University of Houston-Victoria Second Degree BSN 2012

cutenurse2b · Dec 10, 2011

@tebow,

how do you send a private mail?

cutenurse2b · Dec 10, 2011

@ CookieTL,was also in the black group and also got the acceptance.

tebow · Dec 11, 2011

@CUTENURSE2B......email me at [email protected]

applejacks36 · Dec 11, 2011

Shermel2,

The program is difficult for many reasons. This is a program for the experienced student. No lie! The profs expect a lot from you, and can be very unforgiving if they feel you are not meeting the program objectives. You want to be able to answer any question they throw at you. They WILL grill you. They WILL make you squirm. This is done for many reasons. They want to make sure you can hack it in this field because some physicians and nurses are going to be worse. It is important to remember, they are trying to weed people out.*

Secondly, this is an accelerated program. You will learn everything a traditional 2 year nursing student learns, except you only have 11 months to learn it all. *That means lots and lots of independent study to learn skills and concepts that the profs don't have time to teach. They do the best they can, but simply cannot cover it all. It will be up to you to put in the countless hours of study time to make sure you are meeting program objectives. If you are unprepared, the professors will not be happy, and you will most likely get additional work. This is on top of the huge amounts of assignments, discussion questions, group projects, virtual clinicals, clinical paperwork, and skills lab prep you will be doing each week. The assignments are not completed quickly. In the first semester it is common to work 12 hours straight and only get 2-3 assignments completed.*

You will need to have very strong time management skills because you will need to learn how to balance all that homework, and still have time to study for exams. Furthermore, this school LOVES group projects. You will have them every semester.*

Also, every semester you will have simulation check offs. You must pass to continue on in the program. You will also have medication calculation exams you must pass in the first and second semester. You have 2 chances to pass it, but of you don't pass on the second time, you cannot continue on in the program.*

I could continue to explain why this program is difficult, but it would be a novel. Despite the difficult nature of the program, 45 of us just graduated today. So, it is possible to do if you're willing to put in all the hard work.*

applejacks36 · Dec 11, 2011

Shermel2,
The program is difficult for many reasons. This is a program for the experienced student. No lie! The profs expect a lot from you, and can be very unforgiving if they feel you are not meeting the program objectives. You want to be able to answer any question they throw at you. They WILL grill you. They WILL make you squirm. This is done for many reasons. They want to make sure you can hack it in this field because some physicians and nurses are going to be worse. It is important to remember, they are trying to weed people out.
Secondly, this is an accelerated program. You will learn everything a traditional 2 year nursing student learns, except you only have 11 months to learn it all. That means lots and lots of independent study to learn skills and concepts that the profs don't have time to teach. They do the best they can, but simply cannot cover it all. It will be up to you to put in the countless hours of study time to make sure you are meeting program objectives. If you are unprepared, the professors will not be happy, and you will most likely get additional work. This is on top of the huge amounts of assignments, discussion questions, group projects, virtual clinicals, clinical paperwork, and skills lab prep you will be doing each week. The assignments are not completed quickly. In the first semester it is common to work 12 hours straight and only get 2-3 assignments completed.
You will need to have very strong time management skills because you will need to learn how to balance all that homework, and still have time to study for exams. Furthermore, this school LOVES group projects. You will have them every semester.
Also, every semester you will have simulation check offs. You must pass to continue on in the program. You will also have medication calculation exams you must pass in the first and second semester. You have 2 chances to pass it, but of you don't pass on the second time, you cannot continue on in the program.
I could continue to explain why this program is difficult, but it would be a novel. Despite the difficult nature of the program, 45 of us just graduated today. So, it is possible to do if you're willing to put in all the hard work.

txrn13 · Dec 11, 2011

Congrats to those who just graduated!! I pray I will make it thru next year with the same end result as you guys. Thanks to all the current students for the insight about the program, it is much appreciated.

Also, where did the graduation take place?

txrn13 · Dec 11, 2011

Fyi: I paid for my drug test first thing Friday morning and within 15-20min I received an email to go in for my test the same day. There were four different locations listed that you could go to. You can go at anytime on the day stated in the email. I took mine over by reliant and there was also another UHV student there. We chatted for a brief moment but if you're on this board say hello :)

shermel2 · Dec 11, 2011

A big thanks to applejacks36 and tebow for their insight. I'm trying to mentally prepare for this new way of life.

While we are awaiting for classes to start, do you recommend we review any concepts? Like anatomy and physiology? They've asked us to wait to purchase our books, otherwise I'd start there.....

Thanks again and CONGRATULATIONS! Good luck to you both!

Hk45, BSN · Dec 12, 2011

I've already signed up for the surscan drug testing over a week ago, but I have yet to hear from them and whenever I try to repeat the transaction, it displays an invalid vendor error.

Is anyone else having a similar problem? I e-mailed the customer service, but it's hard to be patient since I will actually be out of town most of this month!

khandy00 · Dec 12, 2011

@hkc713, I signed up for the surscan on Dec 2nd and received a purchase confirmation email a few minutes later. Then I received an email on the 9th to go in for testing that same day.

applejacks36 · Dec 12, 2011

Shermel2,

As long as you have a good foundation in A&P, I don't think it's really going to do you much good to read your A&P book. Do keep it handy though. You may need to refer to it during the year. Espically those veins when you learn how to Start IV's. If you are rusty on cardiac stuff brush up on it. It was my weakest area, and it did help me tremendously to have a good knowledge base of the anatomy of the heart.

If they told you to hold off on books, then wait till they give you the all clear. They may be switching some of them or trying to get new editions. As soon as you can order them do so. There will be a lot to order in the first semester. 24-26 books I believe. Yes, you need every single one. I'm not kidding when I tell you you will read your textbooks from cover-to-cover. There is generally 10-25 chapters covered on every exam. So, you really need to start reading nursing when you get them.

I would suggest starting with your fundamentals and pharmacology book. They start with the nursing process, and if you've never had any previous nursing experience it will take several weeks for it to start to make sense.

For pharmacology. Don't memorize every single drug. Instead, it's better to know the drug classes. She's going to give you drug lists, and you'll find it's easier to group them together according to drug class. All drugs in one class are going to work the same way, have the same adverse effects, and the same interactions, and same nursing actions. I found some awesome drug study cards. They had all the info on them i needed, and I was able to pull the specific ones to take to clinicals with me. If the prof asked me questions about drugs it was right at my finger tips, and i didn't have to fumble around with my drug book. The cards are MediQuick Drug Cards 17th edition. I still needed my drug book from time-to-time since every drug covered in pharm won't be in there. However, only needed my drug book for a hand full of drugs that weren't in the Medi Quick cards. Best money I ever spent, honestly. I would HIGHLY recommend them. Great for studying for pharm too. They are already note cards. So no need to make note cards. The only down side is that they aren't laminated. So, take special care not to get them wet.

Also, do not try to read you pathopisiology book cover to cover. It's not the best. I grew to like it more as the year progressed, but it was too complicated to understand at first. The medical-surgical textbook will be your life line to most of the info.

Hope this helps. You guys are going to do great!

CookieTL · Dec 12, 2011

I am having so many problems scheduling this drug screen!!!!! Help!!!!! Once I get in and select the progtam, the screen goes to an inactive status........