UT El Paso

I went through the UT Arlington program. No complaints here- I would recommend it.

I went through the UT Arlington program. No complaints here- I would recommend it.

If you dont mind me asking what program did you do?

My program was just straight BSN. Not accelerated, and I didn't go through the RN-BSN. Mine was just the regular 'ol 4 year BSN.

95% of my classmates that graduated with me in December have already taken NCLEX- and so far we have a 100% pass rate. The couple people that have not taken it so far are waiting on their stuff in kick in from the state.

Is UT Arlington an option for you? I would love to tell you more about the school, the campus (I lived on campus for 4 years), and the school of nursing. I read so many issues on here by students and I never had the problems that these students did. UT Arlington's school of nursing even has one faculty member dedicated to ensuring we all pass- her job is nothing but tutoring, support, and encouragement.

Because of the location of the school you have literally dozens of hospitals for clinicals. I had 8 clinicals and never went to the same hospital twice. My senior year when I thought that I wanted to do critical care, my clinical was arranged so that I could be in a Trauma ICU. Pedi clinicals are done in actually Pedi hospitals, not just a Pedi floor. Psych is done at several facilities depending on what your interests are- forensics, drug rehab, children, abuse, etc. I really loved how we had so many options available to us; it completely diversified my experience with patients.

I also read a lot on here about student's being nervous working with real patients because they spent so much time with the mannequins in lab. We spent 1 semester with them, but we also had regular clinicals at that same time working with real patients. I graduated having done all kinds of skills numerous times- foleys, CVC dressing changes, chest tubes, art line draws, injections, NG tubes, dressing changes, blood draws, etc. Not just once or twice, but literally dozens of times.

Your final semester you pick the hospital you want to work in, the type of unit you want to work on, and you ask a nurse to precept you for the semester. You then work with that nurse every day that he/she works, and you take as many of their patients as you can handle. I went to a Telemetry unit, and by the end of the semester I was taking 4 patients and doing complete care on all 4- all meds, all procedures, the whole works. It really upped my confidence for graduation and going into the work place.

That lovely HESI test that you may hear about- it is very similar to the NCLEX, and some schools use it as an exit exam. Ever read a post about "help, I failed HESI and they won't let me graduate"? We had an exit HESI, and not everyone passed. Remember the faculty member I mentioned who does nothing but tutor and try and keep people from failing? That is exactly what she did- tutor, and those few people passed on the second attempt. No one gets kicked out the door unless they flat out didn't try.

My faculty were some of the most caring people I have ever met. They really did care if we passed or failed, and set us up for success as much as they could. I feel that they really enhanced my education and not just "push us through the system".

I will tell you that is it very hard to get into UT Arlington's programs; when I applied there were 800 students for 100 seats. Not sure how that compares nationwide. The school of nursing has an above average percentage of males in their program (my class had 12%). The school also has a RN to BSN program, a MSN program (Masters) and a PhD in Nursing program which is only one of a handful in the country.

Okay, now I sound like an ad. I really did love my education though- and I have no regrets about that program. With a 100% pass rate on NCLEX, it is obvious they are doing something right and they certainly were not just teaching us the test.

Thanks for all the info I visited there site but there is now way I could attend UT arlington or the other distance sites they are all about a 6 hourdrive but thanks for the great info!