greenbean74

Hi there! The spreadsheet you saw on the VA BON is not up to date, and honestly I'm not too surprised. I can assure you that way more than five of us have taken and passed the NCLEX. As a matter of fact, by my quick mental estimate, I'd say that at least 75% of our class has taken the NCLEX, passed, and has started working. There are others who took it and didn't go straight to work because of life changes (new babies!). But most people I can think of are happily gainfully employed at this point! I'd wait til 2017 to see what the state reports for 2016. As for the summer. It is intense, but a bit less so. For that matter, I felt like the first semester was the toughest, and then workload eased up a bit every term thereafter. I don't know if they are planning any changes to the summer schedule, but for us, the first five weeks was our community health clinical (two days a week, scheduled independently with your facility) plus one 100% online course and one 75% online course. The online courses required a lot of reading and writing, so plan to be devoting a lot of time to it. We then had one 5-day intensive lab course. And the last five weeks was our preceptorship. For your preceptorship, you will be assigned a nurse at a hospital, and you will work that nurse's schedule with him/her for the full five weeks. You may be working days, nights, or rotating. You will also have a clinical conference for 3-4 hours one day a week. For me, I felt like the final preceptorship was easier simply because we were focused on one thing and one thing only. I finally felt like I was working and doing just a bit of school work. If you are good with time management and prioritization, then you might be able to get away with working part time. Best of luck!! P.S. I should mention that several members of my class are still lurking on your class' FB page, so you might get a broader response if you post there. :)

Hi there! The spreadsheet you saw on the VA BON is not up to date, and honestly I'm not too surprised. I can assure you that way more than five of us have taken and passed the NCLEX. As a matter of fact, by my quick mental estimate, I'd say that at least 75% of our class has taken the NCLEX, passed, and has started working. There are others who took it and didn't go straight to work because of life changes (new babies!). But most people I can think of are happily gainfully employed at this point! I'd wait til 2017 to see what the state reports for 2016. As for the summer. It is intense, but a bit less so. For that matter, I felt like the first semester was the toughest, and then workload eased up a bit every term thereafter. I don't know if they are planning any changes to the summer schedule, but for us, the first five weeks was our community health clinical (two days a week, scheduled independently with your facility) plus one 100% online course and one 75% online course. The online courses required a lot of reading and writing, so plan to be devoting a lot of time to it. We then had one 5-day intensive lab course. And the last five weeks was our preceptorship. For your preceptorship, you will be assigned a nurse at a hospital, and you will work that nurse's schedule with him/her for the full five weeks. You may be working days, nights, or rotating. You will also have a clinical conference for 3-4 hours one day a week. For me, I felt like the final preceptorship was easier simply because we were focused on one thing and one thing only. I finally felt like I was working and doing just a bit of school work. If you are good with time management and prioritization, then you might be able to get away with working part time. Best of luck!!

Re shoes: Some folks in my class went cheap; I went for comfort. In retrospect, I wouldn't necessarily buy the same shoes again - they've been great, but once I get out of school, I don't envision needing white shoes again. I got these Timberland Pro Renovo shoes Amazon.com: Timberland PRO Women's Renova Professional Slip On: Shoes. Some people love Danskos; I like them generally, but I was afraid I'd roll my ankle if I wore them for nursing shoes. Everybody's feet are different. I would advise trying things on and going with whatever feels good to you.

Re: Your class FB group. I thought I had read it here, but it is posted in this other discussion: https://allnurses.com/virginia-nursing/gmu-accelerated-second-1043202.html

Sounds like your fall semester will be just like ours was. The Calculate With Confidence book is the required textbook for lab, so you might as well get it and start practicing. I found it to be entirely too big and cumbersome (when I'm doing math, I prefer simple explanations), so I would suggest you check out the website DosageHelp.com - Helping Nursing Students Learn Dosage Calculations. It covers everything you need to know about med math and nothing more. :) I think somebody in your group already started a FB group. Go back and read through this thread to find the link or details. I'm crossing my fingers for all of you!

I didn't even apply to VCU. GMU was my first choice because I live in Fairfax, the location was convenient, and I completed all the GMU prerequisites before completing other courses that would have been required for other schools (such as Marymount).

