Seattle Central Community College Fall 2014

Congratulations greenteame and anyone else who got accepted!!

I've also been searching everywhere on google, etc. for any type of advice from current or past nursing students and there's basically nothing!

I have yet to receive any followup email from Cebrina (has anyone else?) I do believe that the orientation is in June, but that is all I know at this point.

Also, quick question on immunizations. Right now I'm in a sticky situation because I have see if my hep b titer will come back positive, but in general, does anyone know if the program is kind of lenient in terms of letting you still start class and everything even though you may still be getting your immunizations cleared?

Thanks!!

I've been accepted for Fall 2014 start as well, and I also was not able to find any feedback. However, I looked at Seattle Central's NCLEX passing rates and they have been pretty solid: http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/6000/669336.pdf

I still didn't receive any followup email from Cebrina about orientation/immunizations and it's already the 15th. I'm getting kind of anxious

Husky 2011, you will have time to get your HBV vaccine series, but to my knowledge even if you don't have it when the program starts it's OK as long as you have everything by the time clinicals start, and I don't know which quarter that will be in. I would double-check with Cebrina on that. I have to get my third shot in a month for Hep B so I also don't have everything yet.

Congratulations to everyone in the Fall 2014 cohort, this is very exciting :)

Congrats and thanks nurseandmurse!

I know for sure the orientation is sometime in June, so I'm guessing the email will probably come in the next few weeks. Yeah, I just started the series (this is my second time) so I'm hoping that it will eventually come back positive because I don't want to have to deal with any stress that may cause for clinicals, on top of school work. But good thing is I did email Cebrina about my situation, and she did say I could sign a waiver for now, so I'm relieved about that. But on a brighter note, so excited to go to orientation/registration and hopefully see what books we need and everything!!

I'm guessing by now you all got the emails from Cebrina (last Friday, 5/23)? It looks like I was just quick enough to grab a morning cohort spot, did anyone else??

I chatted with Cebrina about how classes will work, and she said 1st quarter we have class on Mon & Tue, then one lab day. THAT'S IT! Starting us out easy. Plus, if you've taken any of the coreqs (statistics, nutrition, developmental psych etc) then you'll be taking even LESS credits per quarter. As it looks, since I've already taken quite a few of these, I'm at 10 credits per quarter for the first year. So glad for that...because it means I can still work evenings the first year. Anyone else going to attempt working FT?

Hi cupkate255, thank you for the info about the class schedule!!

I also was lucky enough to get into the morning cohort. It seemed like it filled up very quickly!

I am finished with all the coreqs so it looks like I will be taking three classes each quarter as well, but I'm kind of glad because I will probably need all the extra time I can get to study for them. I am not currently working full time but I'm not sure if I will be working when school starts either, I guess I will have to see how things go once the quarter gets started.

Does anyone know when we will be able to get our books/clinical uniform etc.?

Hello everyone! Congratulations on those who got in for fall! I'm a current SCCC nursing student, just about to finish up third quarter. Here's my experience (and recognize that everyone feels differently, so this is my opinion):

1. The instructors range from mediocre to fantastic. It really depends on who you get and at some point in the program you will cycle through everyone. Same goes for clinical instructors who may or may not teach classes as well. Regardless of who you get, expect that to get the best education you will need to take it upon yourself to learn some stuff on your own, there is just not enough class/clinical time to learn everything.

2. The environment is mostly good, some frustrations: old equipment, not enough equipment, etc, but mostly good.

3. The administration is often disorganized and changes scheduling things at the last minute/doesn't communicate well. I would go into it expecting to be VERY flexible with scheduling i.e. you may not get much notice for lab or clinicals or they may tell you when it will be and then change it at the last minute. If you're not prepared to drop everything with very little notice, then you may not do so well with this.

4. The matirial is okay, some of it is good, some not so much. I haven't graduated/taken the NCLEX so I can't speak to that.

5. There is some kind of student nurses association that the college participates in (I think it's state wide) but I haven't been involved or got much information on that, so I'm not sure.

