jakm

MDtoDNP, I see where you're coming from. My info is a few years old, but actually I'm training a new nurse at my hospital who just graduated from USF's ABSN program. I told him about those numbers last week (starting with 55, going down to 40), and he was surprised, saying it didn't happen to his class. If I remember correctly, he said that his class size was in the 30s the whole time, start to finish. The reasons? This is going back 3 1/2 years, but some people decided the first week or two that they didn't want to be nurses, some didn't have English as their first language so it was too hard (I think they did regular-paced nursing), and some just couldn't keep up; they also had to keep a grade of 80% or higher. Yes, we had to do ATI, but it wasn't a large part of our grade. I'm not sure about how USF uses ATI these days. Again, 3 1/2 years ago but... I think ATI was 5% of the final grade, and if we got a good score, we got 5%, but if we got a bad score, we had to do remediation and got 2.5%. Something like that. There may have been a few ATI tests per class, but I'm not sure. I am pretty sure that no one failed a class because of ATI, but I know a number of people failed certain ATI tests. I'd say call USF if you're still thinking about the program. My new nurse felt it was a really good program. I know they polled us about how we thought they should restructure the program, so it's likely they do that every time and change it for the better.

The area...? For being a moderately small city, it has two large hospitals, which I believe are the biggest employers in the city. Both hospitals are well-respected. The city is also becoming a lot more "hip" from what I've heard. There are a lot of different types of restaurants to eat at, and supposedly it's a great place to raise a family. There are a lot of trails for walking/biking, and outdoors stuff to do in the area during warm months, and a place to ski during winter. What else...? I haven't lived here for a long time.. The schedule might change in 2018, but in ours, the first 5 months were really busy. After that, things settled down a bit and some people got part-time jobs. It became the pace of a normal full-time nursing program. They didn't tell us what the acceptance rate was, but we started with something like 55 people, and it was 50 at week 2, and 40 at week 6. Most of them made it to the end (38 in total). The first 5 weeks were the hardest, because they wanted us to master all of the nursing skills and the assessment so we could start clinicals on week 6. I don't know if it's still this way, because they asked for feedback on how to change things. The people who failed out in week 5, from what I understand, they met with the advisor and made a plan to graduate... I know of one student who transferred to another local school. I wouldn't hesitate to call the school's program directly. They were very open and helpful when I had questions!

True, many classes have a simulation. Also, I don't know if that number counts the preceptorship. The simulations and preceptorship are some of the best clinical experiences, because you really get to act the part of a nurse.

You're welcome!

I went there (USF ABSN), and I felt we got enough hours. I liked the program! Feel free to ask me anything about it, but I am biased... :-) It is true that a number of my classmates went back to MN and are working as RNs there. Also, a number of people (10-15) got out of Bible class because they had already taken one in college.

Same here, my last day was yesterday and I got a 99% on the ATI predictor! I'm going to try to take the NCLEX within the next 2 weeks, and start my job about 6 weeks after that! It's great to be done, but I learned so much!! Good luck to you and congrats!

Do you think you'll live on-campus? If you do, it might feel more laid-back like a small town, but I don't know anything about Creighton. You could look at Google Maps, and see whether the school is isolated from the city. Even if it's not, it might feel self-contained. I've lived in places ranging from 10 thousand to 10 million people, and even the huge cities can feel homey if you live in the right place. Having said that, I'm still going to USF! I don't mean to talk you out of it. I chose USF because of the program's website info, its statistics, prerequisites, clinical sites, and the cost. If you decide to go, let me know!

What's the other school you're looking at? I've never been to South Dakota before, but I lived in the Midwest for about 5 years. What about you? There's another person on this site who's going to USF in January, and she's from South Dakota. She might be able to tell you more. See if you can find the other posting about USF's ABSN.

I did a Google search a while back and only found 2011 information, but their NCLEX passing rate was 94.7%. I guess they are new, because there was no data before 2011. I also called the school a while back, and they said within 6 months, their job placement rate for 2013 was 98%. :-D

Hi, sorry I took so long to respond. I tried searching for it a few days ago and couldn't find it. Today I had the same problem, but then I did something (I don't know what) and it popped up! Thanks for making it :-)

I think making a Facebook group is a good idea. I haven't done that before, but if you know how to make one, I'll definitely join!

It's nice to find a classmate on here!

Thank you for the reply! I looked at the NCLEX statistics and the BON website and found no worrisome information! I have seen people mention that selection ratio is important, but to me it has always seemed like circumstantial evidence (i.e., there could be many reasons why a ratio is high or low). Is there something I'm missing?

Just to add to keylimesqueez's comment, my friend expressed worry that his research's funding might be cut (even though it was a government job), and when I was doing my nursing prereqs, I found that a few professors (at least 3 of 5, maybe more) were ex-researchers, probably hoping to get back into research... and doing teaching just until they could get their next research position.

I have a friend who did an undergrad degree in bio and computer science, and went into a PhD in bio/tech. He went into a research job afterward. Within a year of finishing his PhD, he told me his student loan was paid off. I think he had to pay tuition for the first few years, the "school" part, and not for the latter part, the research part (and he also got a stipend during that time).