Wilkes ABSN Program Online Information Session

Transcript:

Erin Hueter:

Welcome everyone. We're so glad you chose to join us today for the Wilkes University Online A BSN program information session. Just a few housekeeping items before we get started.

This session is being recorded. All attendees are muted so you can hear us but we can't hear you. If you have questions, please type them in the Q and A box at the bottom of your screen we'll make sure to answer all of your questions in our Q.

And a portion of today's presentation. Let's go over our agenda. First we'll meet the Wilkes team members that will lead our session today.

Next we'll give an overview of Wilkes University in the past and school of nursing. We'll get into the specifics of the Wilkes accelerated Bachelor's of Science and Nursing degree reviewing courses, Clinic Als, campus residency, student services and support resources and missions information and deadlines.

We'll wrap up the session with a live Q and A will be sure to answer any questions you may have. I'm excited to introduce your Wilkes ABSN admissions team.

We have two of our senior program specialist with you today first is Angela from one of our senior program specialist for the online ABSN program here at Wilkes University.

She comes from almost 20 years of higher education, leadership and recruiting and has her masters degree in industrial and organizational psychology. We also have Genevieve Berger, a senior program specialist for the ABSN program here at Wilkes.

She has been working in higher education since 2009 and has her bachelor's degree in communication from Purdue University. First we're gonna hear from Angela, who will talk more about Wilkes University, the Passan school of Nursing and provide an overview of our online accelerated A BSN program.

Angela Frobes:

Thank you so much erin. Hi everyone, my name is Angela Frobes, I'm so excited to introduce you all to Wilkes University and the person school of nursing before we get into the details about our online ABSN program, which I know you're all here to hear about.

We do think it's very important that who we are and what we stand for and how we hope to impact you people and our communities through education and through nursing. A little bit of information about Wilkes University.

So we have been around since 1933, we are regionally accredited private university located here in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania. Our focus here has been preparing students for lifelong success.

We have national rankings that recognize our commitment to access and making a wilkes education as affordable as possible. while also at the same time highlighting our ongoing return on investment for graduates.

Our mission here at Wilkes is to continue the tradition of liberally educating our students for lifelong learning and success and a constantly evolving and multicultural world.

This is down through a commitment to individualized attention, exceptional teaching scholarship and academic excellence. While continuing the university's commitment to community engagement, we have a very specific vision I'm excited to share with you well to university.

Our vision is to provide exceptional education experiences that transform students and develop innovations through scholarly activities that lead to national recognition and also shape the world around us.

We have several values that include mentorship, scholarship, diversity, innovation, and community. The Passan school of nursing, which is where our ABSN program is housed, has more than 40 years of history educating nurses.

We offer an extensive array of undergraduate and graduate concentrations within the Passan school, whether you are beginning your career looking to change your career, which several of you are or just desire an advanced degree.

The Passan School of nursing is a place for you. Our school has a strong commitment to the professional practice of nursing faculty and staff are dedicated and resourceful, providing you with personalized attention and the mission of the Passan school of nursing is to promote inter professional practitioners of nursing quality health care and a constantly involving multicultural world.

We focus on engaging in lifelong learning and expanding nurse science through scholarship, technology, academic excellence, all while engaging again in that community service.

The vision of the Passan school of nursing is to be a recognized nursing education leader who prepares professionals and nurses for advancing nurse practice and scholarship with meaningful contributions to clinical prevention, population health and health care policy and development.

So let's, let's get to why you all are here, let's start talking about this A BSN program, This accelerated Bachelor's of Science in nursing program, I would first like to give you this kind of a brief overview.

Our Wilkes University online, A BSN program admits students who already hold a bachelor's degree in the discipline other than nursing and have no previous nursing education.

So upon successful completion of this program, you are awarded a bachelor's degree with a major in nursing, otherwise known as a BSN. Completion of the requirements for this program prepares a beginning self directed practitioner who is capable of initiating implementing and revising nursing care.

The curriculum is designed for the adult learner and it builds upon earlier educational experience in the humanities, social studies and sciences that you probably completed within your undergrad and it is based on the development of the individual and the family within a community.

The curriculum flows from both the universities and the schools philosophies and addresses the nursing needs of the community and the nation. Our ABSN program here provides opportunities for individuals with changing career aspirations.

