Samuel Merritt University BEWARE Apps

[gsg92]

Hi,

I'm currently an ABSN student at Samuel Merritt University (SMU), CA and I'm creating this topic to give prospective nursing students an inside scoop of what is currently going on at SMU. I strongly believe in transparency, especially when there's so much at stake in terms of money, time, and effort. Unfortunately, the current leadership at SMU has done a poor job of communicating with its students, so I hope that this will serve some good and give prospective applicants more information to make a more educated and informed decision before committing to SMU. 

TL:Dr

Just get through nursing school. I would place SMU as a plan C/backup option behind ADN or State ABSN program. If SMU is the only one you got, then take the "L" and just get through the program. Don't involve yourself with the drama, don't rely on teachers or other students, don't look at your bank account/loans (you'll pay it back quick when you land a job in CA, especially Bay Area), and make the most out of your clinical experience.

Good luck!

I'll be frank, the image of SMU you see online is not the same as when you attend.

1. The faculty-to-student ratio is 50 students : 1 professor.

2. You're most likely not going to be meeting in person for lecture (online, asynchronous,review w/ prof over zoom or webex 1-2 times per week). In other words, expect to do a lot of self-teaching. Also, not all professors are good (you'll maybe have 3/10 professors who can actually teach)

3. You'll have skills labs at the beginning of the program and then the labs will gradually decrease in frequency as you progress (from 1 per week, to 1 every other week, to 1 per month, to whenever the clinical instructor feels like it).

4. Your simulation labs are even less frequent (0-1 per month)

5. There are SMU tutors available and they are typically students in the same program who are maybe 1-2 cohorts ahead of you.

Typical block schedule for classes/clinicals

Mon: Review Session hosted by professor (2hrs)

Tues/Wed: Test days (can have 1-2 tests per day)

Thurs/Fri or Sat/Sun: Skills/SIMs Labs (2-3hrs) or Clinicals (8-12hrs)

*Any down time is typically used to catch up on lecture recordings, attend tutor/prof review, and study

*You'll have 2 classes per section (5-unit class + 2-3 unit class). The 5-units can be challenging (Medical Care for Adults, Peds, Maternity, etc.) and require the highest investment of time.

*You'll have 1 cumulative HESI test worth 10% of your overall grade by the end of the class section (week 4) and HESI Case Studies & Adaptive Quizzes

*You may need to write multiple Care Plans (1 per week) for Clinicals, some CIs require additional projects/hwk, and you need to write midterm/final evals for clinicals (busy work)

Tuition Costs

For 2023-2024, SMU is going to increase tuition by 5.0%. For ABSN, this equates to $89,128 for the entire program (not including living, food, & travel expenses). This also does not include extra certifications that will be replacing the preceptorships (I.e. ACLS, PALS etc.). Looking at other ABSN programs, SMU charges one of the highest rates by far. This wouldn't be so much of a problem except we are paying more than alumni for less opportunities and experiences (I.e. no preceptorships, less skills/SIMs labs in some instances, no in-person lectures, not using any of SMU facilities, etc.).

Preceptorship

The #1 issue at SMU at the moment. SMU has decided to cut preceptorships entirely from their program. For those who don't know, preceptorships were 1:1 pairing with a preceptor nurse while you cared for a set number of patients. You would be the nurse making the decisions for patient care, documenting, and communicating with other healthcare providers (I.e. SBAR). The preceptor would be shadowing you to make sure you didn't kill the patient and guide you into hopefully becoming a better nurse. If you did well or showed promise, then you could potentially be offered a job position at your preceptorship hospital in the department you precepted (typically the department that you wanted in the first place).

However, when COVID hit, a lot of hospitals shut their doors to everyone but essential personnel which also meant clinicals/preceptorships were put on hold. Many hospitals cut their preceptorships entirely during this time. According to SMU, as of 2022-2023 only 20% of affiliated SMU hospitals continued their preceptorship programs. Therefore, SMU decided to also cut it's preceptorship program due to "equity" reasons since SMU couldn't guarantee preceptorship placement to all of its students.

