RNNP

Hello shiiivers! Wondering if you took the job? I'm in the exact same position! Was offered a job at a SNF (new BSN grad, september) and don't know if I should take it. Supervisory role too! Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

Yes... You are cohort 12. Congrats and see you all at orientation! Like previously stated, look at alhambra, rosemead, san Gabriel, and monterey park! ... Fyi alhambra has some weird no parking over night rule unless you buy a permit so we live in monterey park. Super close by, convenient, and I feel safe! We pay $1600 for a 3 bedroom but that's a very good deal. Expect to pay around $1800 for a 3 bedroom. Idk about a 2 bedroom but I would think its > $600 per person

Just to CLARIFY and help you all when you're making a decision on a program down the road: you are "guaranteed" a spot in the MSN portion of this program as long as you pass that NCLEX within a reasonable amount of time and have an overall 3.0 GPA but you are NOT guaranteed your top choice. You DO HAVE TO APPLY for the concentration (FNP, ACNP, etc.) and MAY get your second choice (based on GPA, personal statement, and LOC --due first week of March). ALSO: full time job + ABSN = no life. But that may be better than getting more money out in loans?? I personally decided my sanity and having AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT OF FUN during my mid twenties is worth more to me ... the loans will eventually get paid off. RIGHT? >. @snailszy ... I don't know if the classes are necessarily harder or not (LS classes killed me at UCLA) or if it's just the fact that I have learned my study habits, care more about my education now that I'm not 19 (this is probably the biggest factor lol), etc. I got a lot of Bs and Cs at UCLA for those hard sciences and haven't gotten a single B in this program. I have to study A LOT and work hard though! ... definitely not the "college life" I once had... nostalgia... haha

Sorry I'm barely getting to your posts now btw... we had two huge papers due. I think xxsweetpeaxx87 already answered it but I'll chime in anyways. It is definitely not true that we have to find our own preceptors. You are encouraged to because if you think about it if you come across a nurse you worked well with throughout your clinicals then you should definitely want to have her as a preceptor! Keep in mind that even if you and the nurse agreed on it... ----------------- and the hospital must approve it. Everything must go through --------------- first, which is a GOOD thing. ---------------- DOES personally arrange them for us. You rank in order of priority which hospital (and department) you would like to go to and she takes it from there (we're in the process of doing that now). NO! ... the program itself is NOT disorganized. Here is what I can think of in terms of disorganization though: Since we go through extension registering for classes sometimes takes a while but it's honestly not that big of a deal because the professors are aware and you can of course still attend lectures and everybody pretends like you ARE registered... and then you will get registered eventually. Yay. Financial aid... i think i wrote a post on that earlier. We have definitely seen improvement on that already! hmmm oh yes, you will have to provide a copy of titers, vaccines, insurance, CPR, etc to your clinical instructor each and every quarter. Just make a packet and have that ready to make copies and then you won't even have to think about it :) This is literally all I can come up with. I chose this program over Columbia and have never regretted it once. I went to UCLA for my undergrad... there I felt like I was just a number (not to say I didn't LOVE my experience and yes I'm a Bruin for life lol). But here, FAR FROM IT. A small class setting definitely makes a difference! You can email professors with questions (and not feel intimidated doing so) and get an answer within 24 hr, you have their cell phone number for any questions/problems that may arise, huge support from your fellow cohort members, and --------------

I don't think you'll ever really "feel" prepared lol but somehow it all comes together in the end! (you will see what I mean) Idk if you have looked up our passing rates online but it's like a 99.8% or something super high. Our program incorporates ATI books/testing in our classes. We take one ATI test for each core class (fundamentals, OB, peds, medsurg, mental health, etc.) that's worth like 10% of our grade. For some people, this is all they need. Members from previous cohorts have recommended we do the Kaplan review course at the end of our program and we're actually fundraising as a cohort to help us pay for that :) ... I think it sort of depends on each person. I know I'm bad at self-motivation so a course would definitely help keep me on task... and that'll provide us with test taking strategies too. NCLEX type questions are precious little things. You shall see.

Hiii... yes, the MSN portion will be semester as well. We will have to go through the transition ourselves for that. "your" cohort would be cohort 12. and FYI I had my English prereq in progress when I got an interview and still got in so don't worry!

