<p>With the popularity of Nursing as a career choice rising, you might find yourself rushing to get into a program that MAY NOT be the best choice in the long run. Find out from the school you are thinking about how they handle student situations once they get in to the clinical phase of their education. Find out what their clinical policies are, how deep do their clinical affiliations go, how many positions do they offer at major hospitals, ask to see their HIPPA training plans etc
…I mention this because we picked a Nursing program without asking these questions and have learned the hard way. We based our decision on location. I speak of The MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES in BOSTON, MA.<br>
Thinking that because they are located in the top medical area of Boston surrounded by prestigious and world renowned hospitals, clinicals offered would be in those area hospitals
…such is not necessarily the case
…! Additionally, when students make mistakes in a clinical situation, rather than use that mistake as a teaching opportunity, they are quick to scapegoat the student and defend their clinical partners even at the expense of their students. (Keep in mind that students are not licensed and they work under the license of their instructor). The school is not an advocates of their students but rather of their business affiliates
and in my opinion does not offer a positive learning environment let alone a nurturing one that is so vital to the business of nursing.</p>
<p>“Find out from the school you are thinking about how they handle student situations once they get in to the clinical phase of their education.”</p>
<p>Since we have not yet embarked on a nursing education, and don’t know that much about it yet: what specific questions could we reasonably ask, and how would we interpret the answers? Would schools really differ, sytematically, in these regards in a way that we would be able to distinguish? How?</p>
<p>"Find out what their clinical policies are, "</p>
<p>Same questions as above; Are there specific policies that differ among nursing programs that we can reasonably ask about, and then understand the implications of their answers?</p>
<p>“how deep do their clinical affiliations go,”
Are there specific questions to ask, in this regard? I can see them having a list of hospitals where their grads do clinical work,do they provide that? Is there some more detail in such a list that would be relevant, i.e. specific departments/ programs within the hospitals, that would make them “better” or “worse”?</p>
<p>“how many positions do they offer at major hospitals”
do they provide this? How do we know which hospitals are “better” for nurses to do clinical training in, and which are “worse”? Does it matter , in the end ?</p>
<p>“ask to see their HIPPA training plans” </p>
<p>Would they provide these, if asked? How would we interpret the differences, since we know nothing at this point? Are there real differences in this regard between programs? If so, how do they differ, and what should we look for? Do programs closely follow what is written in their training plans, anyway?</p>
<p>Once you get out there in the working world, as a practicing nurse: do grads of program A have systematically any real advantage over grads of program B?
How do we, as consumers of a nursing education, figure that out before enrolling someplace?</p>
<p>As for clinicals, I would ask them to tell me where they place their students and how many are placed in each rotation. If a facility only takes 6 or 7 from your school and theres 25 students in the class you have to assume that the others are going somewhere else that may not be what you expected
This is important if your child is boarding at school with no means of transportation
…
As for Hippa, it is my understanding that every school is supposed to have their HIPPA training available to peruse. Make sure your student is familiar with it and that he or she knows that they must complete that training
.the nursing program at MASS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES apparently couldnt provide concrete evidence unlike other schools within the college.