If you decide to go here, I have one big piece of advice. At some point in the program you will be certain that you are about to fail out. You will probably feel like there's no possible way you can get your grade above an 82 by the end of the quarter and you will be tempted to just quit while you're ahead. DON'T DO IT. Seriously. In this program grades have a mysterious way of working themselves out by the end of the quarter. I'm not saying you'll suddenly get a 4.0 but as long as you're not drastically below the rest of the class, you will probably be fine. I don't know if the tests get a little easier as the quarter goes on, or if we just get smarter, but seriously not that many people fail out. Come to class, go to clinical, do the assignments even when they seem stupid and pointless, do your best on the tests, and you will pass.

The bottom line is, there are better nursing schools out there, but this one is cheap, fairly easy to get into, and for me, it's convenient. You will be able to pass the NCLEX from what I understand if you take a little initiative and learn some stuff on your own, and at the end of two years, you will be a nurse. Most learning that nurses do is done on the job. I can't tell you how many nurses have told me that only about 1% of what they know about nursing they learned in nursing school. So my feeling on it is yes, you may not learn as much as you would at a really excellent nursing school, but I don't think you'll be a worse nurse in the long run. This program is not great but it's not terrible either. I think it was the best choice for me, and if you decide to go here, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the long run at least. It's a crap ton of work, an emotional hell, a mental boot camp, but it's doable.

Good luck to you all whatever you decide to do!!

Hi AnnaKaris! Thank you for your review. I have been searching online for any sign of past reviews by seattle central nursing students to no luck and you are literally the first person I have heard from so thanks!

I know you spent a lot of time explaining everything in your post, but I was wondering if it would be possible for your to elaborate just a little or just briefly describe what the classes and clinicals are like, especially the first quarter?? Or any other specific major details about the program that we should be prepared for heading into first quarter?

For me the main thing is how rigorous the classes are. I know it may sound like a stupid question since I'm sure nursing school is going to be difficult, but in terms of the classes first quarter and the studying/time management involved, could you highlight any details about this? Thank you very much!!

I'm glad I could help! I remember last year about this time I was anxious for any idea of what I was in for! If your first quarter is anything like ours, it will work like this:

Class is Monday and Tuesday. There is an afternoon cohort and a morning cohort (I don't remember when the cohorts were put together but we got to pick). The morning cohort has class from about 9 to noon or so and the afternoon is noon until three (or maybe 1 to 4, I'm in the morning cohort so I'm not sure).

Lab usually occurs 2 or three times per quarter and is about 8AM to 2PM on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. You come in scrubs and practice hands-on skills with the manaquins.

Clinicals is 4 weeks first quarter (then 5 second quarter, 6 third quarter and rumor has it we'll be in for 10 weeks fourth quarter but I'm not sure). I think they started during the third or fouth week of the quarter or so and they run about 12 hours a week, either one twelve-hour day or two six hour days. Clinicals groups/placements are assigned and you will be in a long-term care facility. You will be assigned a patient (or pick a patient) and you will look at their chart, do a complete head-to-toe assessment (which you will learn to do in lab), then write a care plan on your patient which involves a long fom which Cebrina will send you before clinicals start that you will fill out and basically write up a complete plan of care for your patient. First quarter they usually go pretty easy on you: one patient for two weeks, only two care plans all quarter, and looking at the patient's chart will be part of the clinical time. By second quarter you will probably have a new patient every week and you will be expected to go to the clinical site on your own time (usually the day before clinicals) and choose a patient and gather all the infomation from the chart. This is probably a two-hour process for me and by third quarter we have to have all our nursing diagnoses done and interventions and goals written for the patient (this will make more sense once you start writing care plans) before we start clinicals each week. This means for me I spend 3-4 hours a week before clinical starts writing my care plan and hoping my patient doesnt get discharged! This is not so much an issue in long-term care but in the hospital, patients leave pretty often and you have to start over!

Anyway, I'm rambling. So you'll be in long-term care first and second quarters, then in the hospital third quarter and on.