You will start getting information from the SON during the summer about orientation/boot camp week, uniform requirements, clinical placements, and whatnot. You'll need to get a stethoscope, and it doesn't need to be fancy! As long as you can hear a heartbeat through it, it's good enough. And you'll have to get white shoes that can easily be cleaned (sneakers are ok as long as they are all leather and don't have any canvas or mesh). They will tell you everything else you need for clinicals, but I have a few things to add! I used this clipboard in my clinicals, and I love it! Nursing To protect patient privacy, you never want to leave patient information laying around where someone can see it, and with this clipboard, you can just fold everything up inside it. Also, it fits in the pocket of your scrub top and in any cargo pockets of your scrub pants.

Also, consider that your clinical experience is really where you put together the learning that you get from your assessment and skills labs. Clinicals start right from day 1, so everything you learn in lab during the fall semester you get to put to use pretty soon after in the clinical setting. We learned physical assessment skills in lab, and we applied those skills in clinical. We learned to give meds and shots in lab, and we applied those skills in clinical (under the direct supervision of our clinical instructors). So, from that perspective, the clinical environment seems to give us all the opportunity we need to apply the nursing skills that we learn - with actual patients.

So, here's the deal right now. (As I've mentioned before, there is a new CHHS building under construction, so some of this is subject to change depending on when that building is complete.) All lecture classes are at PW. They use modern lecture halls that can easily accommodate the entire class of 50-60 students. All labs are at Fairfax. NOT all labs are in the Sim lab. As a matter of fact, the Sim lab doesn't really get much use. We used it once in the Fall semester and once in the Spring semester. It is a neat sim lab, and it has a lot of potential, but it isn't very big, and it seems to be used more as a novelty than anything. I too received the tour and info session at GW, and I was pretty impressed by their facility. But based on my experience at Mason, I wonder how much they truly use their sim lab over there. However, in my opinion, the use of the sim lab is not necessary to learn the skills that we need to learn. In the fall, we had an assessment lab (where we mostly practiced on each other) and a skills lab (where we practiced on mannequins). The Sim lab could be helpful in tying all the pieces together, but in terms of learning the skills, mannequins in the labs served the purpose just fine. As far as feeling like I sacrificed anything by choosing Mason, I really can't say, because I don't know what it would have been like at GW. I've had an overall good experience at GMU. I feel like I've learned a ton, and I feel like I will learn a ton more in my first year as a nurse. I've found that some professors are awesome, and some are not. But I think you'll find that anywhere.

EAR2RN2017, I live in Fairfax, and the Fairfax campus is less than 7 miles from my house. I had the same concern last year before everything started, but it's really not that bad getting to the PW campus. The annual parking pass is good at both campuses, and the PW campus is so much smaller that parking is pretty close to where you need to be. Also, there is a shuttle that runs between the two campuses, so that's always an option. We have students in our cohort who live in Arlington and Alexandria, so for them, getting to PW is a haul; but we also have students who live in Ashburn and Manassas, and for them, getting to Fairfax is a haul. Also, one point to consider is that the GW nursing school is located in Ashburn, which is farther from Fairfax than Manassas is. Congratulations on your acceptances! And good luck in your decision making!

Hi sla004! Congratulations!! I know you all have so many questions! (We had a million questions at this time last year, too!) The daily schedule seems to change each year. I'm in the current cohort, and I know that our class schedule has been different than the cohort that graduated in 2015. I would NOT plan on this, but just to give you an idea of what to expect, here's what our schedule has been for the current cohort: Fall semester: We had 4 didactic classes, with two each meeting on M and W. We had 2 labs that met 1 day a week (either T or Th). We had an 8-hr clinical one day a week (either T or Th). We were off on Fridays!! You have no idea how much difference that extra weekend day made in terms of study time!!) Spring semester: We have one didactic class that meets on M/W afternoon, and two didactic classes that meet on F. We have one lab that meets on either M or W. We have clinical on T/Th. During the winter, we had a two-week hybrid course during the break. All of the coursework was online, but we met in person for the exams at the end of each week. All of our didactic courses have been at Prince William, and all of our labs have been at Fairfax. However, a new CHHS building is under construction at Fairfax, so maybe - just maybe - that will be done during your program and you will get to use it! In terms of clinical assignments, everyone is required to complete the same clinical rotations, so it has nothing to do with your field of interest. In the fall, we had our medical-surgical rotation; in the spring, we are in the midst of 5-week rotations for maternity, peds, and psych; and in the summer, we will have a 5-week community health clinical and a 5-week preceptorship. We were able to request the clinical sites for our summer community health clinical, and we will be able to request specialty and location for our preceptorship, but for the rest of the clinical rotations, they just to the best they can with what they've got! They try to place us at clinical sites that are relatively convenient to where we each live, but that is not always possible. I know you'll have more questions, and I'm happy to provide a bit of insight for you! Good luck!!