It is designed to prepare the learner for a variety of roles in professional practice Following a completion of the prerequisite courses, which we'll talk about here shortly. The program can be completed in three full time semesters, A total of 12 months.

Graduates of our ABSN program are educationally eligible to take that National council licensure examination for registered nurses. Otherwise easily, much more said as the NCLEX RN exam, which must be successfully completed for registration as a professional nurse.

So before we go over the courses within our A BSN program, it is important to note that you will be completing your courses while you are performing your clinical rotation.

So you're gonna be doing those at the same time. the design and what's neat about and what's unique about the design of the program here at Wilkes is that it's very much applied, meaning you are taking what you're learning in your courses and applying that to your clinical experience immediately throughout your program.

So there are a total of seven courses that come out to be 48 credit hours. You will be taking 2-3 courses at a time. Again, there's three semesters Your courses will be 100% online.

It is important to note at times you will have required logins for course requirements. So I don't want that to be a surprise for you. There are required days and times for your exams and tests.

So flexibility in your schedule will be needed. Okay. Your classes will be taught by our dedicated faculty who are focused on mentoring kind of like a mentoring approach to their teaching philosophies.

Our classes are very small. we're looking at about under 20 students in a cohort on average about 14-16 honestly. and it's designed this way so that each of you can receive that quality support from your faculty if that's needed, that they're not being spread too thin.

And per my previous slides that I was talking about community came up a couple of times. Right? So the idea of community is just as important in the classroom to making sure that there's space for you to build friendships and relationships with your classmates and these smaller class sizes allow you to do that.

it is also very important to note and being completely honest and transparent that there the time that you want to set aside for these classes is going to be about 30-35 hours a week that encompasses everything.

Okay? It is highly advised that you're not working during this program because of the rigor of the program. Again, the 30-35 hours a week is only your classes.

Okay, now let's give you a quick overview of the seven courses that you're gonna be completing within your ABSN. First is nursing practice one. This is an online course that actually introduces you to the profession of nursing.

So you're gonna focus on nursing fundamentals and medical surgery during this course. Nursing practice two is building on that foundation of nursing. So in this course you're gonna learn about how the nursing process is used to assist your patients the individuals and families and communities to get to the optimal health right?

We're gonna be diving into resolving medical, surgical and mental health problems in that nursing practice to course. Okay then obviously nursing practice three.

This course prepares you for a professional role development in different emerging health care delivery systems. Think of this as like your leadership and community health course.

Okay you will have a physical assessment course and this course is designed to facilitate the integration of physical assessment skills that you'll be performing on patients.

This is seen as an essential element of the nursing process for obvious reasons to assess patients. To figure out what's what's wrong and what's going on and how you can best help them. The components of physical assessment will be taught.

This will include health history. This will include physical examinations, we're gonna teach you how to organize you to proceed from an assessment to the overall function of the patient And the functions of each body system as well.

So this is how do you determine what the problem is with that patient? What do they need? How do you do that accurately? That's physical assessment. Okay. Next is nursing informatics.

This course provides information about technology. I'm sure all of you have gone into your primary care doctor's office or even a hospital and technology galore, right?

Ipads, computers, all different types of technology that's helping that nurse that doctor manage information communicate more effectively, look at your history.

Right? We're gonna bring that into this course. So we're gonna teach you how to use technology to communicate to manage information to support decision making to facilitate that achievement in giving your patient the best care and the best healthcare outcome.

Okay. This course is going to integrate information related to the areas of nursing science, information management science and computer science.

Technology is a huge part of health care. This will be a very very helpful course in that regard. And last but not least is intro to nursing research. This is a research of course. Obviously that's gonna really focus on the fact that research process is needs is and needs to be examined right?

The emphasis is placed on studies in nursing that provide a foundation for critical reflection on research reports and applications of finding to practice. So met the medical field is going to continuously evolve and change you have to learn how to find the right resources to help your patients to stay on top of the industry to stay on top of best practices in care for patients as well.

So this course is gonna help you do that and teach you how to research effectively. Okay, next is your clinicals.

So this is I would say this is the fun part to write your clinical. So clinical There are six clinicals throughout your ABSN program, you'll be completing two clinical rotations per semester.

