I am currently enrolled for the 2010-2011 LVN Mobility program here at good ole San Antonio College. I know a lot people wonder what SAC is like; so like me they google only to come up with like 3 year old posts, which are irrelevant to the current climate. I figure Id make a new post with new current information and try to answer any questions you guys may have in considering SAC. Heres the run down of my schedule for those that think its too long
This is my schedule from Aug - January
Mon and Tuesday - Clinical's from 4pm-10pm
Wed - Med surge Complex - 4pm - 9pm
Thursday - Mental Health - 11pm - 1pm
So far both of my lead professors are doctorate level nurses, one is a PA and the other is just a doctorate in critical care nursing. So the myth that they are poorly educated professors is grossly wrong, at least in mobility. They are really nice and helpful, while most of the time our information comes from power-points only about 70% of the testable material is generated from then, the additional 30% is from book reading. I still have no idea why teachers love the small print such as exceptions or in children/elderly type of book related questions.
Our class started with 40 but we lost a handful because its too hard or (Insert random excuse here). During the beginning of class there was a lot of negativity about how disorganized it was or how no instruction was given.
Let me point the following.
On day 1 both instructors said we are no longer LVNs we are RNs Students and need to think like an RN. So they purposely give you care-plans with no directions to see how you do. Most complain, some wander around aimlessly, and others figure it out. Well as an RN you will have LVNS or pts, families ask a billion questions. As a LVN we say "Lemme get the RN". Well guess what we are now that RN, so we are expected to know the answer or pool our resources to figure it out. I digress
Its been 2 months since the start of the program. Tests are hard, only about 50% passed our 1st two tests (medsurge and mental health) We have a test every week. You have to study, you have to dedicate time, otherwise you will struggle. The instructors dont make it hard, the material itself is hard.
If you have questions please ask Ill do my best to answer them and from time to time Ill post updates for you guys to read.
I have found the teachers so far to be very helpful. Often times they give you a hint as too what may be on the test, chances are its on the test. Depending on the ebb and flow of the class, they may have you "focus" on a specific disease.
What I mean by focus is know the disease process, meds, teaching and any complications that can occur.
Med surge is pretty easy if have worked on a Med surge floor, if you went straight from LVN school to a nursing home you will have to put in a lot of time in the book and a lot more time in clinicals. Don't let your clinical instructors know that you don't have any med surge experience, if they find out they are going to ride you to do every IV, Foley and med pass. They will put you on the spot and ask you everything about your patient, what are the meds, what are the early s/s, what are the late s/s, what other complications can you encounter from X disease. I got caught in the receiving end of this blizzard of questions, and yes, I didn't know, but I said I will find out. The next day she asked me and thankfully I did a bit of research.
Bear in mind they aren't belittling you, or making you look stupid, they are pushing you, because once you have your RN you are the end all be all and you HAVE to know it.
Mental health is a beast all on its own. I personally hate it. I am so not a mental health nurse. Mental health is harder than med surge. Only because its an entirely different world, everything from the drugs, the the blurred s/s of a disease and of course how you communicate to them. Keep in mind everything you ask them either focuses on THEIR feelings or is open ended. Any opinionated questions, or close ended questions are out.
Heres the doozy of it all and this applies to both subjects. There are no extra credit, no extra work. You have 3 Med surge tests, which covers about 500 pages of material and 4 mental health tests which cover 400 pages of so, then of course your finals. We had people get 50s on both of their tests and are now struggling to pass.
Again the teachers will help you along the way, but in every class there is that one student who says "Your review didn't help me" which of course ruins it for all of us, yes we had that happen and yes the professor was like okies no more reviews. That student is pretty much stranded on their own little island.
As for the disorganization, we are still seeing it, however the crux of the disorganization isn't in the class, its in the stupid software called ACES. We had people get dropped from the system, schedules changed and a myriad of other things. Professors couldn't upload their lectures, have consistent access to their email etc. It was terrible, but we did the best we could. Hopefully all those bugs are gone.
On a final note, classroom instruction are just read the power-points, while attendance isnt taken (at least for us it wasn't), you still want to be there to listen to the hints and the "focus" items.
LVN's may be slightly different; but for RN Generic Track students like myself, I do not have one positive word to say about the SAC nursing program. I don't know about any "hints" either. It is what you make of it, but If I were to do it all over again, I would not have enrolled at SAC.
You can send me a pm and I will forward what I have on notes that I have for "commons" and "complex."
To Ray 66: Im new to this forum so I have no idea how to send a pm.. sorry but I really would like the info.. Are you in the day or evening. Does anyone know the day program hours?
I haven't heard of one Generic student liking the program at all, unless they are graduating or are doing well. Its super hard for them. I have a few friends who did nothing but complain the entire semester, and even had some teachers tell them thats the way it is.
For the 1st semester LVN is easier, easier in the fact you should have some experience with drugs, terminology and patho. Its also easier because both of your classes take up the entire 16 week semester, as opposed to the Generics whose classes are condensed into 8 weeks.
The key difference is you are already a nurse and have proven to them that you can survive; conversely, to the generics; they weed them out so that only the strong will survive. We have proven ourselves in the hospitals, nursing homes etc, they haven't. While it sucks for them, its the same crap we put up with in our 1st semester of LVN school.
What people fail to realize is that its competitive to get in and even more so to graduate on time. People think they can make As in the pre-reqs they will have an easy time in RN school. Nope, good luck keeping a C; most people don't care about GPA once in school and resort to "I just want to pass" So I empathize.
