Question for students and graduates of Mohawk RPN program

vintage_RN, BSN, RN · May 29, 2014

Well, you asked...so I'm going to tell ya. I graduated from the Mohawk RPN program last December. I did very well in the program (high 80s average) and did not find the program very challenging. I found the program very disorganized, often not knowing where I was going for classes or placement until the first day of the semester. I also find that Mohawk seems to be moving away from...how do I say it...actual teaching? When I started it wasn't so bad, by the end our lab class was an hour long and we were told that the other 2 hours were "blended learning" times..i.e we were expected to do the work on our own. All of the packages and booklets are online and you have to have them complete before class. Class is just for "clarification" purposes, meaning they do not lecture at you...you are expected to know the material before class. Essentially what I'm saying is...you teach yourself in most cases. It's very independent.

As for placements...first semester is "suppose" to be long term care. Second semester is "suppose" to be medicine. Third semester is "suppose" to be surgical...and fourth semester is "suppose" to be either maternity or psych. I say "suppose" because only a lucky few actually get all of these placements. I got long term care for semesters 1 and 2, medicine for semester 3 and rehab for semester 4. There aren't enough placements to go around so you take what you can get. Some people had rehab 3 semesters in a row. Others got surgical and maternity and a variety of placements. I was lucky and got my pregrad on a busy surgical floor which is where I found out I love busy/acute settings...and now I work on another busy surgical floor.

All in all...if you play the game, you can do well. It isn't that hard. But the program is frustrating. And of course I've decided to torture myself even more in September by going back to the bridging program at Mohawk/McMaster.

Sorry if I rained on your parade...but that's the truth.

taoofPooh · May 29, 2014

Thank you so much for all the info and great advice.

The program sounds pretty decent. My grades at Niagara were in the 80s-90s

and I did not find the academic aspect to be that bad either. Also, most of the learning was self directed as well and I am a hard worker.:)

The main reason I am switching schools is because I was bullied by a supervisor (as were others) and nothing was really done about it unfortunately. I guess what I would really like to know is if Mohawk and its staff (specifically the clinical supervisors) generally fair and supportive towards students.

relaxingbath · May 29, 2014

I am graduating in June and I have to say I agree with pretty much everything that VintagePN has said, I have been talking to students that are now currently in semester 3 and 2 and again they are changing the way the courses are taught particularly lab. Even the way they test the lab classes has changed they now do one OSCE at the end of the semester on any of the skills taught during that time. This means you might never be tested on how to do a proper or accurate respiratory assessment, this is something I strongly disagree with. I was lucky to have probably the hardest old school teacher, sit down and go over how to do head to toe assessments and that has helped me a huge amount. Now you are fortunate if you get any one to one time with a teacher to go over the techniques, sure there are videos online and other resources but until you have done the assessments hands on with feed back at the time its just not the same.

The staff as a whole are very friendly and encouraging though at times it feels they are being told by the higher ups to change the curriculum in ways that they don't agree with. As stated above placements can be touch and go I was the luckiest person with placements, LTC semester 1, stroke, spinal injury and amputation (rehab) semester 2, surgical semester 3 and maternity semester 4 (I was given the option to drop maternity as I am male but I found it to be great experience even with some barriers to my gender) and to finish up my pregrad was in an ER department. All my clinical instructors have helped with acclimatising to the ward and making sure that the students go the most out of the placement that they could, work load between them varied though. Some required full gordons work up each week per patient while others just wanted summaries at the end of each clinical day so they knew of issues or areas to work on.

taoofPooh · May 29, 2014

Thanks for your input as well,relaxingbath. Good to know.

Are the OSCEs very hard/strict? What typically are the choices for each semester e.g. term 1? And I'm curious as to how the instructors are pressured to change the curriculum-change in what ways?

And do the clinical supervisors actually help/mentor you in the clinical setting?

Sorry for asking so many questions,I just want to make sure that I made the right choice in switching schools.

relaxingbath · May 30, 2014

I only did one OSCE (3 different procedures) that was introduced in my final semester and I know that I made mistakes during them (wound irrigation and dressing, DAR charting and IV medication) and still received a high 80% mark not sure that I deserved it. The OSCE work by having multiple stations set up and you are randomly given a skill to perform from small group (so I had IV medication the other procedure at that station was blood transfusion) once the time is up you move to the next station (wound care, ostomy care etc..) normally there are 3 stations that you do. You are told during the semester what skills you are expected to know however you don't know which of those skills you will be tested on until you are at the station in the OSCE.

Mohawk as a college was told to move to blended learning by head guy (he has left and is now head of hamilton health science) but the legacy is that every course only has so much "in class" time and the rest has to be done by the student in their own time. This has meant that class times are getting shorter lab being the worst, in my semester 1 lab was 2 hours of lectures followed by 2 hours in the learning resource center. This gave us 4 hours with a teacher to discuss theory, best practice and then to get feed back on our techniques. I my semester 4 there was no theory time and the time in the learning resource center was an hour and a half a week, I really felt the curriculum for maternal/baby and mental health in the lab really could have been fleshed out more to prepare us for those environments. there is the "goldfish bowl" an area in the library that can be used at any time for practice and there is a really friendly lab tech there that can offer advice however because he isn't the one marking the OSCE his real world applications sometimes don't match up with what the teachers expect.

Clinical instructors are a mixed bag and because there are soo many of them their teaching methods and skills can be very different, as I stated before my first instructor was super old school from europe, loads or work each week and expected to a very high standard. To say that some of the students left clinical in tears would not be an exaggeration however I know everyone from that group (normally 8 students to 1 instructor on one ward) can do a head to toe assessment and know what to look for in a geriatric patient. Later instructors for me were hands off using the time to observe with minimal feed back some let us finish early if it was a slow day others forced us to complete the 12 hour shift and then do an hour post conference. I know this isn't what you want to hear and that you would love a definitive answer about the clinical instructors the only thing I can say is that I didn't hear of any of my classmates feeling bullied by staff or teachers.

vintage_RN, BSN, RN · May 30, 2014

Mohawk staff is generally supportive of students. Clinical instructors are unpredictable as they are not really "staff" of the college perse (some of them are), but many of them are working nurses in the community. I had a really great one who I still talk to today and gave me a really great reference which got me my job. I also had a terrible one who had it out for me, had ridiculous and unrealistic expectations, picked on me and singled me out, and wrote me up (and the coordinators of the program did not agree with her write ups of me). It really depends on the teacher.