This is important in case your student makes a mistake
you should know whether the school will stand behind the student or will they side against the student as does this MCPHS
Im not an expert in picking a nursing program, so I cant speak to all your points; Im just a parent who has learned some tough lessons thru experience and thought it worthy to share. While I am not being specific enough about my own experience, suffice it to say that I could NEVER in good conscience recommend the Nursing program at THE MASSACHUSETS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES based on what my child experienced. In my opinion, the school is too small with archaic policies; the teachers are parochial (in the Nursing Technology & Informatics class students could not email their assignment to the instructor because she didnt do email everything had to be hard copy… so much for technology!) Im just saying that not all programs are created equal. In the end I suppose if you fly under the radar anyone can get a degree but in my opinion when youre paying 35-40K a year for education I expect an education</p>
<p>Thanks for posting. You make some good points that apply to my son, in a PA program, as well. He was already told, at the start of the program, that he is responsible for finding places to do his rotations and that his school could, “help”, by supplying names of places where students have gone in the past. They said there are too many PA students in their city so students should plan on looking elsewhere and that a car would be a necessity.</p>
<p>Toledo- your son should NOT be required to find his own rotations! What school is this may I ask?</p>
<p>proud_mary,
What other programs did you look at? Can your child transfer?</p>
<p>Ugh. I hate how popular nursing is becoming…It’s like some weird trend.</p>
<p>I’m going into nursing, but I’ve wanted to go into the medical field almost my entire life, and I did a ton of research before deciding on nursing. In fact, I’m so passionate, my college essays were on why I chose nursing over being a doctor (in my experience, the most commonly asked question after you say you want to be a nurse is “Why not a doctor?”).</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree. You really have to do your research when picking a program.</p>
<p>I’ll be attending Le Moyne College next year as part of their Dual Degree Partnership in Nursing (DDPN) with St. Joseph’s College of Nursing.</p>
<p>Beware of upstart nursing programs-sometimes I think they’re just out for your money.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any information on colleges in the New England/ NY area that have a strong nursing major and are not impossible to get in to? This would be for a well rounded B+ student (HS junior). (Taking SAT in May.) Preference would be for a campus population greater than 4,000 and “not in the middle of nowhere”.</p>
<p>Since this seems to be a popular choice, we want to make sure we have looked at all options (including safeties, matches, and reach schools.) Any suggestions or advice is appreciated…</p>
<p>The comments about Massachusetts College of Health and Pharmacy were helpful.</p>
<p>I would like to point out that Mass College of Pharmacy BOSTON is a different program than the MCPHS Manchester and Worcester program.</p>
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<p>I have a friend, originally a chemical engineer, who’s retraining as a nurse, and she’s getting her nursing degree at Regis College in Weston, MA. She seems to think it’s a good program. It is, however, a somewhat smaller school than you want (1600 students), and Weston is about 12 miles out of Boston (though it’s next to Waltham, which is a nice town with stuff to do).</p>
<p>Yale, Boston College, UMass Amherst, and Northeastern all have excellent nursing programs.</p>
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<p>Look into Le Moyne College. Their nursing program is tops, and a B+ student will most likely get in, with a good scholarship too. The campus population is around 3,000, so smaller than what you said, but it’s in Syracuse NY, so a pretty big city.</p>
<p>Thank you jessiehl and SingDanceRun Life!</p>
<p>(…size is not as important to mom (me)…;)) Scholarships are good too…:)</p>
<p>We are open to looking at all options. D’s guidance counselor told her that some programs are very competitive. For example, we were told that acceptance into nursing program at UConn was around 10%. :eek:</p>
<p>No problem!</p>
<p>If you want any more help looking for nursing programs, I can probably be of some assistance. I’m a senior this year, and I’ll be at Le Moyne College next year. If you or your daughter have any questions, feel free to contact me!</p>
<p>Most of my information is on Le Moyne since that’s where I’ve decided to go, but I applied to 9 4 year schools and the local community college (NY, PA, DC and MD), so I have information on a lot of programs. I also looked into some others.</p>
<p>Schools I applied to:</p>
<p>SUNY Buffalo (High Match - wait listed)
SUNY Binghamton (Reach -rejected)
SUNY Brockport (Match - accepted)
Le Moyne College (Match - accepted w/$)
Howard University (Safety - accepted)
D’Youville College (Safety - accepted w/$)
Drexel University (Lower Reach - no response yet)
Temple University (Higher Match - accepted)
Coppin State University (Safety - accepted)
Tompkins Cortland Community College (Safety - accepted)</p>
<p>Other schools I looked into fairly seriously:</p>
<p>SUNY Stony Brook
SUNY Morrisville
St. John Fisher College
Nazareth College
Elmira College</p>
<p>And for reference:</p>
<p>My cumulative GPA grades 9-11 (unweighted) was a 2.97 (a B), my ACT composite was a 23, and my ECs ranged from sports to the performing arts to clubs and volunteering to after school jobs.</p>