UVA Advice Needed!

U.S.A. Virginia

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Hello,

I have a dilemma that is a bit complicated, however any advice would be much appreciated. Basically, my significant other will be attending UVA for law school this fall and will be moving from Los Angeles to Charlottesville. I want to move with him to Charlottesville as well, however the only nursing program in the area is the Clinical Nurse Leader program at UVA. I am sure this program is highly competitive and I am wondering if it is worth taking the risk to move. I have a degree in Sociology, with average grades and would need to take the prerequisite courses at a community college. I would also start working in a hospital or other health care facility in order to gain more experience before applying.

I am worried that if I move and do not get into the program I will be stuck with no other options. Can someone shed light on the acceptance rate to the program? I am visiting next week and will hopefully speak with someone at the school so that should answer some questions also. I am hoping that I will get into the program and everything will fall into place, however I do not know much about the competitiveness of the application process. Obviously this is a choice I need to make on my own, but I was hoping for some thoughts and advice!

Thank you ahead of time.

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There is someone that works at UVA that posts on the boards, hopefully they will provide details as well.

Have you considered applying to schools in the area and not necessarily Charlottesville? I know UVA is a good school (my husband went there for undergrad) and I imagine they are highly competitive. There is also James Madison University which is about an hour away from Charlottesville. There are other schools in the area that would leave you near your significant other but not necessarily in the same city.

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Hi,

I am a current CNL student at UVA and would be happy to answer any questions about the program. It is extremely competitive because the program strives to seek out highly motivated individuals who show promise as an RN and beyond. Part of this is because the program itself is very rigorous...however I suppose that's what one would expect for a MSN program with 1000 1:1 precepted hours. I think around 150 applied and around 28 got my year. However, the best thing you can do is get as much experience as you can in healthcare (volunteering, shadowing nurses etc.), do well in your pre-reqs and be able to express a strong desire for nursing. For me, it was life changing and I don't regret my decision one bit. Also, people are admitted with a wide variety of backgrounds, including sociology! Good luck!

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Thank you so much for your response. I think it would be best for me to take at least a year off to volunteer or work in a hospital in order to decide if nursing is 100% right for me. Thank you and I will probably be contacting you about questions in the future!!

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One thing you should be aware of since it sounds like you still have pre-reqs to do is that community colleges out here cost more than California. I live in MD and I pay $560 per science pre-req. I wanted to take a class online in Virginia, but since I was out of state, the class was around $1100. I'd check with the community colleges in the Charlottesville area to see how best to obtain state residency because that will cut your cost down.

(I was quite shocked at community college prices when I first started as I am originally from California where school is cheap)

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I'm the assistant dean for admissions at UVa. There are actually two options to become a nurse in Charlottesville. UVa offers the Master's Entry (CNL) program. Piedmont Virginia Community College offers an Associate's Degree RN program.

Both UVa and Old Dominion University offer programs in Charlottesville for students with Associate's degrees to progress to the BSN.

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Specializes in Critical-care RN.

I am a critical-care RN of 19 yrs moving to Charlottesville, Va. Does anyone out there know anything about working as a RN @ UVA; what about these "Rotating Shifts"? Any info about the clinics @ UVA? Does UVA only offer CNL, not a BSN?

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I am starting as an RN at UVA in a couple months and have worked as a tech in critical care there for a little while now.

With 20 years experience, I am sure you could pick and choose from any ICU there. They are always hiring experienced nurses.

As for rotating shifts, that could mean a couple things. It could mean you do 6 weeks of days, than 6 weeks of nights. It could mean you just won't have a set schedule because weekends will be mandatory in most departments. That all depends on what you work out with management. UVA has tons of clinics, both local to Cville and in outlying areas. Those jobs of course have more normal hours, but you just don't see nearly as many openings.

As for getting your BSN at UVA, yes they have an ADN to BSN bridge program and will probably pay for most of it. Not sure if you can go straight from an ADN to the MSN CNL, but you may be able to.

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Specializes in Critical-care RN.

Thank you so much for the info on all of my subjects I was not knowledgeable about. You are a "World of info"!! One more question, did you like working there? I have never worked in a non-union hospital.

Thanks

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Hey Laborer - yes I do like working there. It's non-union and that is going to be the case for pretty much any hospital in VA. Virginia is a right to work state and thus unions are very weak or nonexistent here.

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