UTHSCSA Accelerated BSN 2017

Nursinghopeful2016 · Nov 17, 2016

Sorry it has been a while since I've last been on. It has been pretty hectic and crazy for me. A lot of changes have been suggested within the school that will benefit you guys if accepted. This will include open gradebook policy and changing of the grading scale back to a 10 point scale! Open gradebook should be implemented this spring before you guys are accepted but the grading scale change may not take place until fall semester (your second semester of courses).

A typical week in first semester courses (if they keep a similar schedule) will be:

Pathophysiology lecture (3 hours) M 9-11:50

Lunch 12-1 pm

Professional Socialization (2 hours) M 1-250

Health Assessment & Promotion (2 hours) T 8-11:50

Lunch 12-1 pm

Foundations of Nursing Care (3 hours) T 1-4:50

(The clinical for this does not start until after health Assessment Skills Lab ends but will begin an hour earlier at 7 am or 12)

Health Assessment Skills Labs W-F either 8-12 or 1-5 (you're automatically assigned to a group for a specific time slot)

In patho you will have some pretty intense study there are 4-5 quizzes (depending on how many holidays there are and whether you have class) that are 15 questions which you take as individuals and then as a group. Each week you will have a homework assignment which includes a disease journal and assigned videos to watch and at least one case study with questions to answer (could be up to 3 each week). Then you will have a "reading guide" to guide the massive amount of reading assigned each week. They are learning objectives with information that need to be known for exams or quizzes so it is good to get them done each week and not wait until the week beforehand.

For professional Socialization there are projects that you work on throughout the semester (mostly in your foundations clinical group) PowerPoints and discussion boards and a final project/paper at the end that you have to make entries for each week (sounds more complicated than it is). We had 2 major quizzes over material 1 in class and one online. We also did a lot of group discussions and some role playing in that course.

For health Assessment there are weekly quizzes (online), you will also present some health promotion information at the end of the semester as a group project (a lot of people did skits with there presentation a lot of fun). And sometime during the semester you will have to summarize important information from a chapter assigned to your group in class. I really enjoyed this class a lot because you're learning the information in lecture and also assessment skills in the skills lab for the materials.

For the skills lab, you will have to do prefab assignments and write-ups during and/or after lab for whatever the week's material is. There is a program called shadow health for prefab that you use to familiarize yourself with the materials. Passing score is somewhere around 70 or 75% I believe. You have to complete it before lab or you cannot stay for lab. You also must be in clinical attire to be permitted to stay in lab. You will be assigned a partner for skills lb that you will practice your assessment skills on for the competencies that are graded (BP, focused reviews and final head to toe assessment). The final head to toe assessment is 180+ competencies that you do on your partner at the end and you have to make over a certain percentage (missing less than 23 I believe). So it is helpful to spend lab time starting over from the beginning and adding on as you go so you have it down if possible).

Foundations also has weekly online quizzes. This was a difficult course for us because the professor likes NCLEX style questions (not sure if you will have the same one) you will also get to experience a practice ATI exam, which will be helpful because in semester 3 this exam will count for 25% of your grade. Definitely do as many practice questions from the textbook, ATI materials and evolve as you can. Some of the concepts are harder to grasp because we don't start skills lab until a few weeks before the final.

Foundations skills lab will be similar but you are with a different group (most of your foundations clinical group) and you won't have a partner and instead of shadow health you do prelab stuff through the ATI website. You learn stuff like bed baths, gait belt and other devices, injections and meds (there is a med calculation quiz you have to pass before you continue).

For the skills labs you have to be on time and actively participate. There are a midterm and final evaluation which you will know how you are doing but labs and clinical are pass fail.

Most of the classes have at least 2 exams and a final with most having 3-4 exams before the final (worth 12-30% of your grade). This won't be AS important to y'all if they go through with implementing the open gradebook policy but it is very important to us at this point because if you do not maintain a 75% average by the time you are done with the final your other work does not count (I am glad they decided to change this because sometimes it doesn't matter how much you study the exams are tough).

I hope this helps! I would say plan to take advantage of the resources they offer (SI, tutoring, academic coaching, etc.) and find at least one or two other people to consistently study with and split up the objectives over Google docs or something and when you meet up teach them to each other. These things have been of great help to me. :)

blondienurse9 · Nov 17, 2016

Wow!!! Thank you so much for all the great information. That is so awesome! I hope and pray I get in.

nsp11 · Nov 17, 2016

So are your weekends free, obviously not from studying, but class/clinical wise?

Allysa7 · Nov 19, 2016

Hi guys so I just saw this blog. I'm also applying for the accelerated program in 2017. I'm actually taking my TEAS today and I'm slightly nervous. It's definitely getting down to the wire. I can't believe in about two months we will know if we got in.

sai091 · Nov 19, 2016

I just remembered about this blog post! Thank you so much for all your helpful information, Nursinghopeful2016 :) By any chance would anyone know about UTHSCSA accredited review process? I was looking online (TX Board of Nursing) and I realized they had a somewhat lower than average NCLEX passing rate in comparison to other universities in Texas. That anyone knows of, has the nursing program ever been on probation?

Allysa7, goodluck!! I took mine about a month ago, feels so much better to have it out of the way especially before the holidays!

raj24 · Dec 14, 2016

Hello! I applied to this program a few days ago. Does anyone know what the program is looking for as far as performance on the TEAS VI? My results came in today and I received an 87.3. According to the website, the accelerated program's students for 2016 scored an average of 85.9, but that was for the TEAS V. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Good luck to everyone!

Nursinghopeful2016 · Dec 14, 2016

There are options for weekend clinical if you prefer 2 -12 hour shifts instead of 3- 8 hour ones. But other than that yes.

nsp11 · Dec 14, 2016

I was wondering the same thing. I'm wondering if the average will be much higher this application period since there is a calculator on the math portion now?

Jessjoy06 · Dec 14, 2016

Is anyone having transcript issues? My final grades were just posted yesterday but everyone at my school is out for the holiday and will not be back until Jan. 3.

Nursinghopeful2016 · Dec 18, 2016

The TEAS V was just more general than the new VI version. The V we had 9 subsections of science where as the VI focused more on A&P and other life sciences relevant to nursing. The other major change was made to the math section where you can use a calculator now. It is the same amount of points overall. UTHSCSA has not increased the minimum requirements though so an 87 is a competitive score for that exam! Congratulations and good luck!

Nursinghopeful2016 · Dec 18, 2016

They were on warning and due to the 4 most recent cycles they are again fully accredited without any warning. They have implemented a LOT of changes. Already approved is open gradebook (no more 75% exams before other things will count) and the grading scale will change back to a 10 point scale by Fall at the latest but maybe before then. Hope that helps!

Allysa7 · Dec 23, 2016

Is there a secondary application or just what we did for NursingCAS?