This pissed off a lot of students. Some cohorts decided to sue the school for cutting programs and not refunding students. Others sent emails that were met with tone-deaf replies. We recently had one cohort send an email to the CEO of SMU which led to the replacement of the dean (ouch!). We've also had a couple townhall meetings where we met with program directors/dean and discussed our concerns and suggestions on how to improve the program (I.e. more SIMs, not having to pay for extra certifications, going out on our own to find preceptorships, etc.). They made a lot of promises, but so far nothing has been done to change anything.

What next?

Looking at the big picture, what can we do about this? Currently, SMU is the only ABSN program that exists on the West Coast that is able to expand and offer additional seats for students who want the fast track into the nursing profession. All of the ADN programs are backed up and use drawing/point systems for applicants. The other ABSN programs are run by state universities, so are capped in terms of applicant acceptance with no outlook of expanding. SMU is currently in a unique position to expand and capture the oversupply of applicants that are currently being waitlisted by other institutions. AND THEY KNOW IT AND ARE CAPITALIZING ON IT. They just got approval for a $139 million bond at the start of this year (Jan 2023) to build their flagship campus in Oakland City Center, and plans to utilize $120 million of its own reserves to complete the facility.

What does this mean for you? Know what you're getting yourself into. If you're hoping for a high-end education experience and expect the school to tailor to your needs, you're gonna be disappointed. If you understand that you're gonna be dropping $100k (with rates most likely going to continue to rise) for a sub-par community college experience where you're gonna be self-studying 100% and have to fight for your experience at clinicals, then SMU is for you!

[polycalca]

^^^ This person 100% speaks the truth.  Pretty darn accurate, unfortunately.

[jenjenjelly]

hey! really appreciated the inside scoop, esp since I just applied for their ABSN fall 2023 admission to san mateo. I got into a private ABSN program in socal already, but I'd def save on rent if I went to SMU. all these negative reviews are def scaring me off tho LOL

I'm wondering how's your experience with clinicals/ the job hunt as an smu new grad. I know the lack of a preceptorship is a setback, but does your time at clinicals give you enough time to make connections with nurses to land a job? I've also seen other accounts say students aren't getting the full extent of their clinical hours in person and instead are being pushed to do clinicals online (how is this even legal LOL).  Is this true? 

[gsg92]

jenjenjelly said:

hey! really appreciated the inside scoop, esp since I just applied for their ABSN fall 2023 admission to san mateo. I got into a private ABSN program in socal already, but I'd def save on rent if I went to SMU. all these negative reviews are def scaring me off tho LOL

I'm wondering how's your experience with clinicals/ the job hunt as an smu new grad. I know the lack of a preceptorship is a setback, but does your time at clinicals give you enough time to make connections with nurses to land a job? I've also seen other accounts say students aren't getting the full extent of their clinical hours in person and instead are being pushed to do clinicals online (how is this even legal LOL).  Is this true? 

So far, clinicals have been OK. It has been a hit-or-miss in terms of which nurses are good at teaching and ones who don't care. To be fair, the nurse job is stressful and students often add additional pressures that can make certain procedures take more time (I.e. passing meds, handoffs, documentation, etc.). I try to help out as much as I can (I.e. taking V/S, blood sugars, feeding, cleaning, etc.), but sometimes days are so busy that I don't get the opportunity to truly feel like I can take care of a patient from beginning to end on my own. There have been a few nurses who felt comfortable to allow me to take care of one of their patients on my own, typically the most stable patient. Even though I didn't pass meds or do any significant treatments for these patients, it was an awesome opportunity to be able to do assessments, V/S, and build rapport with these patients and document my findings independently. Of course my nurse had to verify and approve of all of my documentation and I would ask permission before doing certain things for my patient (I.e. meds, food/drink, etc.). In summary, the majority of clinicals is going to be almost CNA/Tech level work and you will not feel comfortable doing nurse work by the time you graduate (hence the reason why people look forward to preceptorships, which are no longer available).

Also, depending on your CI, you may be leaving your clinicals earlier than planned. This is a mixed blessing. At least for me, when I'm not doing hands-on work, clinicals gets boring real quickly. Any place other than ER or OR, the most action you'll see is the handoff, doing intro rounds, and passing meds which is only the first 1-2 hours of the shift. You're then left to figure out the rest of the 5-6 hours of the shift to do something productive while your nurse sits and documents. I often find myself going to the CNAs/Techs to help them clean, move, and feed patients in other rooms. Basically doing work for no $$.