Bare in mind; you got chosen over the other 3000 applicants. What are you going to spend your energy on? ******** cause its hard or focusing on the material?
Lastly, getting his notes on his 1st and 2nd semester med surge will do you no good. You will cover what they call common and complex in your 1st semester. We dont actually merge with Generics until their Peds and OB rotation, which is a year into it for them.
Dont let it get you all wired up. You can do it, trust me. Currently with finals coming up this week I can potentially make the following:
Med Surge Clinicals - A
Mental Heal Clincals - A
Med Surge Class - A
Mental Health Class - A
Microbiology - B
I work full time and take an additional class. I dont think its hard, you just have to put in the time.
To answer the question about day hour, for our class and our class only the decided to do away with the "day" classes per se. Yes you can have clinicals from 6am to 2pm or something of that nature on Monday and Tuesday; however all classes were consolidated into 1 day evening class 4-7 both Wed and Thursday.
There were no options for any morning classes if that answers your question directly, again from what I was told it changes based semester to semester. You should be able to log in to aces and register, if not now, then very soon. However I caution you that things change like the wind, so be flexible.
I am excited to be starting my 2nd semester and meeting all of you on the 15th on Orientation!
I was wondering if you are taking Summer courses also? I am in the Mobility program also and we have the opportunity to go thru the summer, 5 weeks pedi 5 weeks OB and 10 weeks transitions to mgmt (or something like that). I have heard that only 50 percent of the summer students make it out alive (pass) any advice on this or know anyone that did this?
Yeah I'm taking critical care and Management over the summer. This is assuming I actually pass Peds. Its not fair to say 50% in summer school fail, more like 50% fail in flexes as well. If you ask around everyone will tell you OB and Peds is the hardest two classes at SAC.
I escaped out of OB with a 78. The material isn't hard. Its the amount of reading you have to do. Last flex we had about 20 LVNS in OB, half of which failed and are gonna repeat in the summer, right now the other half that didn't fail OB are failing Peds. I think they pride themselves on making the tests as ambiguous as possible. I kid you not, the OB tests are just stupidly vague and so far the Peds test is cram as many tables you can in your brain over 2 weeks then test on it.
Do you know what a 3 year olds psychosocial development is, what toys they should be playing with and what do they look like physically and act like emotionally..oh once you go that down figure out the Respiration, HR and BP of each month until the 1st year then until the 18th year of age. Good luck with that!
There is some light at the end of the tunnel...
Take **** for OB Clinical's - You dont do Careplans so you get freed up to read and study. Shes super sweet as well and funny.
Take *****for Peds - Theres good and bad with her. If you dont complete your careplan she sends you home with a 0. Makes sense, if you dont do your stuff you are held accountable. If you do your stuff then you will have no problems. shes super cool too and funny. Careplans for Peds take about an hour or so.
Hi :) I know this thread is fairly old but I was wondering if you had any updates on your program. I will begin this spring semester (I just finished my LVN at Baptist) and I am very nervous!! Do that many people really fail out of the program? I plan on only working two days a week and dedicating a lot of time to studying! Thanks for all your previous posts! They were very helpful also!
:up:
j0nathanv
16 Posts
I have found the teachers so far to be very helpful. Often times they give you a hint as too what may be on the test, chances are its on the test. Depending on the ebb and flow of the class, they may have you "focus" on a specific disease.
What I mean by focus is know the disease process, meds, teaching and any complications that can occur.
Med surge is pretty easy if have worked on a Med surge floor, if you went straight from LVN school to a nursing home you will have to put in a lot of time in the book and a lot more time in clinicals. Don't let your clinical instructors know that you don't have any med surge experience, if they find out they are going to ride you to do every IV, Foley and med pass. They will put you on the spot and ask you everything about your patient, what are the meds, what are the early s/s, what are the late s/s, what other complications can you encounter from X disease. I got caught in the receiving end of this blizzard of questions, and yes, I didn't know, but I said I will find out. The next day she asked me and thankfully I did a bit of research.
Bear in mind they aren't belittling you, or making you look stupid, they are pushing you, because once you have your RN you are the end all be all and you HAVE to know it.
Mental health is a beast all on its own. I personally hate it. I am so not a mental health nurse. Mental health is harder than med surge. Only because its an entirely different world, everything from the drugs, the the blurred s/s of a disease and of course how you communicate to them. Keep in mind everything you ask them either focuses on THEIR feelings or is open ended. Any opinionated questions, or close ended questions are out.
Heres the doozy of it all and this applies to both subjects. There are no extra credit, no extra work. You have 3 Med surge tests, which covers about 500 pages of material and 4 mental health tests which cover 400 pages of so, then of course your finals. We had people get 50s on both of their tests and are now struggling to pass.
Again the teachers will help you along the way, but in every class there is that one student who says "Your review didn't help me" which of course ruins it for all of us, yes we had that happen and yes the professor was like okies no more reviews. That student is pretty much stranded on their own little island.
As for the disorganization, we are still seeing it, however the crux of the disorganization isn't in the class, its in the stupid software called ACES. We had people get dropped from the system, schedules changed and a myriad of other things. Professors couldn't upload their lectures, have consistent access to their email etc. It was terrible, but we did the best we could. Hopefully all those bugs are gone.
On a final note, classroom instruction are just read the power-points, while attendance isnt taken (at least for us it wasn't), you still want to be there to listen to the hints and the "focus" items.
Hope that helps!