RN to MSN 2014-2015.. New starts as well as students currently enrolled

Kathy H · Jan 1, 2015

Hi SugarShellRN

I am in the process of applying for the RN-MSN in leadership. I had my first call with my enrollment counselor on Monday. I requested transcripts sent and sent my licensure info.

I was wondering how long it took you from application to getting a start date?

I would like to get started by May 1 since I am already enrolled to take 2 classes (stats is one of them ) this spring term with a local college.

Kathy

klone, MSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

I will address your questions - my responses are italicized.

Do you feel that you have the content/resources you need to successfully complete your exams/papers?

Yes, absolutely. In most classes/for most tasks, I have found the resources I find myself on the internet to be more useful than the eBooks assigned to the individual classes. But for a few tasks, I have utilized the recommended resource list.

What are some difficulties you've experienced and how did you overcome them?

My biggest difficulty or obstacle is myself. I am a major procrastinator, unless I have a hard deadline. Even with a hard deadline, I will procrastinate until I hit the deadline. The only hard deadline at WGU is the end of the 6-month term. As you can imagine, there is a lot of procrastinating one can do in 6 months. I remember my 2nd term of my BSN program, I basically blew off the first 5 months of the term, then I was faced with finishing 4 classes in 3 weeks. So if you take one piece of advice, it's don't procrastinate.

What advice can you offer on setting a schedule to complete coursework in a timely manner?

Set aside a specific day or time of day to work on schoolwork. Some people may need a couple hours, several days a week. Others may need less. I have found that if I set aside every Saturday morning/afternoon for schoolwork, I am able to complete one task a week, which is a nice steady pace, and then I gave myself permission to not think about school for the rest of the week, and not feel guilty about it. I would go to the library when it opened around 9:30 or 10am with some McDonald's food and a bottle of water, and I would stay at the library and work until I submitted my task. Some weeks I would be done at 1 or 2, and sometimes I would be there until 4 or 5. But I tried to do that every week, and I found that I was able to get through each class in 3-5 weeks, at that pace.

How are the proctored assessments? Level of difficulty? How did you prepare?

I've only had to take 4-5 proctored exams in both my BSN and my MSN program combined. I think I had 3 in the BSN program, and 2 in the MSN. For me, they haven't been difficult. I prepared by taking the pre-assessment immediately, then seeing what areas I was weaker in, then used the recommended resources to study up a bit on those weaker areas. I have found that the exams take the least amount of my time in preparation. I have only *studied* in advance for one exam, and I think that was nutrition. If my pre-assessment score was passing with a comfortable margin, then I would schedule the exam as soon as possible, and devote little/no time in preparation/studying. The cut scores are very generous, usually around 67-70%.

Are they crazy about grammar and whatnot... or are they more interested that you are mastering the subject (content)?

Not crazy, but yeah, you have to have good grammar, mechanics, etc. For papers and performance assessments, they give you a score on each thing - every rubric question you are supposed to address, and then grammar/mechanics is a score, and APA formatting is also a score. The score for each item is 0-4, and for some points, you have to score a 4 or you will have to redo the section, and for other points, they will accept a 3 or a 4. For a 2 or less in any section, they will kick it back to you to fix. So for grammar, they will accept some errors that might make it a 3, but if there are a lot of grammar issues and you get a 2 or less, it will get kicked back to you to fix.

What do you particularly like about the program so far? Favorite things vs. things you wish were done differently?

I have a lot of favorite things about the program. The completely self-designed pace of the program, the inexpensive tuition, the ability to pay tuition monthly instead of coming up with $3400 all at once. But I would say that even though I don't find the subject matter extremely difficult or challenging, I really do feel like I'm learning things and I'm being taught the tools I will need to be an effective nurse manager. I am actually able to utilize the things I'm learning in my program in my day-to-day activities at my job. And I guess that's all you can hope for in a educational program - that it will actually give you the tools you need. I can say with certainty that yes, they ARE doing that.

Things I wish they would do differently....I have to say I HATED the "Professional Roles and Values" class. I think I started a thread about that in this forum a month or so ago. Also, I guess I would say that I think the BSN course mentors could take a lesson from the MSN course mentors. In the 18 months in the BSN program, I never had a course mentor initiate contact with me or reach out to me. Now, I didn't ASK for any help either, and I know from talking to other students that if you need help and initiate contact, they're MORE than happy to help out, so I am not really complaining about them. But in my experience in the MSN program, they have gone WAY above and beyond. I've had THREE different course mentors contact ME, just to check in, see how I was doing, and find out if I had any questions or needed assistance. When I emailed the course mentor for the EBP course, she emailed me back and gave me her phone number and said "If you have time right now, give me a call so we can talk about it over the phone" and I did. This was at 5:30 AM on a weekday, and she spent 30 minutes on the phone with me, working through questions I had. At 0530 AM!! And then she called me back about an hour later when she had a new thought regarding my issue/question! I was incredibly impressed with how helpful and AVAILABLE she was!