If you end up missing clinical days (sick, woke up late, don't feel like going), you do have to make it up by doing assignments online. This may be what other students are referring to when they say that you go online to make up clinical hours. Some professors allow you to miss 2 clinicals, we're still not sure if that's 2 clinicals for each section or for the entire program...another communication snafu. The make-up assignments are tedious, which is understandable since the program wants you to do the clinical hours at your hospital.

I can't speak on behalf of other ABSN programs, but I'll reiterate that SMU wouldn't be my top pick if I had the opportunity to do this over again. It's not that SMU is any worse than other ABSNs (from what I heard, most ABSN programs operate similar to the issues we currently have in this program), but the fact that we're paying 2-3 times more than other ABSN programs for less opportunities than other ABSN programs in our area, is causing a lot of animosity between faculty, students, and leadership. If that private ABSN is cheaper than SMU, I'd go for that. There are many ways to save $$ on rent (I.e. live in a camper, car, hostels, etc.). Worst case, you pay rent and you end up paying the same as or more tuition than SMU, at least you'll have a higher chance of landing a preceptorship and other opportunities that you would otherwise not have as an SMU ABSN student. 

[HapaNurse610, LVN]

Thank you so much for this information!

Are clinicals held EVERY Thursday/Friday or Saturday/Sunday? I'm just trying to figure out my work schedule if this is the case.  

[gsg92]

Depends on the program. You can put your preferences down, but clinicals typically occur every Thurs/Fri or Sat/Sun.

[coffeebeans]

I agree with everything @gsg92 mentioned above! I recently graduated from SMU's ABSN program and in the process of looking for a job. A lot of programs don't expect a lot from you coming out of nursing school, but not having a preceptorship really does affect your chances at certain hospitals. Sutter health prefers if you had some sort of clinical experience with them (preferably a preceptorship) and no one in my cohort got an interview with Stanford's critical care units (most likely because they would prefer someone who had a preceptorship in a critical care unit). It's not impossible to get a hospital job without preceptorship experience as long as you make the most out of your clinical experience but even then, your clinical experience at SMU is all luck. For example, I never got the opportunity to have a critical care clinical and was stuck in med surg instead and some people didn't get a full peds rotation. 
 

if you're okay with being extremely flexible and got no other choice then SMU is fine

[gsg92]

Update: getting close to finishing up at SMU. Some additional info:

- Extra certifications will be reimbursed by the school

- School is looking into extending clinicals in the student's department of interest during senior synthesis (not preceptorships)

- The school gives out registration codes for the NCLEX at the end of the program. Some people get them on time, whereas otherwise wait weeks to months before receiving one. A potential issue if you plan on applying to new grad positions early and need to take NCLEX asap to get licensed.

- While the NCLEX pass rate appears to be high, the chance of getting accepted to a new grad position in the Bay Area is low due to high competition. SMU held a townhall meeting trying to tell us not to worry about finding a job in the Bay Area after graduation. They had a hiring representative from Stanford tell us that they hired a good amount of SMU students in their new grad ICU program (about 10% of the new hires were SMU grads). However, recent graduates of the program are struggling to find new grad positions in the Bay Area. Also, most teaching hospitals are in SoCal (I.e. LA) but the pay is significantly less than the Bay Area while cost of living continues to rise. I'm saying all this to give a more realistic perspective on what the program and nurse job field is like in the Bay compared to what you hear on the news. There is a nurse shortage in the USA, but the Bay Area has one of the strongest nursing unions and every nurse wants to work here for the benefits and high pay, so we have a bubble and our shortage issues are not the same as other places. Travel nurses also don't help due to taking up positions that would otherwise be filled by a resident nurse.