As far as time management for your clinicals, you do want to expect to set aside about 15 to 20 hours a week. 1-3 times a week.

I think it's important to note that your shift can start as early as seven o'clock in the morning and you may have a shift that lasts as long as eight o'clock in the evening. Right? We do not do a third shift.

We don't do nights, you just don't get enough exposure during that time. It was also important to note that weekends are absolutely possible with your clinical rotations. It depends on your preceptors hours or your clinical faculty member and their availability to support you in your clinical rotations.

Okay? Throughout your ABSN program you will be completing a total of 755 clinical hours. There are two ways for you to be placed for your clinicals: One is your clinical placement team here at Wilkes.

So you will have an assigned clinical placement team. Their job is to get you as close to home as possible for your clinicals and your clinical placements, the average is about 40 miles from home.

There are rare cases where students can be placed up to 120 miles from home due to a variety of factors. This could be availability of your preceptors, location, when you completed your clinical clearances, (which I'll go over here in just a moment) the date of when you enrolled in the program.

So keep in mind these hospital locations do fill up very quickly. We're not the only school that has nurses looking for clinical rotations. So timing is important, having urgency throughout this process is important.

So again your clinical placement team is one way that you can get placed okay here at Wilkes. Another is if you have connections within the healthcare community if you have a location or a nurse, we absolutely encourage you to reach out to those people in your life, not family but nurses that are friends, colleagues, professional, network part of your professional network but reach out to them.

They could serve as your preceptor make sure they're okay with doing that. But if you get the okay, what you would do is you would just give their information to your clinical placement team here at Wilkes and they will follow up with them and make sure that they've met and meet all the requirements to be your preceptor.

Okay so we can place you or you can refer and place yourself. Okay I had mentioned clinical clearances. So for those who aren't familiar with clinical clearances it is a process that is required for you to work within a health care system.

It will be something that you will be required to keep up on your entire nursing career. We're gonna start here with this program though first. So you do have to have clinical clearance so that we can clinically place you this includes things like a background check, fingerprints, vaccination, immunizations, hipAA and OSHA E.

Learning training. There's Several different clearances that you have to go through. This process. Can take 4-6 weeks to complete. If you start fresh with nothing. in place already we do use a service called Castle branch which we would help in service and and give you the information post acceptance into the program.

This isn't something that you need to do ahead of time. So again we can go more into that with you. when we have a conversation over the phone and when I say we I mean me and me and Genevieve my colleague.

Okay so that's clinical that's clinical clearances. Again keep typing up any questions down in the Q. And a box. I was down in the down in your question box and we'll talk about that when we get to the Q.

And a section of our presentation here today. Okay. Okay. So lastly before I turn this over to Genevieve I wanted to talk to you about the campus residencies.

Okay so here where will you have to campus residencies that you're going to be completing? The first campus residency is in week six and seven of your first semester.

Okay. You'll be coming here to campus here in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. This is a full scheduled residency monday through friday and even they request you don't plan anything over the weekend.

It starts at eight a.m. In the morning. You're going until sometimes six PM in the evening. Okay. This is an opportunity for you to get hands on exposure.

We want to make sure that you're aware that during the six and seven week campus residency you're gonna be working with the clinical simulation center. This center will help you build on knowledge that you gain while you were in your classroom or while you're in your classroom.

We talk about and we have you utilize excuse me, high and low fidelity mannequins that talk and move and simulate assimilate to be real patients and having real patient interactions.

You'll also be working with your classmates and faculty during this time skills that you're going to learn to develop during this two week residency will include how to transfer patients, right?

How to conduct patient assessments, Okay provide medication, how to do proper dressings, how to administer IVS. Draw blood. You'll also complete several simulation situations that will help you prepare for very high stakes situations that you're gonna encounter nursing.

Okay. This two week residency is very interactive. We have group and hands on personalized instruction from your faculty that will occur throughout your time here during your residency.

Okay. It is important to note that we do not have campus housing for our online campus students. We do have a group discount program with the Hilton near campus here.

and have found that many of our students actually by this time in their first semester. By week six and 7 you all have kind of congregated together. Built started building that community that I was talking about previously.

And we've seen students get Airbnb s together verbose together. Split the cost of housing and food during that two week residency period and really come together and support each other. So that's certainly something that you can take advantage of.

