<p>In our college search for a freshmen direct admit nursing program, CWRU website says that the BSN program
provides 1600 plus clinical hours which is double the average of clinical hours. Also, clinicals begin the 3rd week of
freshmen year. Question: 1st - is that asking alot of new freshmen who are still acclimating to being away from home
in a new city, adjusting to college life and workload to start clinicals that soon? How stressful is this for the freshmen? Granted, most students have already done volunteer work at a hospital during high school so they are most likely familiar with the hospital environment but is it too soon to start clinicals? Also, how do the 1600 clinical hours get broken down each year and semester? Do the students have to do clinicals at night or on the weekends to get all the hours in? How are the clinical and sim hours broken down per semester? Does all the clinical hours take away from their other important nursing classes, having time to study and a little fun? We can not find another direct admit nursing program where the clinicals start freshmen year or even have close to that mant clinical hours. Even in higher ranked direct & junior year admit [per U.S. News & World Report graduate nursing programs] such as UPenn, UMichigan, UPittsburg, UWashington & Oregon Heath, clinicals start sophomore or junior year. Other big name schools such as NYU, Georgetown & BC don't start clinicals until sophomore or junior year. CWRU has a great reputation but so does alot of other schools that provide less clinical hours. Also, a nursing assistant job in the summers can provide valuble hospital/clinical experience as an adjunct to the nursing program clinical hours.</p>
<p>2nd question - how many total clinical and total sim hours in the following freshmen direct admit nursing programs:</p>
<p>U Pittsburg, Duquesne, UPenn, NYU, Georgetown, Villanova, UMichigan, UWisconsin [early assurance], Boston College, UUtah [early assurance], Loyola-Chicago, Saint Louis, Marquette, UMinnesota, UDelaware, UVirginia,
UPortland, UTennesse [Knoxsville], San Diego State, UMiami.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long list of schools but we are trying to narrow it down to 10 schools. Thank you so much to all the posters who share their knowledge of these nursing programs in order to help the next generation of nurses make decisions.</p>
<p>Pitt has 1300 clinical hours. CWRU was high on our list when we were considering nursing programs. As I recall most of the clinical hours were during the sophomore, junior and senior years. I can’t remember the breakdown per year but I’m sure CWRU’s SON would be happy to give them to you. </p>
<p>Hi, my D attends University of Virginia ( direct entry program).She just started 2weeks ago and really like her science/ nursing classes. I dont remember exactly how many clinical hours they’ ll have.
They’ll start their 1st clincial in spring semester 2nd year ( sophomore ) & that will be a " half day " clinical.
During their info session, they mentioned that their clincial starts at
Aprx 6am or 6:30 am
Ends later in the afternoon 3pm or so (??). I am not sure of the exact time that they get off.
I was told they do almost all/ most/ majority of the clincial at UVa hospital, which is directly across the street from the college’s nursing building.</p>
<p>Looks like the sim man time is part of the classrom / instructional time, not part of the clincial time. </p>
<p>What are some of the criteria in selecting a program?
My D loves the very small class size in her A&P and microbio class, she said the classes are great.</p>
<p>I dont know much about the other schools on your list, i am sure other parents will chime in !
Hope this helps you!</p>
<p>May I suggest :
Don’t miss out on many smaller private colleges ( possible merits, grants, fin. aid , possible smaller class size, etc)
Some are great & are well respected in their area. " Hidden Gems " !</p>
<p>Cost of attendance for Out of State (OOS) public universities are expensive compared to your in-state colleges.
If your D can quality for merit such as half or full tuition off , this will bring down the cost of private & In state colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. In order of what nursing programs provide the most clinical hours then CWRU is first with over 1600 hours and Pitt is 2nd with 1300 hours. Do any of the other programs that we are looking at [see my list above] provide over 1000 clinical hours or in the 800 -1000 range? This info is not always readily available on the schools’ websites. </p>
<p>My d would prefer a school with greater than 5000 students, in a city or near a city [east of the Missisippi but she likes Portland] and preferably with an university hospital or other hospital close by. Also football with a [ie Pitt/Michigan/Wisconsin/BC] stadium is a big plus [ lots of school spirit] or a good basketball program [ie Marquette/Saint Louis/Loyola] if she has to give up football. We have visited most of the schools except Pitt, Duquesne, Minnesota, San Diego State, Miami, Tennessee and hopefully we will see some of them in the next year since my d is now a junior. In-state for us, posted on their websites, UCI had 1963 applicants for 86 spots [4% acceptance rate] & UCLA had 1940 applicants for 40 in-state spots [2% acceptance rate]. All the Cal State schools [junior year admit] are impacted and it takes 5 - 6 years to get all the classes in order to finish. Hundreds of qualified students are turned down each year. San Diego State began direct admit for fall 2014. Other small private schools are junior year admit except USF is direct admit. Too many people [38 million] and not enough good nursing programs in California.</p>
<p>I’m not convinced most public universities are worth their out of state sticker prices, and most provide little need-based aid to out of state students. There are exceptions, such as a few publics that are still reasonably priced for OOS. Also, UNC-CH and UVa provide large amounts of need-based aid to OOS, but their out of state admissions are extremely difficult. Some out of state publics provide substantial merit aid.</p>
<p>My son’s public university had some classes with 600 students. Every seat in the auditorium was filled. Meanwhile, my daughter’s private college prides itself on not having any classes with more than 30 students.</p>
<p>My daughter’s private college starts clinicals 3rd semester, which I believe is common. I’m guessing that any other college’s clinicals in freshman year are really more like orientation than real clinicals. I don’t think most hospitals would let a college freshman do anything more than watch. </p>
<p>By the way, take a look at the number of credit hours a program requires. My daughter’s program is 128. Some students need 4.5 years to complete it. To complete it in 4 years, students have to take a summer mini-mester. Fortunately, my daughter had some AP credit and took an online summer class, so her schedule is not overwhelming. </p>