Sharon Regional 2010 - Who's accepted? Still waiting?

Streamline2010 · May 1, 2010

Okay, now that I received my rejection letter, I am free to speak freely. Here's my opinion of that school: Sh*t, and I'd already decided that before I ever interviewed.

First, location is everything, and its location stinks. Unless you already live here, or are within an easy commute, do not give this school a second thought. The area is decayed, unsafe, has a growing problem with crime, urban gang infiltration from Detroit, shootings, domestic violence, and arsons, among other things. The local newspaper is The Sharon Herald, available online. Sharon is already 90% as bad as Youngstown and getting worse all the time. Downtown Sharon is all empty storefronts waiting for the big arson blaze that will finish off what's left of the downtown. It's lower socioeconomic, a pike of riffraff inhabit the West Hill not far from the hospital, another pile is taking over Stambaugh Ave and Cedar and Prindle and all those other streets south of the SV Freeway and leading up to the hospital. The hospital does not take parking lot security seriously, and I could just go on and on. If you love dealing with a drunken dimwit trash populace, Sharon is your locale.

The class that graduated last year (2009) was the smallest in decades. Take a walk through the South hall and look at that picture on the wall. It's not more than 25 people, I estimate. If they admitted 40-45, that is a darn small graduating class.

I heard from nursing students in other schools that the Sharon program is not as strong as it once was, that the experienced nurses in the hospital are (I quote) "real sh*ts" to the student nurses, that clinical training has sometimes been teaching "the wrong way" to do it, that many people who started at Sharon, particularly in that 2009 grad class, quit and transferred to Jameson and Mercy. If you want RN here, Jameson and Mercy are where you go.

Many college students that were accepted to Jameson and Mercy did not even apply to Sharon, due to perceived deficiencies in the training and / or bad experiences in the interview. They did not want anything to do with Sharon or it's staff or it's director of the nursing school.

I heard in my interview there that they accept 40 - 45 students, that the typical attrition rate is about 33%, that the 80% passing and three-75%-test-scores-and-you're-out rule also ousted some of the students. Also, if you do not pass a class, there is no way to repeat it until the following year.

I never had a worse and more insulting interview in my life. And I have a college degree and I worked for a major US corporation. I'm not a little Sharon hick, and I know "good" and "intelligent" when I see/hear it. Some of their questions were ignorant, confrontational, and 'way off base. The people who run this program are not looking for qualified applicants. They are not necessarily looking for the best and brightest. What they are looking for is mousey local young women who will will be compliant, and I do get the strong impression that there is a bias toward younger and less educated applicants who will be likely to stay and work at Sharon Regional after their schooling.

I have heard from two recent graduates of the program that said they do not feel that they were adequately trained, even though they managed to pass their boards, one on the first try and one the second time.

The Sharon attrition rate is higher than normal, and there board exam pass rate is only average, if not below average.

So, there you have it. I have been accepted at three schools that have stronger programs with lower attrition rates and 90-97% board pass rates, plus they are not located in "Little Detroit."

See ya, Sharon. Burn, baby, burn. Y'all enjoy those arsons, shootings, rapes, and thefts, now, y'hea-ah.

rn-jane · May 10, 2010

"Okay, now that I received my rejection letter, I am free to speak freely. Here's my opinion of that school: Sh*t, and I'd already decided that before I ever interviewed."

Sour grapes??? Sharon turns out some pretty good nurses. I worked there for almost 7 years and precepted many new grads that turned out to be some awesome nurses. I myself am a shadyside grad from pittsburgh and Sharon doctors are top notch especially cardiology which educated me for the great position i recently took when I moved back towards pittsburgh. They best thing about sharon period is the fantastic people that work there and the fantastic staff that have great compassion about the care they give.

I worked sdu and icu for the time. I agree sharon needs an overhall, they are laying off staff, the administration has no idea how to treat the nurses because the ratio sucks. So far no nurses are getting layed off yet and I really hope things get better there for the community and the staff. As for the crime... Unfortunatley sharon is like every other city filled with crime, drugs and riff raff. You think youngstown or new castle is so great than go there but honestly I would not ever be caught in some areas there in broad daylight. If you really thought this about sharon why in the heavens name did you apply. I know the teachers personally they were my coworkers and they give students a one -one you don't see in the bigger schools. You have every right to be ticked off if you felt you did not get a proper interview but did you go to the don and gripe your concerns??? I really hope you don't end up in my prestigious school or in the class at the hospital that I presently work because I for one have always been fair to students, seek out students for learning experiences and if you act this way there you butt will hit the curb so fast you won't know what hit you.

Streamline2010 · May 24, 2010

As for the crime... Unfortunatley sharon is like every other city filled with crime, drugs and riff raff. You think youngstown or new castle is so great than go there but honestly I would not ever be caught in some areas there in broad daylight. If you really thought this about sharon why in the heavens name did you apply. I know the teachers personally they were my coworkers and they give students a one -one you don't see in the bigger schools. You have every right to be ticked off if you felt you did not get a proper interview but did you go to the don and gripe your concerns??? I really hope you don't end up in my prestigious school or in the class at the hospital that I presently work because I for one have always been fair to students, seek out students for learning experiences and if you act this way there you butt will hit the curb so fast you won't know what hit you.