But this is an out of pocket cost you want to consider. Okay and the travel and things like that. Okay this is all in place. This residency is all in place to prepare you before you start your clinical rotation in the hospital setting which starts in week eight.

Again. This is in week six and seven of your first semester. Okay then you have your second campus residency. You will come back to Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre pennsylvania.

Okay during this week you're gonna be completing your final skills review. We're gonna make sure that you have all of the competencies you need to sit for your exam, support you in areas that are needed and this is also where you will participate in your nursing pinning ceremony.

Okay graduation the good stuff. Okay so hopefully that gave you some insight into our courses into our clinic als and into our campus residency. Next I'm gonna go ahead and turn this over to Gen who will bring some transparency around what type of support you're going to be receiving here at Wilkes while you're with us as well as the application requirements and the admissions file steps and timelines and deadlines.

Okay after that we'll do the the Q and A session. So Gen over to you, my friend.

Genevieve Berger:

Thank you so much angie. I'd like to share with you some of the support that you have while you're in the accelerated nursing program here at Wilkes University. Starting with the application process you'll have your admission advisor to help guide you through all the requirements and all the required documents for the program if and hopefully when you are accepted, your advisor will stick with you all the way until your class starts and this is really to help you with all the clinical clearance details assist you with tracking your prereqs progress and preparing you for your program.

Prior to classes starting you have a zoom meeting with a member of your clinical placement team to help provide you with details and policies of your rotations. And while in the program you'll have the clinical placement team and the student services team to help you as well.

As the university we have a lot of support for you. For technical support we have an online library tutoring services and career services. Should you need it yeah to be eligible to apply to the accelerated nursing program.

Here at Wilkes students must have a prior Bachelor's degree completed from a regionally accredited institution with a G. P. A. of 3.0 or higher.

No other courses or grades would be considered. We also have a six prereqs requirement that I'm going to get into on the next slide.

I'd like to go through the prerequisites required to apply to the accelerated nursing program at Wilkes University. We have sex pre reqs Anatomy and physiology one and two with lab microbiology with the lab Chemistry with the lab, nutrition and statistics.

The first four must be four credits with the lab. The last two nutrition and statistics. Those are okay with three credits for all these six pre reqs students must have a C.

Plus or higher in all the courses except for statistics and a C. Would be accepted. So that grade must be C or higher. A couple things to note if you have anything below a C+, you only have one time to take a retake.

Okay so you have one retake and still be eligible to apply but more than that and the student is no longer eligible to apply. A few other things that the reviewers would look at will be any science credits, any nursing school credits nursing courses.

If you started a nursing program or maybe we just took a couple classes to see how you would do. Those are all looked at as well. Once you have three of the six pre reqs completed in your application process your file can then be reviewed.

If they're reviewing for that particular session, let's go through the application steps for the accelerated nursing program.

So what you'll do you'll go online and you'll submit your online application. The online application is going to ask you for pertinent information about how to contact you, your prior education G.

P. A. Etcetera will also provide a spot to list your two individuals to write your letters of recommendation. You'll put their name and their email into the online application.

They will then receive an email from Wilkes with instructions on how to turn it back into us for your recommended hours. You'll want to have professional or academic individuals, no personal, no family, no friends.

Then you can submit your online application. The other two pieces of the documentation will be sent directly to the admission office, that is your goal statement.

And then official transcripts transcripts must be officials. They must come directly from the institution to Wilkes University.

Next lessons talk through the important dates coming up for the fall session that begins August 29. the application deadline is July 15 and that means you would have had to have just your online application submitted at that point.

The file complete deadline is July 22 And that means that all your documents have to be in by July 22. Should you be accepted to the program, you would have to have all your clinical clearances completed by July 29th and all of your pre reqs completed by july 29th.

Prereqs completed means they're done. And the official transcript has been received from that institution directly to us here at Wilkes by July 29 And then classes start Monday, 29.

Some next steps here reach out to us, let us know what questions you have our admissions team myself and Andy we are here to help you. Here's our phone number, our email, our website through the website.

You can schedule an appointment to speak with one of us. You can find the calendar link towards the bottom of the main page and I'm also gonna put the link up in this chat and I have a link here on this slide so you can fill out your online application but we are here to help you, there's a lot of detail, there's a lot to the accelerated programs.

