UCHSC Traditional, Spring 2009

NCtoCOgirl · Oct 26, 2008

I believe it was 3 days a week for the first semester. No clinicals the first semester; they front-load you academically. There's a 2 day long term care experience at the very end.

kitsune01, BSN, RN · Oct 27, 2008

Shuttle service between 9th and Colorado (the old campus) and the new campus ends on 10/31/08.

Yeah, I'm sad about that. I'll have to leave the house a whole 15 minutes earlier to catch the 15 :zzzzz. (when you are as much of a non-morning person as I am that's a big deal :) ) Oh well, at least I get to walk to clinical.

TemperStripe · Oct 27, 2008

I just want to re-emphasize how lucky you guys are to be attending such a great school. You will certainly find that it has its faults, like any other program, but overall, I have been extremely satisfied with my education. I am graduating in a few weeks, and I just can't tell you how lucky I feel to have received such a thorough education. I wish you all the very same, and best of luck! Enjoy it as much you can. :)

dan1100rt · Oct 28, 2008

Thanks for that nice reminder on the value of our program and school.

I was thinking about Dr. Sampson today and how his class prepared me for pretty much everything that came after it. You can see how much he likes to teach and thank goodness for that - his classes are literally a gift to all of the patients for whom we will care someday.

I just want to re-emphasize how lucky you guys are to be attending such a great school. You will certainly find that it has its faults, like any other program, but overall, I have been extremely satisfied with my education. I am graduating in a few weeks, and I just can't tell you how lucky I feel to have received such a thorough education. I wish you all the very same, and best of luck! Enjoy it as much you can. :)

dan1100rt · Oct 28, 2008

The Health Assessment and Fundamentals classes both have 5-hour labs once a week on top of the lecture time. The labs can be taken on the same day as a lecture, which reduces the number of trips needed to be made to campus but makes for a long day.

Clinical Performance Exams ("CPEs": practical skills tests) are part of both the HA and Fundamentals labs and are needed to pass the courses. However, don't worry that you'll have trouble with the CPEs: the lab instructors are great and will spend a lot of extra time with whomever needs it. It took me about 90 minutes of extra time to be comfortable with starting an IV in the disembodied mannequin arm, and the lab instructors stayed with me until I was good at it. There are also DVDs of all of the skills that are needed - they can be purchased at the bookstore ($15?) or borrowed and watched in the lab.

dan1100rt · Oct 28, 2008

It took me about 90 minutes of extra time to be comfortable with starting an IV in the disembodied mannequin arm

Oh, BTW: starting an IV or a Foley in a real person is nothing like on the mannequins, but they're good practice.

dan1100rt · Oct 28, 2008

I am SOO excited!!! I can't wait to get my ID and scrubs!!

I had that excitement before I started the program and was able to re-live it when I finished my first clinical and realized that I am going to be able to do this for my career someday!

jgw2008 · Oct 30, 2008

they are still reviewing my file for spring 09.. does anyone know how long the review process takes?

kasperas, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2008

What do you mean reviewing? Are you on the wait list?

dan1100rt · Oct 30, 2008

I started in Jan, 2008 and the course schedules were indeed set. Traditional and accelerated students both started off with the same first semester of Pharm (all semester), Patho (all semester), Health Assessment (1st half), and Fundamentals (2nd half). Accelerated students had one additional online class for the entire semester

The course schedules for Spring 2009 came out this morning:

http://www.nursing.ucdenver.edu/current/schedules.htm

. . . and the schedule for is the same as for Spring 2008 (see above)

Looks as if Dr. Sampson is teaching Patho :-), but not teaching Pharm :-(

kitsune01, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2008

I started in Jan, 2008 and the course schedules were indeed set. Traditional and accelerated students both started off with the same first semester of Pharm (all semester), Patho (all semester), Health Assessment (1st half), and Fundamentals (2nd half). Accelerated students had one additional online class for the entire semester
The course schedules for Spring 2009 came out this morning:
http://www.nursing.ucdenver.edu/current/schedules.htm
. . . and the schedule for is the same as for Spring 2008 (see above)
Looks as if Dr. Sampson is teaching Patho :-), but not teaching Pharm :-(

I had him for both and I can't decide whether it would be better to have him for pharm or for patho if you had to pick.

I just looked at the schedule, and for the people starting in January, I would strongly suggest you sign up for section 21 of the fundamentals lecture rather than section 22.

It looks like they cut the lab hours for health assessment and fundamentals to 4 hours instead of 6. That will be nice, because 6 hours is a long time to be in lab and stay focused.

nikenike808 · Nov 13, 2008

Wash Park is really nice, but if you don't have a car living there is probably not a good idea because it would be an hour bus commute. Cherry Creek would be better but is probably still be a 2 bus commute unless you biked to 9th ave. to catch the shuttle or carpooled to campus with someone. If you are going to rely on public transportation I think your best bet is to live within walking distance of the 20 or 15 bus routes, which have stops in the center of campus. You can look the schedules and maps up on www.rtd-denver.com/. The shuttle is nice, but it doesn't run all the time. (for example if you have afternoon labs they get out after the last shuttle, and we have had class on saturdays when it doesn't run at all).
I live in Congress Park, as do 4 or 5 of my classmates, and I think the location is working out well for me. The bus or shuttle takes 20 minutes to get to campus and I get to study on the way. We just got the info for the medsurg I lottery and 4 out of 11 of the clinical sites are within walking or biking distance or a very short bus ride away for me. And of course if I got UCH I would have the same bus ride to campus. I like the neighborhood too. I can walk to bars and restaurants on colfax and coffee shops on 12th, and I can bike to the cherry creek shopping district in about 10 minutes.
The work load is high but not insane. (I'm in the accelerated track so that may change in january when we have double clinicals) You guys may have a little bit more work initially because I think you take more classes the first semester than the summer start people. Lots of people have jobs, especially if they work in a hospital and do 1 or 2 8 or 12 hour shifts a week.

Hi Kitsune01,

I've been looking for apartments in the Congress Park area. Do you know which areas or streets that I should stay away from? I've heard to stay away from Colfax but I came across a decently priced apartment on Detriot between 14th and Colfax. Could you give me your opinions about the area? Thank you!