mom wants to know about nursing schools

<p>Can anyone tell me what are the best nursing programs around. My daughter is applying and she has applied to about ten schools on the east coast. What are the best programs or any web links you have would be greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>This is a great questions! </p>

<p>My youngest wants to be a nurse too. She's an above average student getting low As and mid-Bs in her math and science classes. I'd appreciate hearing anything about nursing as a major. I learned from college visits with my other kids that nursing is one of those majors that can start from year 1 of college, and that the nursing programs are very competitive to get into. Pitt, for example, said that their average accepted nursing student had a 3.8 GPA in a year that their average GPA for admitted students was a 3.6. PSU said that their nursing program was very, very small (they said they were going to be trying to enlarge it, but were limited by the number of good professors available), which made it highly competitive.</p>

<p>When my daughter applied last year she used the Ruggs book as a starting point for choosing schools to look at - while rankings aren't everything it did give a nice list to start with. Their 2006 list of "most selective" undergrad nursing schools:
Barnard, SUNY Binghampton, Boston College, SUNY Buffalo, Case Western, U of Colorado, Columbia, Duke, Emory, U of Florida, Gustavus Adophus, U of Illinois, Illinois Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, U of Missouri, NYU, UNC, Northern MI, U Penn, U of Rochester, St. Olaf, Vanderbilt, Villanova, UVA, U of Washington, Wisconsin.
Notably missing is U of Michigan which I think has to be a mistake!</p>

<p>Other great schools of nursing include:
Northeastern University-Boston-coop program gives you valuable experience
Case Western Reserve University
Johns Hopkins
Penn
Georgetown</p>

<p>There was another thread like this a while back. Since she will need to pass State boards be sure to consider where she intends to live and work after graduation. Also consider the overall best fit school, not just the BSN rankings. Many schools will give a good nursing education and she has the advantage of future employers filling in any gaps in her training, or retraining according to their ways of doing things. Concentrate on schools where she will enjoy being and therefore will be best able to learn. Some schools will be great on theory and get better rankings where others will give better practical knowledge, my feeling (physician here) is to get the best theory and rely on the employer to train her in the nitty gritty stuff. Knowing WHY things are done and how things work (basic science behind things) translates into long term ability to adapt to changes in practices. Good luck.</p>

<p>Once licensed as an RN in one state it is not difficult to obtain a license in another state. In my career I have had RN licenses in Utah, Mass, Vt, NH and NY. So, don't let that drive school choice.</p>

<p>Agree with wis75, I attended two different state universities as a nursing major. I had good quality teachers at both. I thought I had learned a lot in school but after graduation is when the real learning began. There is no way you can learn everything in school that you'll need to know on the job. There are not enough clinical days in the world for that. Just look for a school she would really be happy with that has a descent pass rate on the State Boards. As an aside..some of the best nurses I knew were graduates of hospital based programs and community colleges..don't be taken in by the "name" of the sch.</p>

<p>Consider the Licensed Practical Nurse route at a local technical college. It takes 15 months, is unbelievably inexpensive, and then your child can pursue the RN while working occasional weekends or nights as a nurse. Additionally, it is my understanding that the LPN degree shaves off a year from the RN training, and also credit is given for the clinical training received during the LPN year, so that there is less clinical training, if any, during the pursuit of the RN.</p>

<p>NO to the above! Do not have someone who is concerned about top colleges waste her time taking the LPN level courses. That route would be fine for someone who needs more time to prove she can do the work but this mom seems to be looking at top schools for a D who can handle the toughest nursing courses. Also, please don't anyone suggest that with her brains she should become a physician instead- the two fields are very different and require different different people (ie they are not at all interchangeable, not different levels of medical training but totally different types of training).</p>

<p>I concur with the no to the LPN route--at least in my area of the country, LPNs are no longer working at major medical centers. Patients are too sick and too complex. My hospital will not hire anyone withour a BSN. The knowledge base and critical thinking involved in caring for patients is staggering. An RN must not only have excellent clinical judgment, interpersonal skills but also be technologically savy with computers as well as the standard medical devices</p>

<p>A strong nursing education with a deep theoretical framework is key.
Clinical placements are very important as well</p>

<p>Sure, you can do nursing through a community college or what have you -- and if money is a HUGE factor, perhaps you should. But if we want our brightest to go into this field, we should encourage them to go to good schools, get well-rounded educations and college experiences, and still end up fine nurses.</p>