Hi @ebolton! I can add on my previous post regarding "free time." This will depend on how much studying you need to grasp information. How fast do you read? do you have a photographic memory? ... so many variables. There is A LOT of reading. But you'll figure out what's important to read and what isn't with time. You can all ask us (the previous cohort) for tips too! we did this and asked cohort 10. There will be opportunities of doing that later for those of you who get accepted. I can tell you that we have FOUR amazing moms in our program right now and they are rocking it! This does not mean they are not having to make a lot of sacrifices and have missed out on quality time with their families... but they are making it work for themselves :) ... once and if you get in I'm sure any of them would be happy to chime in! (or maybe now if they see this hah).

@snailszy SUMMER: it was M class, Tu class, F clinical (fundamentals), Sat class and clinical (fundamentals) FALL: Tu class, W class, Th clinical (OB) --this is the "chill" quarter... the ONLY one. lol WINTER (NOW): Tu class 8-6, F clinical (psychiatric nur) Sat clinical (medsurg) Sun clinical (medsurg) SPRING: TBD but it will be 2 days of clinical (peds and acute care) and 2 days of lecture SUMMER: this is when we do the preceptorship so our schedule will match that of our individual preceptor. I think we have a community health clinical and lecture too... idk lol What i wrote above is what MY schedule has been. There are 30 of us. We get split into three groups of 10 each quarter (same lectures but different clinicals). We split that ourselves so your cohort will come up with a way of doing that. I am graduating in september so no job yet. I have heard it is rough out there though from cohort 10 and others in the field. If you want to sacrifice your free time (which is very limited) with friends/family/bf/etc then maybe you will have time for research opportunities/volunteering ) on WORKING: only one person in our cohort has a full time job. I don't know how she does it. She is amazing. A couple others (4-5?) are CNAs/EMTs oh and we have an ER scribe too and have 1-2 shifts a week or so. The only quarter I've felt like I could've had a job was fall... but i didn't bother looking for a job that I could only do for 10 weeks. That's my personal choice though. CSULA PROs: Although we don't pay the regular undergraduate tuition our program is definitely one of the cheapest out there. We definitely have a great reputation in the hospitals where we do our clinicals too! nurses are always like "oh you're from Cal State LA... good!" oh and ---------------- is wonderful! she pretty much holds your hand and guides you through this whole thing. CSULA CONS: our financial aid office! BUUUUT you guys are lucky because they just hired somebody to work on the school of nursing students FULL TIME so we should benefiting from that next quarter as well :) PARKING. It's a commuter campus so everybody drives. Just plan to go early (be there by 8:45 am) and study in the library until lecture starts or go to the gym or something and then you can be happy and not frustrated by parking ^^ (summer quarters are exempt from this bc parking is easy then)... hmmm other than that I can't really think of anything else but I will update if i do!

Hi everybody! I am a current student in the ABSN/ELMN cohort 11. I do not remember what my timeline was but I know I got an interview email about 3 weeks after the first notification of interviews so hang in there! Scheduling varies by quarter. It is absolutely not true that we don't do weekends. A lot of clinicals happen on the weekends. It just depends on which clinical you end up on. Let me know if I can answer any questions! Oh and in regards to UCLA MECN vs CSULA: it all depends on what kind of nurse you want to be! If you want to go on to a CNL role then go for UCLA! If you want to become an NP then CSULA is the way to go! I believe your class still gets offered the opportunity to continue on and do the MSN at CSULA after the 15 months for the BSN are over (as long as you pass the nclex and keen a minimum 3.0 GPA). If your ending goal is to be an RN then it's just a numbers game I would say ($) and that whole UCLA name/reputation.

Some people are still waiting to hear back from other schools... keep your hopes up!

Hello all! my sister and I just declined our spots at CU. We were both on the FNP track. Hopefully this will bring good news to waitlisters! .. We just couldn't justify the cost and will be attending a cal state school instead (still an NP route!). Good luck to you all! -RNNP/FNP2014

yay... FB group officially up and running. Thanks guys!

I can't find it! and it won't let me PM you >.

I was with my MD getting my titers/vaccinations done!! saw the call and he was like "go ahead and answer!" ... it was pretty amazing. I went ahead and let the caller know exactly where I was :) lol

... I can't handle the wait anymore. I napped a lot this weekend just so I could stop thinking about it. Hiking helped too. Sigh. lol