So chat with us, talk with us. Let us know what we can do to help answer your questions.

Erin Hueter:

Oh all right, thank you ladies. That was a lot of good information. I want to say thank you again to those of you that made time to join us today. We know we covered a lot.

So you will get an email with recording of this webinar so you'll be able to go back and watch it and catch any information that you may have missed or go back and review any information that you we should spend a little more time on right now we're gonna go ahead and have a live Q and A.

So we've got Angie and Gen here ready to answer all of your questions. I know we've had a few questions that were coming in via the chats and the Q and A box. So I think those have all been answered.

If you guys have any other questions though, please feel free or if you need any more information, feel free to let us know. Can

Angela Frobes:

I, can I interject really quickly, Erin, because the questions that were answered with the word like specific, to specific people but I do think that there that that they're good questions to share the answer to even though they were specific situations.

So one of the questions that came through was just if if you place yourself versus utilizing our clinical placement team do you have to choose a different unit each time?

And yes, there's different clinical rotations that have very specific requirements and competencies that we're preparing you for, right? So they do have to be very specific and they have to get approved by your placement team.

And then another question was one of, one of the attendees here is gonna be graduating in December. So there was a question around being able to apply now for a future term and you absolutely can.

Just a reminder it is required that you speak. We're gonna force you to speak with an R. I. So one week and make sure you qualify to to make sure that we can really connect with you and to make sure you feel supported and to create transparency.

The program is designed for people who don't have a health care nursing background so we wanna make sure to get into kind of like all the nooks and crannies of this, a BSN program so what you're getting into and you're comfortable and it's gonna be okay.

So a verbal conversation is very important and then Gen and I walk you through and support you through the rest of the process too. So yes, you can certainly apply for future terms but having a conversation with general is a required part of the process.

Okay?

Erin Hueter:

Thank you. That's great. That's excellent. Good information that everyone needs to learn. We're definitely getting some more questions now they're question just came in asking about the cost of the program.

Can one of you ladies confirm that for us?

Genevieve Berger:

Sure. Yeah, I am happy to help with that one. Tuition currently for the one year is about 62,000 for tuition.

Now I always say with a nurse with nursing school right when you're, when you're thinking about going to nursing school, there's a lot of things that come into play in regards to time effort cost on your end that has to be completed.

One might be pre reqs. Second is those clinical clearances, those, those little things, they, they all add up your scrubs, your stethoscope, so maybe 1000 $1200 to kind of a lot for prior to tuition even coming into play books 300-500 a semester.

There's only three semesters so that's a little bit of the detail there.

Erin Hueter:

Thank you, appreciate it. I had another question come through explain the prereqs again because Wilkes does have six pre reqs, this is actually a lot lower than what you'll find for other a BSN programs if you're looking across at other online schools, but something to note there, explain again, the timing of the prereqs and how that works because I know there's a little bit of, it's not, you have to have all six ready to go.

Genevieve Berger:

I can go on that with that one because that was my, my slide here. And sorry, if you can hear that, it's the first Tuesday of the month and the tornado sirens going off here.

I don't know if you guys can hear that of course of all the, all the timing, but anyway, yeah, so the the prereqs, so a couple a couple of things, we do only have six, we don't have a time expiry on our pre reqs.

So if you took it 10 years ago, an undergrad or some some other, however you took it, as long as it was originally credited school, it fits the bill right? It's the four credits for the labs, you've got the grades, things like that.

Those, may fit the bill right? Those should fit the bill. We do want to make sure that, the information, right? This is a very rigorous, quick rapid program where you're going to want those, those, that, that group of skills, those tools right, that you've learned in those pre reqs, so make sure that you're kind of up to snuff with those things, if you're, feeling good. Great.

And then we do, another student had a potential - student had a question about portage learning. We do accept portage learning courses for pre reqs. Absolutely.

We also accept straighter line if anyone is looking into that. So I hope that's answering kind of all the pre right questions. Was there anything else in detail?

I didn't see that question.

Angela Frobes:

Yeah. And they're asking too, Gen while you're on it, the GPA requirements. So for science, nursing and and pre req courses but just so there's different things that they're looking at for pre reqs and, and courses that you've already taken.

So there's a question about that.

