beautynursing

For some reason it's hiding my responses but: The thing is, she's saying they make it harder every semester and change the exam material completely "to prevent cheaters" and repeatedly obsess over and state this. Probably to hide the fact that it's very scammy.

Here is what my friend wrote about ICHS this semester: "Holy ****! This school is HARD and this is coming from an LVN of several years, with a 3.7gpa and another bachelors. We were just in finals week this week and I FAILED. I didn't even get a C in LVN school before! I studied my *** off and know this material like the back of my hand! Heres why it was so hard: They don't prepare you for the exams. They don't tell you what material will be on the test and the whole grade is primarily based off TWO tests: the midterm and final! They use HESI tests which are very hard to pass. They do not curve them. It's way too much material to know in detail. They also have case studies on the exam and didn't really prepare us for those, nor tell us those would be on the exams. They brag about making the exams harder and harder each semester "to prevent students from cheating" and also as an excuse as to why they can't tell you what info will be on the exams. Not only that but students tell me it gets harder each semester and half my class or more each semester is repeating the class after failing previously at ICHS. They make these classes too hard to pass so they can collect more tuition from you. Lastly, they grade assignments (a tiny % of your grade) WAY too hard! You can know the topic like the back of your hand and write a one page accurate and perfect response, and theyll still constantly give you 70-80% and add one random irrelevant detail you didn't add as a reason to knock of a chunk of points. This school is a scam! I should have listened. Legit private school it is! I have a friend who is took capstone for the second time and still did not pass. I hear the final exit exam is completely impossible and they've gotten a group together for a class action lawsuit. You can try to pass, and know the material perfectly, but they'll fail you. They make it impossible to pass!”

Yes because the school is formally being investigated. Sometimes when you call they will say it's not because they're talking about operation nightingale. But many times they will tell you yes they are.

See? LOL They are cleared to not be apart of operation nightingale, yes. But that's not what they're being investigated for anymore. They're being investigated for being a fraud school that fails most of their students. Look at all the bad reviews, even recent. The deeper you get in the program, the harder it is to pass and they fail most of the students so they get more tuition money out of you. THAT is what they are being investigated for. And no, it's not normal. It's mostly LVNs/LPNs attending this school so they know how nursing school works and how to pass these classes. The classes are nearly identical for RN compared to LPN.

Once again, there have been dozens of people who graduated 1-2 years ago who have not been able to get endorsed in CA and graduated from ICHS. This is nothing new. But every time someone comments this, some random person comments this is untrue and old news. But it's not.

I told people this but the story seems to change depending on who you talk to. Sometimes they say it's under review and other times they say it's not. It's probably better to choose a different school but yeah.

Yes, ICHS the schedule is three weeks of labs and clinicals per semester, but it is not in a row. I wish LOL. It is one day one week, two days another week, one day a third week. They have too many students for it all to be in a row. It is completely random. Meaning, you have to constantly be taking off of work and paying for flights and accommodations back-and-forth. It is often last minute too. That means you better have a very flexible job, and a lot of money saved for traveling. And no pets or someone to take care of them. What I have heard a lot of people doing is renting a place in FL there for several months and staying there that whole time. Because it ends up being cheaper than having to pay for flights back and forth.

Fort Myers. For Premiere you have to be in front of a computer camera on sitting at a desk only and with no one in the room from 6-10pm (eastern time so 3-7 pacific) M-F (usually only 4 of those days which change randomly by quarter). They also don't accept all pre-reqs and make everyone redo some. At least Microbiology. They don't credit any LPN courses and don't offer testing out of any courses. It ends up being 1.5y with pre-reqs and 2 years without. I believe the program is around 50k without any, similar to ICHS. You are not allowed to be late or miss any days. They have you fly in for 2 weeks every quarter. They bill you by the quarter.

The reality is, students will get taken advantage of once they are in a program like this. They make it seem like a dream to get you to sign the enrollment agreement financial documents, then you realize how screwed you are. You will need additional $15,000 to $20,000 to pay for flights, hotel for Airbnb for months, and rental car. They make the final exams and exit exams so high that majority of the class is failing so that those who take the NCLEX will 100% pass and give them a high pass rate to keep accreditation. Most people will pass in a normal nursing school, and ICHS it's only too 10-20% of the class, which is crazy! Normal schools do this already with nursing school, but these types of schools are like nursing school on steroids. So these nursing schools, distance ones, are much much MUCH harder to pass than a regular school. Just because there's so much competition with people looking for a shortcuts, so they make exams harder than the average school so most students fail and they maintain high NCLEX pass rate. It would be very challenging to work even 40 hours a week and attend this program. Just because the school is harder than the average school, meaning you need to study even more than with the average nursing school. And the average nursing school already tells you not to work full-time. Then you have to find the money for an extra 20 K for travel costs. A clinical day here, two clinical days next week, one clinical day the following week... That means you either have to be gone from home for months renting hotel or Airbnb, or you have to be flying back-and-forth constantly, which is probably more expensive than just staying there for 3 months each semester to get clinicals done. Most people are repeating at least 2 semester of classes just to pass, and many have failed several repeats. It's not worth it for California student. It's harder, more expensive, and more time consuming in the end. Better off going to Galen or Nightingale or something.

Personally, I decided against ICHS because I didn't want to fly out last minute and constantly just to do a day or two of clinicals at a time. You need to have an extremely flexible work schedule, able to go last minute, and able to pay for lots of flights.

Which school did you go to? I think that is making a difference.

Which Florida school did they go to?

This probably isn't helpful and I hope others chime in, but I called the CA board of RN last week and they said ALL Florida schools and people endorsing ANY FL RN license to CA, they're all on hold. I tried to ask about school specifics and they said all of the schools are under investigation in FL so they can't give any info about any of them. Hopefully someone else will comment with more info!

Hello! I know operation nightingale is going on right now where the CA board of nursing has put a pause on all endorsement licenses from Florida to California. (I personally called the CA board last week and they told me this over the phone). But I know there are seemingly legit programs like ICHS international college of health sciences, and PCI premiere international college. Does anyone know if or how these schools will be affected? I mean these schools make you do all the work and attend all the clinicals in Florida, so they are legit. Anyone have more information on either school or similar? I'm looking for virtual schools (all pre-reqs for CA boards done at community college in CA) as the RN ones are too impacted with years long waitlists.

I'm an LVN/LPN in California wanting to do a bridge program to RN this year! Has anyone attended Premiere International College (PCI) in Florida recently? It's virtual except 10 days of in person clinicals per quarter. I did all of my pre-reqs at a community college (although PCI makes you retake Microbiology). Any California students or recently licensed in CA from one of these Florida schools? I know the CA board has become strict with operation nightingale in Florida right now. I heard all FL to CA RN endorsement licenses are on hold? Anyone have insight?