Flo -
05/02/2019READ THIS BEFORE YOU APPLY TO THE LPN PROGRAM
I am making this post because I don’t want anyone else having to go into this
Without knowing exactly what this program and school are like.
1. If you are expecting to pay for someone to actually teach you, this is not the place for you. The teachers here literally do not want to teach, probably because they have no idea how to. Only one of the actually cared, and when she lectured, we actually learned and had class discussions about the topics at hand. The rest would either A) split up part of a chapter and have the class make posters all day and then present to the class, B)split up a chapter (med surg chapters, so think disorders, nursing interventions, and meds, pretty important stuff that I don’t believe students who have no prior knowledge or experience should be teaching other students in the same class, isn’t that why the instructors are there for?) There were unfortunately very few times that we got a lecture.
2. The head teacher is a bully, and she likes to play favorites. Lord help you if you get on her bad side. Singles out students, makes fun of them, talks about them to OTHER STUDENTS behind their backs. Certain rules apply to certain students but not others because she likes them. If you end up enrolling, do not trust her. She likes to power trip. A lot. If she doesn’t get her way, she will play dirty till she does, and all the other teachers, including people above her seem scared of her for some reason.
3. Grades are messed with. If you do or say anything that upsets a certain someone, grades mysteriously suffer, and this isn’t just coming from student experience. People in the office warned us about her and the grades.
4. They are just as bad at teaching skills as they are lecturing. Complete disorganization. No demonstrations. We were told to read the book and figure it out. If we asked them a question, they would yell at us to look in the book. It was all in the book. The book was our teacher. Some students asked if they could please demonstrate for the class first and then have us practice, they would say no. “That’s not the way it works in the real world” or “no one is going to show you how to do this in the hospital, if you don’t know, you have to go and figure it out”. Yeeeaaa... pretty sure patients and their families don’t want you to “figure it out” at the hospital, but ok.
5. Speaking of skills, let’s talk about clinicals. So, you learned all these skills in class, and clinical is the time to get your hands dirty and reinforce the skills you learned, right? Nope! Can’t give shots, can’t pass med, can’t take vitals, can’t do anything, except practice CNA skills. We saw other nursing students from other schools get assigned to a nurse and do everything with the RN, but not us. We were not allowed to.
6. Although the school promotes itself as a “college”, expect to be treated like a middle schooler. While I do understand that there are dual enrollment students at the school (high schoolers), that is no reason to treat grown adult student like children. You will be talked down to. A LOT. Literally no respect whatsoever. Sometimes you even forget that you are an adult in this place. Valencia and Seminole also have dual enrollment, and everyone is treated in a professional manner, regardless of your age, so that is no excuse.
7. Let’s talk pharmacology. Very important in nursing. We never ever ever EVER had a single pharmacology lecture. AT ALL! Never! All we got were packets. That’s it. So that pharm class on your class schedule, forget about it. Doesn’t exist. The meds we did learn, we learned in the med surg chapters. That was the extent of our exposure to pharm.
I wanted to write this so other people know exactly what they are getting into, because I wish I had known, so I could have made an informed decision (run!!!) There was so very little information available, and had I known about the toxic environment that I would be getting myself into, I would have never ever gone to this “college”.