wait until the following year to begin classes. Despite having passed graduate level courses in psychology, I needed the freshman level 'Intro to Psychology' course before I would be allowed to take 'Intro to Nursing' - which had nothing to do with psychology. I was frustrated but not deterred. I took the course, passed it and reapplied. I started that following Fall and progressed through the program each semester - which is not easy when they require an 80% or higher in every class (which is higher than the vast majority of nursing programs). Throughout my time there I watched my classmates fail out in droves each semester, even some who were experienced LPNs. In the middle of my fourth semester out of the five semester program I was told there was yet another course I should have taken before starting the program and was asked why I hadn't. I explained that I was never advised to and referred to my advising records as evidence. I was told that it wasn't my advisors responsibility to tell me the right courses to take. (I would argue that eliminates the need for an advisor.) Due to the timing of being informed about the course I had to take it along with my final semester's courses and preceptorship. I was busy to say the least! However, I still managed to keep my grades up, pass the cumulative HESI my first time and impress my preceptor. Two days before UWA's pinning ceremony I went into finals with passing averages in all three of my courses, a great review from my preceptor, the HESI off my chest and a job offer for after I graduated. The day before pinning I found out that I fell 2 points short of passing in one of my nursing courses and would not be allowed to graduate. When I went to speak with the dean about it, she wasn't at all sympathetic and told me I would be required to repeat every course and clinical I'd taken over the past YEAR. UWA's program doesn't allow you to simply retake the course you failed, or even just that semester - you get to retake the past year. I left her office that day after she refused to let me review my grades and my final until I set up a meeting with her. (Which I did do and she didn't show up for.) Also, I don't know if it still goes on now but when I went there some of the teachers held unannounced study groups for upcoming exams with a select few. (Study groups where the actual exam is being used to review.) When I first heard rumors about that happening I thought it had to be made up and didn't believe it - until I was invited to one. Don't get me wrong, it is possible to make it through this program the first time. It's just not easy. You'll need to study a lot, work hard and most importantly suck up if you want to survive. Sucking up literally saved some of my former classmates by their own admission. I did have numerous positive experiences with instructors, nurses and patients while in the program but I believe when students are considering a program they should know what will keep them up at night.