<p>I am a working RN. I went to college and got a BA degree and then returned to college and got a RN degree and a Masters. I think she should pick the school she will be happiest at. Go and visit. I would not go the LPN route because it is a very limited job in many parts of the country. If she wants to apply to the big name schools, that is fine but she can also get a wonderful education at other schools. Two year degree nurses are very good nurses but the lack of a degree can be limiting in a career. The BSN degree will give her more options later in her career if she decides to become a manager or a nurse practioner. Everyone who is a nurse these days, learns to be a real nurse after they graduate. She will not have trouble with the licensing test if she completes college. It isn't that hard. She doesn't need to worry about what state she will work in in the future. Most hospitals have six month programs for new grads in the specialty they want to work in. </p>

<p>Nursing is a good job and I wish her well.</p>

<p>I think the only reason I'd suggest a two year program would be if $$ or family circumstances were factors. Then the RN can take advantage of the wide variety of programs set up for RNs who wish to earn a BSN or masters while working full time. I think if at all possible, kids should have the full four year college experience regardless of their major. You're only young once.</p>

<p>I am not a nurse, but my wife is a nursing prof. As past threads have suggested, any quality program will get you the same returns. If money is not unlimited, consider setting some aside in case she/he may want to get an MSN down the pike. You can always get a Yale MSN at some time, but not if paying off a huge BSN debt. Just my opinion.</p>

<p>I would highly encourage any student investigating BSN programs, to look at the number of clinical hours in each of the programs. A name brand college will not make a good nurse. Exposure to the hospital setting, direct patient care and hands on experience can create a great nurse. </p>

<p>Personal example.</p>

<p>I had the best of both worlds. A 3 yr. RN diploma, <sadly, 3="" yr.="" nursing="" schools="" have="" mostly="" gone="" by="" the="" wayside=""> with >1,000 clinical/leadership hours at graduation, then immediately got into a BSN program and graduated in 18 months. The year we graduated from our diploma school, myself and many of my friends often ended up peer-mentoring the 4 year grads. It was shocking the skills they were lacking and procedures some had never seen or performed. Time spent in the clinical setting is crucial to nurse development.</sadly,></p>

<p>Best of luck to your daughter as she pursues her goals.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Time spent in the clinical setting is crucial to nurse development.

[/quote]
Especailly nowadays when nurse staffing is so awful! The new RN doesn't have the luxury of much on-the-job training.</p>

<p>^^^Oh yes, I was only out of nursing school about 6 months when I was often the only RN on my floor on 3rd shift for weekends. It was sink or swim.</p>

<p>None of the 4-year nursing schools are as selective as South Puget Sound Community College or several of the two-year commmunity colleges surrounding Boston. All are more selective than Harvard, and, in the case of the first, most of the rejects go to the four-year schools. However, it is essentially a three-year program - a year of pre-reqs are required before one is admitted to the program, and the only consideration in selection is the GPA in the pre-reqs. (Doesn't matter where you took the pre-reqs - A B+ from Yale is not worth as much as an A- from Podunk Community College in the prereq courses.) There are huge clinical requirements in these programs, well more, as far as I am aware, than in the four-year BSN programs.</p>

<p>LPNs in our area are only hired in clinics. However, there are no hospitals nor services that require a BSN (most seem to prefer years of experience on top of the RN.) And there is such a shortage of RNs that there is no way they could require a BSN even if the wanted to. However, school nurses and public health nurses are required to have a BSN.</p>

<p>What a BSN does offer, though, is a full college experience. So you might choose a four-year college based on that, rather than the hypothetical quality of the nursing program.</p>

<p>So sorry I was not clear. In my area, it is a common occurrence for girls to enroll at our local state university, flunk out due to partying, and then go thru the LPN route for 15 months. I would say half of the students in our LPN program are university flunk-outs. (One student was the daughter of a cardiac surgeon, and she was getting the LPN in order to work as a nurse thru college and then medical school.) Upon graduating from the difficult LPN program (there is a test daily in one subject or other), they then immediately return to college to get the BSN.
In this day and age, I would certainly urge any child of mine going into nursing to get the BSN and beyond. It's just that the LPN allows a student to work as a nurse occasionally, providing additional clinical experience, as they pursue the BSN.</p>