Genevieve Berger:

Sure. Yeah. So, the grades have to be C+ or higher. In all the prereqs except for statistics and stats can be just a C grade. Again they just have to fit the, make sure the credits are there and things like that. And what was the second part, Angie? Sorry.

Angela Frobes:

I didn't know, so so the question was what is the GPA requirement for the pre reqs and then she says I know most schools one of 3.0. GPA.

That my understand is 3.0 GPA. Is for the cumulative GPA of your undergrad and then separately your pre reqs are based off what Gen just had mentioned…

Genevieve Berger:

Correct. Yeah correct. So it's two separate requirements for the program, Your undergrad GPA has to be at least a 3.0. And then the pre reqs have this C+ or higher requirements. So there are two separate requirements for the program. If you, if you don't meet one of them, you are not eligible to apply. I would say with nursing it's very black and white.

There are no hey this was happening or any exception. It's either you meet it or you do not. Mhm.

Angela Frobes:

And Erin, I I just saw, I had a great question about the acceptance rate so I just want I want to explain that to people. So what Gen and I do is different than traditional colleges.

Right? So traditionally speaking you apply for a program and you sit and wait, we're taking much more like a concierge approach to supporting you. Not only because there's tons of stuff to do once you apply to the program and get ready for the nursing program.

But also just to make sure that you feel supported in this virtual environment right? The acceptance rate for our a BSN program I would say is above 95%.

But the reason being is because you have to speak with us first we have to make sure to have a conversation with you that determines what are your grades. What prereqs have you taken? We walk you through ordering your transcripts.

So that we can do a pre req valuation so that once your file goes up for review for acceptance, you are more likely than not going to be accepted. If not we're gonna tell you ahead of time so that you're not wasting your time.

And there's there's stages of being able to do that. So it's actually very high for how we do the process of the admissions which is much different again than a traditional admissions process that most of you are probably used to.

So hopefully that explained that explained that question.

Erin Hueter:

I think that, yeah, I think that was great. One I want to get to really fast that jumped in. If someone is asking if you have to be a resident of Pennsylvania, you do not when there are I believe is at five states that were 44 states and I'll let you ladies confirm those.

So I don't mess them up.

Angela Frobes:

You wanna do it, Gen?

Genevieve Berger:

Sure. We have Pennsylvania, Vermont, Indiana and Kansas currently on our approved list for students to live in for the program state authorization.

Angela Frobes:

Yeah state authorization, we get that question a lot. As you're doing research, make sure you're the schools are doing research on have that state authorization for the state that you plan on living in. And we have surprisingly enough, have had some students move to pennsylvania to do this program because of how quick it is.

And so and and they'll have family here and things like that too. But I actually just had somebody who's gonna be starting in fall, who moved from Arizona and she packed up and took her three dogs across the country and is ready to start and fall.

So I'm excited for. I it's always surprising when students do that, but I also understand what this being as quick as it is that it that's a really attractive part of the program too. So -

Erin Hueter:

That's great. That's great. Really quick since we just recently covered the pre reqs, I did have a question come in one last question on those, Gen, asking about seeing something about being able to complete your prereqs in a short amount of time, possibly in as little as three weeks.

Can you give some information on that or what those typically look like?

Genevieve Berger:

Yeah, so it really depends on how much time you have and how many you need portage is. Probably portage or straighter lines are probably one of the fastest options. Those are their online courses, which we didn't used to accept prior to Covid and now we do.

But the great thing about those is you can kind of start when you are ready to start. So you go in, you register, you pay and then you can start the class I think in about 24 or 48 hours where if you go to a community college, you may have to wait for that next semester.

Sometimes the seats are filled, it takes a little bit longer. So those are typically your fastest options, I believe. some of the courses can be completed in about three weeks. If you need a number of them, if you're not working you might be able to get a number of them done in a very short time.

But it kind of depends on your situation to write what you've got going on in her life and how much time you have to dedicate to those pre reqs.

Erin Hueter:

Thank you. That's great.

Genevieve Berger:

Yeah,

Erin Hueter:

I have another question regarding clinical placement asking about really what's the likelihood that they're going to get placed in an in an area that they prefer in an area that they live.

I think the best way for you all to answer this is to really go into again how being aggressive with getting the application and everything start that placement process, how that's going to fall into that because we definitely have areas like you said, where placement is tight just because it's large populations, large communities, lots of hospitals, lots of nursing students, so go into the importance of that timing.

