Sacramento State (CSUS) Fall 2014 Applicants

efsrous · Apr 8, 2014

Xaireel, thanks for offering to share about your experience at Sac State! Could you give us an idea of a typical week in the nursing program? How much time a day in lab, lecture or clinical? How many hours a week did you study? Are you involved with the Student Nurse's Association?

I would also love to hear about your clinical experience. How were the nurses you worked with? Did you feel you got adequate practice with the skills you needed to know? What do you wish you had known going into the program?

Sorry for all the questions! Answer as much or as little as you'd like haha

v916 · Apr 8, 2014

@lindsay Just email me at carsales916 at gmail and I'll forward it to you.

LilTeapot · Apr 9, 2014

Hi everyone, I'm also a fall 2014 hopeful. The anticipation is terrible! I calculated that I have 76 points, so I'm right at the cutoff- I sure hope my calculation wasn't off :/ Anyway, good luck to all of you!

mmm_madeline · Apr 9, 2014

ahimsa_L

If I were you, I'd look into Sutter's volunteering program. The degree of patient interaction just depends on which unit you are assigned to. I was assigned to L&D so I got to answer the women's call lights and fetch them whatever they needed (except for food and water as per Sutter's regulations) while they were in triage. I also helped transport them post-surgery to other rooms. The best part was being able to sit in on procedures and C sections!

I think as long as your volunteer work entails having communication with patients and has a customer service based feel, you should be fine.

LeapBaby · Apr 12, 2014

I applied for Sac State's BSN Fall 2014 as well... but I think I just missed to cutoff. I did get my acceptance letter for Alternate status at ARC though. Debating on re-taking the TEAS test (got an 84% the first time) and reapplying for CSUSac in the Fall. My GPA is 3.989 so I'm good there. I've tried to contact Sutter a few times to get into the volunteer program but every time I call they're full. Anyone have any advice for that?

Good luck to everyone who has points over the cutoff! :)

LeapBaby · Apr 12, 2014

They're allowing 2nd bachelors to apply this term, so there's quite a few more applicants. (Sorry if someone said this already... this was a long thread. :) )

Polar_lime · Apr 13, 2014

Madeline, I would LOVE to volunteer in the L&D department! That is so exciting! Unfortunately, I live in Fairfield, so the closest Sutter is in Vallejo. I interviewed with them for a volunteer position in the ER, and now I am just waiting for their Board of Directors to approve of me. All of their other department options don't include contact with patients (or even medical staff), so I really hope being in the ER is sufficient experience to give me 3 admissions points for next semester's application.

hj92 · Apr 14, 2014

@ahimsa_L

if you live in the sacramento area I would tell you to consider UC Davis Medical Center. They accept all people that want to volunteer at the hospital the only catch is that there is a 4 month waiting period after you apply to get in, since so many people want to volunteer at the hospital now. You will def. get the experience you want.

Georgettes · Apr 14, 2014

@ahimsa_L

If you don't mind making the drive to Napa once a week, you can try volunteering at Queen of the Valley Medical Center also!

Sakakaka · Apr 21, 2014

Hi all, is anyone a "newly admitted" transfer student? (only to the University)… Looking at Teri's e-mail (from April 3rd)… If anyone is, we need to just accept the Intent to Enroll before May 1st, even if we don't know the status of our admission for the nursing program. I just accepted today, but only plan to go to Sac if I get accepted into the program… Has anyone else done this? Just wanting to make sure I'm on the right track...

efsrous · Apr 22, 2014

Hi Sakakaka, I'm in the same boat as you, a transfer student who's been admitted to the university and waiting for news about the nursing program. Hopefully we will hear back from the nursing school before the May 1st deadline to submit the Intent to Enroll to the university, so you didn't really need to accept your admission offer yet. No harm done though, if you don't get into the program I believe you can contact the Sac State admissions office to withdraw your Intent to Enroll. Luckily there was no fee associated with accepting, so you won't be out any money.

9 more days until decisions are supposed to be out guys! I'm so nervous/excited!

xaireel · Apr 22, 2014

So first semester can be a bit crazy. I'm not sure if they're pushing through with the major changes, but based on last semester, you'll have 3 classes. N112 (Medical-Surgical Nursing), N113 (Physical Assessment, Skills and Communication) and N111 (Professional Nursing).

The first 2-3 weeks leading up to clinicals is what we call Frontloading and it's superbusy. It might not be as bad for some because they have some background on nursing/healthcare, but just expect it to be busy and a lot of new information coming at you all at once so that when it is actually easier for you, then that'll be a nice surprise. Schedule during this time is chaotic, plan on being there all day for all those weeks.

Anyway, after the first 2-3 weeks of frontloading, you'll have a better gauge on your schedule. Clinicals will be either Tuesday or Wednesday and you go to the hospital the day before to prep on your patient. Monday will be N112 lecture which is the morning 8-11, but sometimes you'll have Simulation lab and you'll have to be there earlier... like 7ish. Then you have N113 on Wednesday or Thursday or Friday, depending on your clinical day. That can be up to an entire day. Thuesday afternoon, I believe is N111.

Well I've had my clinical experiences at Sutter Roseville, Mercy General, UC Davis. They were all awesome places to learn, but just like every other workplace, you'll encounter good nurses and bad ones... or at least ones that doesn't like students. Skills wise, you'll have to be proactive in looking for skills at your clinical site, but at school, you'll have open labs where you can practice those skills if you're not fully confident in them.

I think you'll have to be flexible, practice your skills when you have time and be prepared to a whole new way of answering test questions. Let me know if you have other questions. Sorry for the super later response, I've been caught up with preceptorship (last semester clinicals where you work one on one with a nurse) and projects and a whole lot of other school stuff. Good luck, a few more days for the results!!!