Hi! I'm applying for the UW BSN for next fall. This is my second time applying to the program and I really want to get in! I thought I would start a discussion so we can all help each other out since the application comes out this month and the essay questions are already out!
A little about myself:
-When I applied for this fall my nursing prerequisite gpa was a 3.0 and I retook one class and I believe now it is a 3.2 which isn't that great but they accept anywhere from a 2.4-4.0 for this fall so I am not too worried about that.
-When I applied for this fall I only had 120 healthcare experience hours and when I apply for next year I'll have well over 1,500.
-I'm also doing a study abroad program in maternal and child health in December before the app is due and this year i managed to get a job at Mary Bridge Children's hospital and recently got hired at Seattle Children's. I also got certified in neonatal resuscitation.
Thanks all! I can't wait to hear back and get some advice!
@mapidon yes I froze and couldn't think for the whole hour! I was doing multiplication and had to check 3-4 times to make sure I was right because I felt like my brain was not working for simple questions. If your essay and application are strong I think you still have a chance, it's possible.
@mls2020 I also remember them saying to only write on the front of each paper, opposed to writing on the front and the back of the paper.
Hey y'all ABSN hopefuls! I made it into the ABSN '18 class! Yes, off the waitlist. Don't beat yourself up if you didn't make it in. The ABSN (and BSN) at UW is not that great at teaching you how to be a nurse. The School of Nursing (the same people who proctored your ****** essay) has decided that it is best to emphasize cultural humility over how to take a blood pressure, vital signs, and assess the health of a patient. They think if you can say hello to someone in a kind manner and if you don't offend another person's cultural experience you have the competence to be a nurse. They want to graduate social workers with nursing degrees. If you want to work in the ICU, go to Seattle University. They have much better clinical placements - look at the northwest clinical consortium website that determines the clinical placements for nursing programs. Think about it. 50K to become a social worker, or a Bad Ass ICU Nurse.
I had my SU interview and toured their Clinical Performance Laboratory, and yeah, I feel like SU might be a better choice for those who value an intimate learning experience with 110% engaged faculty. I asked my interviewers how SU is different from UW, and they politely alluded to the fact that SU focuses on teaching, while UW primarily focuses on research. I sort of see the difference from my point of view as an applicant who made it past the initial cuts; with UW we had to sit for a 1-hr proctored exam/essay that required us to solve dosage calculations and respond to patient scenarios under pressure, while SU requires an interview with nursing faculty. I just wanted to share my experience, but of course I need to see if any schools even want me in the first place, haha.
You are definitely entitled to your opinion but so am I, so I'm going to share my two cents with you.
As a graduate of UW's BSN program, I definitely value the emphasis that the school has placed on diversity and cultural humility, especially starting from the application process. Nurses serve a very diverse patient population, and the current nursing workforce doesn't exactly reflect that level of diversity, so I'm thankful that the UW School of Nursing has made a commitment to train and develop nurses who will practice cultural humility in their everyday work.
You mention that the school doesn't care about teaching vital signs and assessing the health of the patient? Well, those are all skills that you will learn in lab and clinical and will eventually master when you're out in practice as an RN. Learning those skills is the easy part. The not so easy part of nursing that can't always be taught is the ability to be a human being and empathize with what a patient is going through, where they come from, and how this might affect the type of care that you will provide for them. Realizing that a person's culture is an important component of their health will help you become a better nurse. The school can teach you a lot of things that will prepare you to be a nurse, but the ignorance and close-mindedness that have come through your post is something that cannot be trained OUT of someone.
It baffles me that you just got admitted but still have these sort of feelings about the school. I would highly encourage you to think deeply about wanting to pursue your education at a place that doesn't seem to align with what you are looking for because the program will continue to teach you about cultural humility while also teaching you the very skills that you just pointed out. There are many hopeful applicants that would love to have a spot in UW's program so don't take the opportunity away from someone who will be actually be grateful for the chance to learn in this environment.
I hope I have given you plenty to think about.
P.S. I went straight into the ICU as a new grad and so did many of my classmates, so actually you can have cultural humility AND also be a "bad ass ICU nurse".
Do you guys know what date we will get the email? I remember during the proctored essay they said that we will hear by April 14th? But the email says April 20th?
ap93
21 Posts
@mapidon yes I froze and couldn't think for the whole hour! I was doing multiplication and had to check 3-4 times to make sure I was right because I felt like my brain was not working for simple questions. If your essay and application are strong I think you still have a chance, it's possible.
@mls2020 I also remember them saying to only write on the front of each paper, opposed to writing on the front and the back of the paper.