AdamRN2007

Is there anyone currently attending SJCoM? I'm just curious on what others think of the program. I just finished up my first class, NU501 Nursing Informatics. I took the whole 15 weeks just to get a feel for it, and found it was not difficult, it just took a lot of writing and research. I think the communication is great so far, my adviser sends regular follow up emails, and my instructor was awesome. She returned graded assignments within 3 or 4 days of submitting them, gave good feedback, and was easily accessible by email if you had any questions, always responding within 24-48 hours. My experience so far has been outstanding. For fellow classmates/alumni, what do you think of the program?

I am an 11-7 charge nurse/superviser with less than a year experience in SNF/LTC. Our units consist of Long term care, skilled nursing (my unit) and a dementia unit. Our ideal staffing for 11-7 is as follows... Skilled - 1 CNA per 20 (maximum) residents. LTC - 2 CNA's per 30 (maximum) residents. Dementia - 2 CNA's per 30 maximum residents. We, like a lot of other facilities, have staffing issues, and we are frequently short at least one CNA per night. I've addressed this issue several times, and was recently asked by our DON to create a float assignment for our 11-7 CNA's when we are short. I am very new at this, and would like to ask some of you experienced charge nurses, and nursing administrators to make some suggestions on how I should proceed with this assignment. Regardless, I am going to involve all of our 11-7 staff and get their input before handing in a first draft to the DON. Any suggestions? Thank you for reading!

Hi, Congratulations! I'm also a nursing student, but feel that I can answer some of your questions. 1) I am pretty sure that a BSN is the preferable degree, other degrees that would be beneficial are degrees in the biological or physical sciences. There is a stronger emphasis on chemistry in CRNA programs, so a background in chem or pharmacology would be a plus. 2) A 3.0 GPA is pretty much the standard for all graduate programs. People may get accepted with a lower GPA, but on a conditional basis. It really depends on how competetive the applicant pool is for that year, and how competitive your own application is. 3) Most programs require a minimum of 1 year acute care experience so I would say that 1 - 2 years would be perfect for most programs. 4) Acceptance to a CRNA program is very competetive and the percent accepted is based how many seats the school's program has for that year. Every year qualified applicants are accepted, waitlisted, and rejected all together because the school couldn't fit them into a seat. As long as you did well as an undergrad, do well on the prereq's and get 1 - 2years of ICU experience, you should have a pretty competetive application.

DO's can perform surgery. Med school graduates, and med students have to take a 3 step licensing exam called the USMLE for MD students, and the COMLEX for DO students. Passing either of these exams after graduation from med school will get you a license to practice medicine, and make you eligible to start a residency. While osteopathic physicians can practice in any specialty an MD physician can, osteopathic medicine's focus is in primary care. Since the DO and MD curriculum are so similar, DO's are eligible to take the USMLE's. If a DO would like to become a surgeon s/he may have to take the USMLE and do an MD residency in surgery, or do extremely well on the COMLEX. Otherwise it is difficult for a DO to get accepted into an MD surgical residency. Hope this helps a little. Good luck with everything.

Hey everyone! I had done some research in the past, and found out that some PA programs (and some med school programs) require that you complete at least 90 credit hours of course work (with no degree). This means that you can get into a PA school (or medical school for that matter) without a Bachelor's degree providing you meet the school's specific requirements, and you are a competetive applicant. There are some physicians out there walking around with no type of Bachelors degree at all. I'm sure all of these school's prefer you to have a four-year-degree, but some don't make it a necessity.

In general most schools will require a competitive applicant to posess at least a cumulative 3.0 GPA in your undergraduate studies. You will also have to do equally as well in your core science courses, as well as all nursing courses. The GRE will also be required for most, if not all programs. Some programs will have minimum requirements of no less than a combined score of 1000. Where you got your BSN generally won't matter, as long as the program is accredited, and you have passed the NCLEX. Experience in the NP field you want to go into is sometimes necessary. Some schools require you to have a certain number of hours in a particular field of nursing before you could even be considered for a seat. GPA, and GRE test scores are not the only determining factors for entry into an NP program. If you think that your academic history is less than competitive, work on getting stand out letters of recommendation, writing a memerable essay, and leaving a positive lasting impression during your interview. Everything will depend on the school that you are applying to. All school websites will have their own admission requirements under the program of which you are applying. Check out http://www.allnursingschools.com/ it's a good place to start.

Hey thanks for the info everyone. To answer sugabuga's question: I just consolidated what loans I currently owe up to now. My loan advisor told me that I could pay it off in 10 years or 20 years, and I chose to take the 20 year plan. With what I currently owe it would be $188.00 a month for 20 years. I am guessing that I will owe almost double that by the time I graduate in 2007, so I'm estimating around $500 a month loan repayment when I consolidate the remaining loans. ZASHAGALKA thanks for the link. That program looks great. I definitely fullfill the financial need requirement. Now if I can only find a hospital covered under the program... And if I do qualify for it I will buy everyone here a pizza, lol. Thank you all, Adam

Thanks for the advice everyone. I am on the 20 year payment plan and my loans will only be about $500 a month, once they are all consolidated. I'm going to pay off as much as I can. Paying off $20,000 in one year is amazing. If I can manage that, I will. I'm also looking into Loan repayment programs. Thank you.

I'm a nursing student in Maine. My tuition is about $11,000 annually not including housing, clinical fees, and books. It's an extra $6,000 to stay on campus. I switched my major to nursing last year, which set me back a year academically and put me on the 6 year graduation plan. I'm happy with my decision, and I'm excited on becoming a nurse. I'm just worried about student loan payback. Currently I owe over $50,000 in student loans. By the time I graduate I expect to owe over $60,000 not including interest that has accrued thus far. My plan is to move to Boston after I graduate. I'm single and I would work nights and overtime when I could. I'm curious whether you think it would be a reasonable goal to set a loan payback amount of $10,000 a year. I'm very good with money. I don't need a lot to live, as long as I have enough to pay the bills and eat. I know that Boston is very expensive, but they also pay extremely well. I just want to pay off my loans as quickly as possible. I don't want to have to struggle with money like other members of my family did.