Nursing Acceptances-Why Choose Delaware (Updated)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Delaware
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<p>Congratulations to all of you accepted into the UD Nursing Program. I initially posted this thread last year but I thought it might be of some interest to students accepted to the Nursing Program at UD this year (and I updated it a little as well).</p>

<p>My D graduated from UD in 2010 with her BSN. We are OOS from NJ. If anyone has any questions regarding the Nursing Program at UD I would be happy to try and answer them. My D elected to attend UD after considering a number of other Nursing Programs (Villanova, Rutgers-NB, TCNJ, and Catholic U.). She opted for UD for a wide variety of reasons, not the least of which was the high quality of Nursing Education facilities available at UD. UD has a state-of–the-art nursing lab and even utilizes theater arts majors as mock patients. They now have a two year old Nurse Managed Health Center located on-site as well. She is now very happy that she made this decision as she feels the quality of the education she received at UD was excellent. At UD she also was involved with a sorority (yes it can be done even by nursing majors if you budget your time well) where she lived her sophomore year. Jr. and Sr. years she lived in an off-campus apartment right on Main Street near Panaras. She also was involved in several paid Nursing Externship positions at local hospitals where she gained a lot of experience to supplement her formal educational program at UD (the extra money was nice too).</p>

<p>How does the UD Nursing Program rate/compare to other high quality Nursing Programs? Judging by my D’s experiences I would say pretty well. Following graduation my D passed the NCLEX exam on her first try (over 90% of UD grads pass the first time) with the minimal number of questions (75) required. She then landed a highly competitive (nearly a thousand applicants for only about 10 positions) entry level RN position in NYC at New York Presbyterian/Cornell Medical Center on one of Cornell’s Neurological ICU units. Other RN’s hired along with her included a second UD grad and graduates from Penn, BC, NYU, UConn, UVA and TCNJ – not bad company to be selected with. A BSN degree from UD is apparently thought of very highly by at least one very prestigious (Ivy League) Academic Medical Center. My D is still there, is now preparing to take the Critical Care Registered Nurse certification exam, and this past January was accepted into the top Nursing Graduate Program in the country (for her MSN as Family Health Nurse Practitioner) at the University of Pennsylvania. Based upon all the above It is my perspective that a BSN Degree from UD can be a ticket to the beginning of a highly successful Nursing career.</p>

<p>I realize that all students accepted to the Nursing Program at UD have probably also been accepted to other high quality Nursing Programs. I am not trying to imply that UD’s Nursing Program is necessarily “better” than these other Nursing Programs. Rather my perspective is, if you apply yourself, that the educational experience that you can get in the Nursing Program at UD is on a par with any Nursing Program in the country. </p>

<p>Once again if anyone has any questions regarding the BSN Program at UD please feel free to ask on this thread or PM me and I will attempt to answer them to the best of my ability. Best wishes to all of you in your future Nursing careers.</p>

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<p>My son was wait listed for the UD Nursing Program. Since you appear to have extensive familiarity with this program, would you have any insight into the likelihood of his being admitted for the Fall 2012 program from the wait list ? I have read the published statistics but it is obviously not broken down by program. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Firstsonsmother: I believe you sent me 2 visitors messages about this earlier today. I did respond to them. Perhaps you did not get this response so I just sent it to you again in a PM. Please let me know if you received it. Best wishes to your son. Please feel free to ask any other questions you might have.</p>

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<p>Just some additional food for thought in deciding on a Nursing Program:</p>

<p>Over the last 5 years (at least) Nursing BSN curriculums have been evolving to be much more academic in nature as the Nursing Field itself has been evolving into a distinct Healthcare Discipline on its own, separate from its historical role as just providing clinical care based on following physician orders. BSN curriculums now place a much greater emphasis on critical thinking; clinical problem solving; differential diagnosis; research; and the development and evaluation of Nursing best practices and standards of care. The development and teaching of these skills requires some degree of didactic education prior to their clinical application. Many students applying to BSN Programs tend to compare programs based on how quickly students become involved in clinical settings and the total number of clinical hours in the program, assuming that the programs that provide early clinical involvement and/or a large number of clinical hours are therefore better as a result of this. This might not be necessarily the case, as students need time to be educated in these new skills in order to be able to fully integrate/apply them as part of their clinical training experiences. The best approach from an educational perspective would be a program that provides progressive involvement in clinical settings as these new skills are taught and learned by students. This approach can minimize the potential for students feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. “On the job” exposure to clinical settings without adequate preparatory training is a prescription for failure. The utilization of nursing simulation labs is an important component in this preparation. When trying to decide on which Nursing Program to attend I would recommend those that provide graduated involvement in clinical settings following appropriate preparatory didactic educational components.</p>

<p>The Nursing Curriculum at UD is a research based design which has been specifically formulated and implemented to effectively address (from an educational perspective) this ongoing evolution of the Nursing Discipline. I can therefore highly recommend it.</p>

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<p>Just bumping</p>

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<p>Regarding the nursing externships, were those done during the school year? And which hospitals? My friend and I are trying to look into an externship position for the upcoming school year, but we’re not sure exactly how to go about it.</p>

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<p>I will send you a PM in a day or two about this.</p>