As far as the work load, I can only give you my experience and from talking to other classmates of mine, the amount of time we spend on homework and studying varies WIDELY from person to person. The amount of work I spend outside of class is very different from week to week. Some weeks I literally do very little homework and some weeks it feels like it's all I do. One piece of advice is to do your quarterly projects (there will always be a paper or a project or something that you will be assigned at the beginning of the quarter but which won't be due until the end of the quarter) BEFORE YOU START CLINICALS. You will be tempted to put it off, you will figure clinicals is only 12 hours a week so it won't be too bad but do it first. You'll be soooo thankful once you're in clinicals because those weeks when you have clinicals are tough. Sure you're only in clinicals 12 hours a week, but that doesn't count the time you spend outside of clinicals researching your patient and doing your care plan (first quarter, like I said, you won't have to do it until after clinicals for the week probably but at least at first it will take you a very long time to do, like 6 or 7 hours of solid work at least) and the bottom line is clinicals is exhausting. Because of the stress and the steep learning curve, you will be worn out after only 12 hours a week. So take advantage of those weeks when you don't have clinicals to get stuff done.

Also, there will be a butt load of reading assigned and I am a fast reader but I still don't get it all read. At first you will freak out that you're behind on the reading, but the bottom line is, no one reads every word of their text book. Maybe you should, but you won't. Read the stuff you don't understand, read the stuff that's covered in class, read the "review" portion at the end of the chapter, and don't stress about the rest. You'll make yourself crazy.

Everyone talks about how there's no time in nursing school to do anything else, how it's so hard, you'll be dead all the time, but I don't think that has to be true. Yes, it's hard. Yes, it's unlike anything else you've ever done. Yes, you'll be stressed out and behind and tired, but it doesn't have to consume your life. I have good grades in these classes, I work 20-25 hours a week and I still have time to watch movies, read a book, go for a walk and hang out with my friends. Not all the time, and not as much as I'd like, but some. It's not that bad.

The hardest thing about the classes for me is not the work load or the difficulty of the material. It's learning to think like a nurse. And that sounds simple but it's really really hard. You will take tests where you're absolutely sure you know the answer and you'll be wrong. You'll be angry and frustrated and want to give up and the teacher will explain why the right answer is right and you'll disagree until you're both blue in the face. It's really hard to teach things like prioritizing patient care (when EVERYTHING is important) and critical thinking and you'll be very frustrated at times because you just won't get it. But stick it out, and before you know it you'll find yourself realizing whats going on. It's something that just takes time to learn. You can't learn it from a text book, it's practice practice practice. That's why so many people drop out the first few quarters, it's because they feel like they don't get it. But it's not you, you're not dumb, you're just relearning how to think and that takes a lot of time. So stick it out, try your best, even when you don't understand and you're sure the teacher is wrong. It's more emotionally hard and frustrating than it is academically hard (although it's plenty of that too). It's not like A&P or microbiology or math. It's nursing and it's different. You'll see what I mean when you start classes. But stick with it and suck it up and you'll be okay.

Okay this is way long but if you have more questions I'd be happy to answer them.

Also, because you're in classes with the same people week after week and quarter after quarter, you will become very close with your classmates. This is good, mostly, but it lends itself to cliques and gossip and people who hate each other, etc. Don't get caught up in it. Just don't. Don't talk about people behind their back, don't say anything to anyone in your class that you wouldn't want repeated to the whole class (trust me, it will get out), and DON'T sleep with anyone in the class because everyone will find out (this has happened). Don't get really drunk at the end of quarter party and be obnoxious, don't trash talk staff at your clinical facility to your classmates, don't go online and post stuff about instructors. Just be professional and form friendships with people who are not acting like they're in high school. That's my biggest advice socially in nursing school. Rise above. Because no matter what happens, you will have to work closely with these people for two years, and two years can be hell when you're caught up in the politics. And you won't have a choice for who is in your clinical groups, who you work with on projects etc. This should sound like common sense but it's ridiculous how immature some people can be. It will come back to haunt you if you're not careful.

Thank you so much AnnaKaris!! I will certainly take all of your advice with me as I prepare for the quarter! And best wishes to you as you finish the program!

Hey you're welcome! (BTW I changed my user name, but it's still me). One more thing. If you do enough research on SCCC you will see complaints about one specific instructor who was terrible. I want to assure you and everyone else that the instructor in question is no longer at Central after a number of student complaints fall quarter. So rest easy on that one!

Stupid question....but what color are the scrubs we need to buy? I have a TON and am wondering if I even need to be on the look out for a pair? I was told a royal blue by someone...is that correct? Also, what books were you guys using? Trying to get the jump on cheaper ones!!