What was your experience with any upmc hospital school of nursing?

Rebel Nurse · Apr 28, 2015

Hi! I've been lurking here for quite a while but decided to make an account in order to answer your questions :)

I graduated from Shadyside SON in October 2014. A positive and a negative factor about this school is that it is constantly changing. The curriculum seemed to change with each new class that came in, which made it confusing at times for students (and teachers!). Shadyside is a magnet hospital, though, and they are all about trying new teaching techniques in order to be at the head of the game. That means that some of what I have to say may be outdated already! I'll tell you what I know based on my experience.

1. I've heard that classes are getting larger. When I started there, they said they would take up to 100 students if possible. I think we only started with 80-something. We were divided into two groups, so there weren't 80-something students in one classroom. Eventually the class became small enough that for the most part we were joined into one class (until OB/Peds and Psych, in which we were divided into one class or the other, after which we'd switch and complete the other class, if that makes sense). In the end, I think there were only 44 of us!

2. For the most part, my clinicals have been at Shadyside hospital. I think that's the case for many of my classmates, too. However, there are other clinical sites that you will most likely be placed at for several rotations. For example, OB is at Magee and Peds is at Children's. Psych is at WPIC. You may be placed at Magee for a regular clinical rotation, and I was. I was also placed at Presby for a clinical rotation. Some of the critical care clinicals may take you to other hospitals. For example, our rotation to the ED took some students all the way to Mckeesport. There was also a semester where we did clinicals in the community. I don't think they are doing that anymore, but during that semester you could be placed anywhere from a liver transplant clinic to a community life center and anywhere in between. I'm not sure if they would do this for regular clinicals, but during transitions, some students were placed at East, Mercy, and Passavant too. So really over the course of the program you could end up at any UPMC hospital within the Pittsburgh region.

3. I had my prereqs done at CCAC before I started, and I was in the minority. You will be really thankful you have them done already, as the schedule is brutal for everyone starting from scratch! Even with my prereqs done, I was at school or clinical pretty much every weekday. The difference was that my class days were typically half as long as everyone taking their sciences during the program. When you approach the end of the program, everyone is on the same schedule as all of the sciences are completed by the time you get to the 300 Level.

4. I don't have tattoos, but for students who did, it was generally expected that they be covered up. So if you have tattoos on your arms you would wear a sleeve or long sleeve shirt under your scrubs, or cover up tattoos with band-aids. No facial jewelery was allowed, and we were allowed to have one stud in the earlobe, though I felt they were pretty lenient for the last part (or they just didn't notice when I forgot I had all my earrings in). All of that is just for clinical, though. Things may have changed, but during class the dress code was pretty casual. Towards the end they tried to ban shorts above the knee, but it didn't seem to hold up too well.

5. For admissions, I took the entrance exam. When I sat for the exam they said if your SAT scores were high enough (if you're a recent high school grad) then you didn't have to take the entrance exam. I am crazy so I decided to take the test anyway to see what it was like. To me it didn't seem really difficult, and there are plenty of study tools out there for exams like that if you're interested, but I found the most difficult thing was the time limit. I'm a pretty fast reader, but they give you a very short amount of time for each section. I think they said the ones you don't answer don't count, so they grade you based on the questions you do manage to answer. (Once again, not too sure about the way the test is graded or if they even use the same admissions test). Following that, there was no interview or anything. I had to submit an essay if my memory is correct.

I've never been to another nursing school, but overall I appreciate the education I got at Shadyside. It's a hospital nursing school, so you get a lot of hands on experience. I've heard that the program is only 16 months now. Not sure if that is a good or bad idea, but it certainly gets you on a fast track for a career! We were the last class to be offered tuition forgiveness, and I've heard from classes before us that they had better benefits on admission than we did, and so on and so on. It's because there are so many people signing up for nursing programs now. The CCAC program is completely saturated (one of the reasons I tried for Shadyside instead). Another drawback is that the magnet hospitals are pushing to hire BSNs now. Graduating from their school might give you an edge (most of my classmates were hired and it took me about 2 months of job searching before getting a job at Shadyside), but keep in mind that they are expecting you to get your BSN within a few years of graduating.

Sorry if that was too lengthy! :)

pittnurse24, BSN, RN · Apr 29, 2015

While I can't offer advice about the particular program at Shadyside, I just wanna say that it's cool to see people posting about UPMC because it doesn't seem like a lot of people talk on here from PA! I went to University of Pittsburgh for nursing and I had my clinical all over the UPMC facilities but I'd assume most of your med/surg clinicals would get done at Shadyside. I actually worked at Shadyside as a PCT before I moved down south after I graduated. Such a great hospital and I gained so much experience as a PCT there. I worked with a lot of nurses who graduated from Shadyside's SON and they were great nurses! We also had Shadyside nursing students on our floor at one point too. Having your pre reqs done prior to starting will help a lot with opening up your schedule. I know I was glad I went to community college before transferring to Pitt because I got all my pre reqs done and all I had to focus on was nursing courses and clinical! At my school tattoos had to be covered and we couldn't have facial piercings or anymore than one earring in each ear like the previous poster said. Good luck in school!

Futurehopeful · May 5, 2015

Thank you both so much for the replies! Your answers were very helpful, and I'm looking forward to applying :)

hallem2 · Aug 18, 2015

I know this is an old post but did you make a decision? I just graduated from SHY SON and would give you my opinion!