Oh, come on, now! Act WHAT way???? I am sorry that you disagree with my assessment. For what it's worth, one CNA who is now laid off, one cousin of a nurse employed at Sharon, and one former Sharon employee who came from Sharon's school of nursing all told me that Sharon wants yes-women and young women in their program. The experienced school director formerly at Sharon apparently went to Mercer Vo-Tech for the LPN program, and the current one is not as highly regarded. It's interesting and truly baffling to me that nursing programs can dish out the criticisms, but apparently can't take any. "OMG, she said something, uh, uh, negative. I now must take this personally, and use my power, and kick her to the curb." Pfffft! Stay out of engineering and technology, or manufacturing, or the corporate world. Disagreements and outspoken criticisms are the norm there. Heated arguments, even. Disagree, blow up, go right back to work like nothing happened; it's over.

The Don, eh? Well, that's no doubt why I didn't make the cut there: Not Catholic, and my last name doesn't even end in a vowel, I am eligible for both DAR and DAC, and I already have two college degrees. I didn't kiss anyone's rings while I was there, so now I know why I am a reject. ;-) :lol2: Makes as much sense as anything, ha ha ha ha ha! No, I don't really care why I was rejected. It was just the last straw in a long series of annoyances with the locale, and only further proof that such a small town really offers me nothing to work with, socially, monetarily, or educationally. Small rural Catholic towns are for small town rural Catholic blue collar people, and that is simply not my ethnic background, and not my lifestyle, not my educational level, and I've rather had enough of all of the drunken boorish macho men and the incessant family life, to be truthful.

Why did I apply at Sharon? Location, cost, short duration, I had all the pre-reqs done, and after all, it is a RN school, and that's what I want to be. No, I would not hit a dog in the patoot with New Castle or Y-town, either. They are all the same: About 5-10% of what I'd want to see and 90% not my kind. The suburbs are different, but I was not looking to live in a '60s house in country mud. I specifically want to live in town, and the sane people don't do that here, for many good reasons.

I posted that to warn other applicants, but not because of sour grapes, at least not over that rejection. I am mightily soured on this entire region, it's poverty, it's lack of anything for women to do except incessant child rearing, and it's backward-focused insistence on being still lost in the '50s. The attraction of that SRH program to me was the short duration, plus I was already located in the vicinity, and another 15 or 16 months was tolerable to achieve my goals. But I have absolutely no intention of sticking around to work there, so perhaps that is what the interviewers did not like. If the goal is to train nurses specifically to work at Sharon, then I certainly do not fit the goal of the program, LOL!

I don't think Y-town or New Castle offer anything better as locations, at least not to women who'd have to relocate to attend the schools there. I've been all over Y-town, Warren, Austintown, Boardman, Franklin, Mercer, Sharon, Greenville, New Castle, etc. I truly feel like I am under house arrest here, because it's just not comfortable or safe for a woman alone to move around much here by herself. The entire NEOH / NWPA region is toast except for Pittsburgh, and boring as all-get-out living here unless you just like a real slow pace and being a small town mom.

I applied to RN schools out of state and was accepted by all three. There are many ways to become a RN, and some of them do not require one to live and work in an unsafe, poorly-educated, poverty-infested, dead, region.

And I stand corrected on the parking lot issue: The poorly-secured and non-patrolled parking lot on Jefferson is owned by Sharon city, not Sharon hospital. So my size 7 steel toed boot in the orifice is properly applied to City of Sharon.

ellabella5 · Jul 19, 2010

"only further proof that such a small town really offers me nothing to work with, socially, monetarily, or educationally"

I totally agree. I flat out got rejected from sharon. I was accepted to jameson and mercy. I agree the interview was demeaning and questions off-base--too personal. I was 7.5 months pregnant at the time so I filed a complaint with the ocr. Even if they have to accept me, I doubt I will go because I will be discriminated against even more. But I agree with you streamline because I don't think that my pregnancy had anything to do with me being rejected. I have a bs and mba and i just don't think that they are necessarily looking for the brightest people. Not saying that people I know that were accepted are not bright, but some of them were definitely less qualified than me. I am not from here and I have had it with this town. I have tried to give it a chance, but these people are ignorant. They cater the men and do not hire people with higher education.

Streamline2010 · Aug 2, 2010

I actually think it's the culture here. A total lack of intellect, drive, and ambition. A total lack of respect for education, and that has been a constant problem for decades. Education is still frowned on, probably because most of the people who did well in school have moved the heck out of here, lol! Having lived in the Protestant South, and worked all my life with highly educated technologists, male and female, the suffocating small-town-mama role REALLY got on my nerves. The people who have never left Shenango Valley might not see it, but the ethnic background and the Big C religion plus the mill culture really only use women as breeders and servants. And treat us, overtly or covertly, as inferiors, not equal partners or competent adults.

As a single adult in the dating scene here (such that it is, sigh...), I am always encountering yinzers who try to lord it over me like they do the local women. And they are absolutely shocked when I don't cower and bow down and apologize get back into my place like the mamas do. I keep explaining, over and over: I am NOT small town Mom or Grandma. I do not care one iota what Mamma and Grandma do or do not do. THIS is what I DO, and I don't take orders from you!

Needless to say, I'll be glad to move outta here before the end of the summer. I might turn homicidal if I do not, lol. Seriously, after years of getting respect and recognition elsewhere, being dissed by loser white trash dirty old men is not my idea of a fun time. This region has been on a 30-year downhill slide, and the slope just got slipperier and steeper with this last recession / depression. Like I always say, only the Captain has to go down with the ship. Just call me Rat, hahahahaha! OOOh, look, a better ship! >>> >>>> {splash!}