Saint Luke's vs. KUMC (KU's Medical Center) BSN Programs

[messi1]

Hello! I was recently accepted to Saint Luke's College of Health Sciences in Kansas City and will be finding out my admission status at KUMC in just a couple weeks. I have visited both schools and think both are wonderful programs, but I would like to hear about the experiences of other students. Any information you could provide me with regarding general experiences, clinical sites, environment, schedule, quality of preparation/how prepared you feel, professors, class size, amount of online material, etcetera.

Thank you so much for any information you can provide!

[ecooney12]

Hello! Congratulations on your acceptance to Saint Luke's!!! I am in my second semester at Saint Luke's right now, and I completely love it. You will be accepted into a class of 96, but for the classroom setting, it is 2 teachers to 48 students. The small class size allows for more discussions and I personally feel like I have been learning more. I am not one to speak up in class, but the smaller class size has made it very easy. Also, every student I've met who is in a cohort above me has been so welcoming and helpful. We have a peer-mentor program, which allows students who have already taken the classes to help out with areas you are struggling in and they lead study sessions before tests which helps A TON.

I was very nervous about the flipped classroom model at first, which is where you have to learn the material the night before and come prepared, and it is not as scary as it seems. The professors just want you to have somewhat of an idea since the material is so complex. That being said also, all of the professors have been such amazing teachers. I honestly would have never imagined, they are great teachers and always extremely helpful. They also like to keep the atmosphere light and we try to have fun since we all know nursing school can be so stressful.

I have never once felt lost, and I am saying that truthfully. All of our proctored tests I have felt prepared for, as well as our exams in class. I have never gone into a test feeling like I was going to completely fail it. The professors are very good at making sure you aren't wasting anytime on material that you don't have to know for that class or that they will not be testing you over.

As for clinical…I am very appreciative of how Saint Luke's sets it up. Your first semester you will be with 5 other students at a Saint Luke's Hospital with one clinical instructor. You will learn basic skills and some more complex. You will go the night before to research your patient and their medications and will be tested over it when you arrive that next morning. For your second semester you will be with one other student and a clinical instructor (CI). You will not go the night before to research your patient. You will come in with the CI and receive report and move through your day like a nurse, with all of the nursing responsibilities (giving medications, talking to the doctors, performing skills, giving and receiving report, charting). We are the only program in the city that does it like this…and I have learned so much from it! Your third semester is community and you will be out in the community (school nursing, operation breakthrough, etc.) This is the semester you learn about mental health, OB, Pediatrics. Your last semester you do 8 weeks of Critical Care, (CVICU, ICU, CICU, ED). And then you will do 8 weeks in your Capstone. You Capstone is something you wish to go into after you graduate.

Let us know if you have any more questions, and congratulations!!