Hi there, Trhl09! Working during the program is definitely a challenge, but some of my classmates are doing it - and by some, I mean very few. I have one friend who has continued her job in a nursing home part-time during the program. Another guy had started working as a clinical tech in a hospital before the program started and managed to do ok juggling his responsibilities. He changed roles to a unit secretary at some point and finds that to work better with his schedule. There may be a few other folks that are working in part-time tech positions, but I don't know of anyone who has managed to hold on to their previous professional job while in school. If you are working in a healthcare role, then it might be possible to juggle school and work. But if you're working a regular 9-5 office day job, then you might want to reconsider. Of course, it is all so personal, and you will have to figure out what works for you. The program administrators strongly discourage working during the program, because the program is incredibly intensive (and it is!). I had left the option open with my previous employer to work part-time for them once I got settled into my academic routine, but by the time I got settled into a study rhythm with my courseload the first semester, I couldn't imagine finding time to work as well. The program is intense. They aren't just saying that. You're getting what amounts to four semesters of full-time coursework crammed into two full semesters, one two-week winter intersession, and both summer sessions. As for jobs after graduation with the previous cohort, I have no idea!! I actually met a woman at my clinical site yesterday who was part of the 2015 ASBN graduating class and was on her lunch break at the hospital, and I have purchased some used books/supplies from another woman who was in last year's cohort and seems to have found a job with no issues. So, my sample size of two is promising! I am pretty confident in our ability to secure jobs when we finish. However, one thing to keep in mind as you plan your finances and whatnot for the year: You will graduate in early August, but you cannot sit for the NCLEX exam until after your final transcripts are received by the state board of nursing, which could take several weeks. We have been told to expect to take our NCLEX about a month after we graduate. That means we won't be graduating and starting jobs right away - but that's ok, because it gives us about a month to prepare for the NCLEX without taking time away from our other academic obligations. Sorry if this is too rambly!! I'm glad to answer any other questions. One more piece of advice: As your cohort coalesces, you may want to form a facebook group to take your discussions private and start to get to know each other. One of my classmates started one for our cohort a month or so after we received our offer letters. It was really helpful to us as we geared up last summer, and it has continued to be really useful throughout our program.

I'm in the accelerated BSN program now, and last year, we got our SON acceptance letters by e-mail on about March 31. I think the SON ABSN admissions committee looks at a lot more than just grades, and I also think that they consider each student holistically on the sum of his or her merits. I applied to GWU and GMU, and I thought I would be a shoe-in for GWU and was worried about my application to GMU. Turns out that GWU uses NursingCAS, which is an entirely online application system, and I suspect that my less than stellar previous undergrad GPA worked against me in a system that has electronic screening before an application is ever seen by a human being. When I submitted my transcripts to the GMU SON, I addressed the fact that my post-graduate academic record was much improved over my undergraduate academic record, and judging by the fact that I was admitted, I would say that the admissions committee looked at everything I submitted in making their decision. The ABSN program is definitely a competitive program, and there will be days that you wish you had just a little more time to master a concept and you hate yourself for signing up for an accelerated program, but the payoff is totally worth it. I mean, I started in August, and I'll be a nurse by September! Best of luck to all of you!

Thank you so much! This is helpful! My only concern with books is not having them available as a reference in the future. Are there any textbooks that you would recommend getting in hard copy to save for future reference?

Here's the fall academic calendar. I would imagine that our exam schedule falls into the overall university exam week. https://registrar.gmu.edu/calendars/fall-2015/