I keep hearing about Capstone, and the many hours you have to put into this. How do they count your hours? Is someone signing off on them or are you keeping your own hours log?

For the MSN Capstone, there are no required minimum hours or anything you have to log. For the BSN Capstone, there is a 90-hour community health project. Those 90 hours do need to be logged, but nobody signs off on it. They will randomly audit some people's logs to make sure what was logged was actually done. But you can be very creative with how you get your 90 hours. For example, I did my BSN capstone on child abuse prevention in my community. Some of the things I did were...interview a social worker, interview a CPS worker, interview the leaders of a local church on programs they offer to support parents, I watched/read a VERY extensive local program on the flaws in the local foster care program, and was able to count several hours with that. I created and administered a survey on people's impression on their local resources for parenting.

People who have done their capstone on things like obesity have gone to grocery stores and observed people's buying/eating habits. People who have done theirs on hypertension have volunteered at local health fairs taking blood pressures and educating the public on diet and exercise. There are lots of ways to accrue your 90 hours and none of it *has* to be in a traditional clinical setting.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful to anyone who is considering the program. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have no regrets.

Dyoshirn · Jan 1, 2015

I'm wondering what happens if you fail a course. Are you allowed to repeat? How many times? Does it affect your GPA if you fail a course? How about if you think you know the material and go straight for the assessment and you fail? Just wondering what happens then.

klone, MSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

You really can't fail a course. For performance assessments, if it's not acceptable, they will return it to you for corrections. For objective assessments (exams), you can retake it once for free, I think, but then you have to pay a fee to retake it. I've never had to retake an exam, so I am a little sketchy on the details.

The only time you "fail" a class is if you fail to finish all the required assessments before the end of your 6-month term. Then, they just add it back to your next term to complete. But it will show as a fail on your transcript for the previous term.

SugarShellRN · Jan 1, 2015

Hi Kathy,

My enrollment counselor told me my projected start date right after I applied, pending I got all of my transcripts in on time, background check, and so forth. As of Monday (Dec 29th) I got the e-mail that all of my transcripts had been received, and my counselor said it would take about 5 business days for them to be reviewed. She then told me March 1st is when I would be able to start, but she couldn't officially secure my seat until my background check and FAFSA were completed... at that point I would do my intake interview. After my intake interview, I will receive my degree plan.

Michelle

SugarShellRN · Jan 1, 2015

Klone,

Thank you SO MUCH for your detailed response. That was so helpful. I have been reading wonderful things about this school and you just solidified it. :) That's great about the mentors for the MSN program, I will definitely utilize that to my advantage. You are awesome, thanks again !!

SugarShellRN · Jan 1, 2015

Dyoshirn,

From what I understand, you get out of this what you put into it.... and even if you think you know the material, I would say a quick study session is still a great idea (from what I'm reading)... you can still learn new things. Which is what the ultimate goal is !!

I want to feel like I am really gaining new knowledge and learning things that will prepare me in the future :)

niteshift_mister87 · Jan 2, 2015

I love the detailed response above, this really gets me excited to further my education, like Sugar Shell stated you get out of it what you put into it. After I get licensed here hopefully within the next month or less I will absolutely look more into this school and contact them.

Kathy H · Jan 2, 2015

Klone,

Wow- thank you so much for the detailed answers to SugarShell's great questions. It's so very helpful to have the advantage of knowing what to expect firsthand. I can't wait to get started but right now I'm only in the very beginning stage- applied and spoke to an enrollment counselor. :)

SugarShellRN · Jan 2, 2015

Kathy.. me too... maybe we will be starting around the same time :bookworm:

Kathy H · Feb 12, 2015

Hi Sugarshell,

My start date is confirmed now May 1 RN-MSN/leadership. One of my previous colleges sent them unofficial transcripts and the other college I needed to request twice so that set me back a bit. I was also told that April start date just filled up. I'm coming in with 26 credits (over the 50 for the RN so 76 total) which knocks out about 2 terms according to their recommended curriculum schedule. I am really excited, hope I can stay motivated for the long haul!

Kathy