girodriguez

my BSN will be from a CCNE accredited program

You're referring to my school and not UT Arlington, correct?

There are currently RNs that graduated from this program that are furthering their education through UT Arlington, so I don't think it will be a problem.

That is true, I never thought about it that way. It had always bothered me that the adn program isn't accredited (still chose this school because it's super cheap and had a good reputation), but I guess I really have no reason to worry since I plan on doing UT Arlington's online BSN immediately, granted I pass the nclex. and well as far as a job, I would love to work in a bigger city, but as you said, BSN is usually required anyways. It will work out great in the end because the hospital here in my town offers a pretty good hourly rate for new graduates, allowing time to save and get my BSN before moving to a bigger city. thank you!

Southwest Texas Junior College. They had a decent nclex-rn pass rate with the bridge program. 2015 pass rate was a 50% only because they switched from a bridge to a generic (so no graduating class of 2015). Class of 2014 was the last bridge graduating class, meaning class of 2016 was the first graduating class for the generic program. So the people who took the nclex in 2015 and failed has waited over a year to test, explaining them failing. Hope that makes sense. should also add that they haven't applied yet. They are still working on getting everything sorted out to actually apply. I'm not sure what exactly that entails.

The ADN program I am in is approved by the Texas Board of Nursing, but is currently working on national accreditation. The program director says they will use our current curriculum to apply for accreditation. If I graduate after it gets approved, I would assume I am graduating for a nationally accredited program, correct? What about if I graduate BEFORE it gets accredited, but it is the same curriculum? Would that status still apply to me? national accreditation doesn't really matter to me right now because I will be able to find a job easily in my area as long as there program is approved in Texas, but I know a lot of places in bigger cities require national accredited program graduates. I do plan on getting my BSN at a ccne accredited college in the future though.

A&P 1 was pretty tough for me because we hit the ground running and I had no idea about anything dealing with anatomy. A&P 2 was a lot more information, but since I took it the very next semester, I was able to apply the knowledge I had obtained from my A&P 1 class. In both courses, all the systems were covered. A&P 1 was, I guess you could say, a "brief" over view, while A&P 2 was way more in depth.

I know someone who failed both the LVN and the LVN to RN bridge program offered here at the college (now it's a generic ADN program, no more bridge). You know what happened to her? She got back up and tried again. She's now working as a charge nurse at a hospital and working on her MSN. Sometimes **** happens, but you learn from it. Why don't you want to do an LVN program? The ADN program I'm in right now is competitive admission, mainly because its cheap tuition, a lot of hands on experience, all the instructors have 20+ nursing experience, and well the program only accepts 14 students. I can definitely tell you, having no nursing experience, I had to sell myself on my application and in the interview. I was lucky to be chosen for one of the 14 spots out of over 70 applicants (may not seem like a high number but, but it is for the small town I'm in haha). I feel like the LVNs in my class didn't really have to sell themselves as much, because they had prior nursing experience. The program goes by a point system, and being an LVN gave you a crap load of points right off the back. My point is, you shouldn't completely rule out LVN. Most LVN programs here in TX are 9-12 months, might be different where you're at, but you'll get the experience. I'm understanding the material so far in my program, don't get me wrong, but the LVNs seem to be flying by it, applying their knowledge to all the material and are doing very well. They're awesome with their AIDET, skills check offs, and patient interaction during clinical. Who knows, maybe being an LVN will move you to the top of the waiting lists?

I never did any extra credit, but there were times throughout the semesters where I wished I would have. When I was taking microbiology, for example, I knew it was a tough class, but decided to not do an extra credit assignment worth 25% of an exam grade (10 page paper on how a specific microbe affects a specific part of our environment/daily living or something like that). After a pretty hard 9 chapter exam, my average went from a pretty little A to an 88.something. I was fortunate enough to score well on the final exam and get my average back up to a 91.13, but I was definitely kicking myself in the head for a good while.