[AlmostNurse90]

SMU will lie you straight in the face. Especially the program director of the prelicensure nursing program. She is a total politician and appears concerned in a public setting otherwise she is dismissive and treats you like a high schooler. This school is far from their public image. There is no predictability, you often won't get your schedule until few weeks into the semester! Financially you'll be trapped. Just this year they raised their tuition by 5% which is way above the national average of increasing your tuition. Though we are paying more, you are not guaranteed a clincal and stepping foot I to a hospital. I have had multiple hospital clinicals cancels and the school will just lie and inflate your hours in front of the board of registered nurses. This might give you more time to study but nursing is a hands on job and you need to be comfortable to be a safe nurse. 
like I said, the school will not give you the time of the day to hear you out or actually try to solve any problems. They have gotten away with this for quite some time and they will keep going as long as we keep paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also, while hospitals might still think highly of SMU, the moment you step into any hospital they will see that you have barely any hands on experience, that is something you won't be able to hide, making it harder for you to get any kind of competitive position. 

[londonflo]

gsg92 said:

preceptorships were 1:1 pairing with a preceptor nurse while you cared for a set number of patients. You would be the nurse making the decisions for patient care, documenting, and communicating with other healthcare providers (I.e. SBAR). The preceptor would be shadowing you to make sure you didn't kill the patient and guide you into hopefully becoming a better nurse.

If the preceptorships were all that you describe, why would you need an orientation when you graduate?  You don't know what you don't know. 

[gsg92]

londonflo said:

If the preceptorships were all that you describe, why would you need an orientation when you graduate?  You don't know what you don't know. 

First off, the main benefits for having preceptorships was to practice hands-on skills and to demonstrate knowledge gained throughout the program in front of your preceptor and other nurses on the unit. I've talked to many new grad nurses and many of them landed jobs in the same unit they precepted in. In other words, the upside of a preceptorship is that it gives you the opportunity to network and showcase who you are as a person & aspiring nurse over a ~1 month period that you would otherwise not have in a 1 to 2 page resume.  On the flip side, if you didn't vibe with your preceptorship (I.e. didn't get along with your preceptor, coworkers, made too many mistakes, etc.) then it could limit your chances of landing a job with that hospital, but the skills and experience could be used to build a stronger resume for a different nursing position.

To answer your response, orientations are used to "orient" new hires to the hospitals policies and procedures. Most hospitals typically have different documentation systems, equipment, codes, safety procedures, payment plans, etc. The typical orientation is designed to help nurses get used to how the hospitals runs things rather than actually teach you skills. If you get hired at a "teaching" hospital, then the more experienced nurses are generally more receptive to "newbie" nurses and will help teach new skills. If it's not a teaching hospital, then it becomes more of a sink-or-swim approach, "nurses eating their young" type of situations. The latter is being phased out, slowly...

So to make the transition from nursing school to the work place easier, some hospitals (the "teaching" hospitals) have started offering new grad programs. This programs are specifically designed to teach new grads their nursing skills and to simultaneously orient the nurse to the hospital's system. These programs are basically preceptorships (you are paired with an experience nurse who teaches you the ropes and you are on probation for a specified period of time before you're considered a full employee, you can be fired at any time for bad performance), but the hospital takes full liability for your decisions instead of the school. The main difference is that you need to apply to for another highly competitive spot that you would have otherwise not have had to do if the school provided the preceptorship. Despite what schools tell you, getting into a new grad program can be difficult depending on where you apply.

In summary, orientation and preceptorships are not the same. I apologize in advance if I misinterpreted your response.

[xmlvgp]

Hi all! I'm a provisional admit and #5 on the waitlist for this Fall '23 cohort in San Mateo. Luckily, if things do not work out, I have admission for Spring '24. However, Samuel Merritt is my last resort as it's an earlier start date than other ABSN programs/ ABSN is already limited here in NorCal. I was wondering from the current/ graduated students if working part-time is doable? I've heard many students do per-diem jobs and that works out. As for those who moved out to be closer to the school how is that? I know rent is pricey in they bay ? 

 

Just trying to get a sense of some things as I'm somewhat already in the dark with finding out one of the advisor's for San Mateo is no longer employed anymore and it takes very long to hear back from staff unless you reach out to them... Especially regarding the waitlist updates I always had to email first about it, but they mentioned they'd let me know whenever there was a change ?