Tk28

Metro state sent us an email about 4 months prior to our final semester. They asked us to list organization and specialty preferences in acute care, ambulatory care, and public health. Most of us listed acute care and listed specialties we are interested in and hospitals we would like. For our cohort, a few people got exactly what they wanted. The rest of us were assigned preceptorships in units we did not list in the email. People were assigned preceptorships at Fairview Southdale, St. Francis Medical Center, Children's hospital, Abbott Northwestern, HCMC, etc. I know they weren't able to place everyone in acute care so a few people were placed in hospice and public health. Some of the specialities were observation, ICU, labor and delivery, NICU, med/surg, and rehabilitation that I have heard from our cohort.

I am currently in my second semester of the MANE BSN program at Metro State. In the first semester, I took: Nursing Care of the Family: the class was the most credits and was pretty easy. There were no exams, just the dosage calc test. We had a couple of short papers, two PowerPoint presentations, discussion posts, a teaching plan, and some clinical paperwork. The clinicals were not too difficult and they were not too time consuming. You schedule your own clinicals too. There were about 5 classes and the rest was online. Epidemiology: We only had one class. The second class was cancelled. This class was mostly online and consisted of case studies, assignments, and discussions. The assignments took a few hours each but there were only a handful throughout the semester. Writing in your major: I took it with Ann Ben-Hillel and it was a good online class. There were only 2 big papers and weekly discussions or short assignments. It was busy, but still manageable with the their courses. The first semester of the BSN program was a cakewalk compared to Normandale's program. You should be able to easily manage working and the classes. The second semester is a little more time consuming. These are the courses: Population-Based Care: this class has a pretty hefty workload I think. We have 90 hours of clinicals (we have to schedule a good portion ourselves, which is difficult), group projects, short papers, clinical reflections, case studies, and discussion posts. There is A LOT going on in this course. We have class every other week for 4 hours. We also take a quiz every week worth 10 points and there is one dosage calc exam. No other tests though. I think if they had arranged all of the clinicals for us and if the assignments weren't so terribly vague then the class would be more manageable. Nursing Informatics: this class is fully online and so far pretty easy. We have had discussions, a few assignments, and a short PowerPoint so far. It's not too bad. Leadership II: this class is just as easy and manageable as the first leadership course. There are discussions, assignments, and short papers. We meet in class 5 times this semester for 4 hours. Next semester ive heard that we do a clinical preceptorship that is about 120 hours? I am not positive though. They let us send them hospital/position preferences last week. So we will see where we get placed. the first semester in the BSN MANE program at Metro was really easy and manageable I thought. The second semester is a little bit more difficult, but still not as intense as the ADN portion. Keep in mind that we are the second cohort to go through the program.. and they do make a lot of changes. So they make more stuff online or cut some things out in the future. I know they cut out a lot of the work that the cohort before us had to do. I would still recommend Metro State because it is affordable and manageable. I don't know much about other programs though.

I was accepted into Normandale's program for spring 2015. I sent in my acceptance letter a week ago and I'm wondering if anyone has received a conformation letter. I'm a little paranoid my acceptance got lost in the mail or something lol. I might just call to confirm! Thanks :)