Angela Frobes:

Yeah, there's a misconception if you live in a big city, there's a lot of options. but it's it's almost it's almost sometimes the opposite of that because everybody's competing to get those places in the hospitals.

Again, we're not the only nursing program. Right? So clinical placement is based on how quickly did you finish your admissions file, which is really that admissions file that Gen and I work with you on is designed to be completed in two weeks or less.

It's a very straightforward process. The other portion is once you've been accepted, getting your clinical clearances done and being adamant on holding yourself accountable to getting those steps completed that we in your placement team, walking through getting your paperwork done.

So the sooner you get through the steps and your pre reqs, the sooner you're gonna be able to qualify to be placed and then there's more opportunities, the closer you get to start, you're always starting to kind of wind down a little bit on options.

So and and I have had honestly, I have had students who have put in a request to placement and just said, hey, I'd really like to be considered for this location. The placement team here at Wilkes is fantastic.

To date they've placed 100% of our students that have started in their first semester, so we haven't had any issues with that. But it also has to do with Gen and I are creating a lot of urgencies, you have to be ready to be on be on the ball.

Hopefully that answers your question, it's dependent, yeah, okay. It's dependent upon how quickly you do things.

Erin Hueter:

Right. Right. Absolutely. No, thank you. That's, that's what I want to stress timing, timing really does matter. The sooner the sooner the better. Just less stress on you, you don't have to worry.

And same thing for our team, they can start working right away to get you placed in a, preferably as close to your locations and keep the travel minimal if they can. That's their goal for sure. I did get one more question again on the pre reqs.

So one more time for us ladies: six total. How many do you have to have completed when you want to apply?

Angela Frobes:

Oh zero. Sorry, Gen, go ahead. You don't have to have any completed. Right. So that's actually, I really try to encourage students, like if you, if you need all six, still apply, get your admissions file done right?

All the paperwork, the transcripts, letters of recommendation and have Gen and I support you and holding yourself accountable will follow up every two weeks. How are your prereqs doing, what is your goal by our next follow up time?

Because with, with how like portage learning and straighter line have the prerequisites set up is it's very self paced, which is a blessing and a curse from an adult perspective where we can be pulled into like a million different directions.

The also the great thing about porter's learning and straighter line, they have the online courses and the online labs and it's self paced. So you're learning about how to hold yourself accountable to time management, which you need to have with this type of program.

You can really start flexing that 30 to 35 hours a week of time commitment. You need for classes in getting your prereqs done and then Gen and I can really support you in keeping yourself accountable, having a plan of attack, making sure you're getting done which you say you're going to get done with love, not judgment but with love.

And so we always encourage if that you're wanting to apply to the program, whether it's the current active term or future term when you apply, you're only gonna see the current active term, but that does not mean that you can't apply for future terms.

You just have a conversation with us and we would adjust things in the system. but if this is something after a conversation with Gen and I that you want to pursue, you want to apply as soon as possible. It's very competitive.

We have caps and wait lists potentially for this program to depending on the term. So again, I guess to answer your question directly. Yes, you can apply with zero. That was my nesting answer.

Sorry.

Erin Hueter:

No, that's good, the more information the better for sure.

Something we didn't mention necessarily in the presentation. But I think it's really important to mention is once you are a Wilkes graduate and alumni, if you decide to pursue pursue additional degrees with Wilkes University and even further your nursing career, we have an alumni discount.

Would you ladies like to talk about that?

Genevieve Berger:

Sure, I can do that. Yeah. So should you graduate with your ABSN, this program from Wilkes and you decide I want to go on to the MSN to be a nurse practitioner, we do offer a 20% tuition scholarship discount for Wilkes alum.

And those programs, while this program is right, more intensive, 50, 60 hours a week between classes and clinical, the master's programs, they are, they are a little bit more flexible so you can work through those, that that's the intention is to actually work part time through them.

You do have to have so much experience as a registered nurse to be able to apply to the MSN, but it's only about six months or so.

Erin Hueter:

Great, thank you. Thank you. let's see here, one more question again on the timing for applying. So we have a young lady here that is in, she's a senior in college, she's going to probably complete that last pre reqs sometime this fall.

So when would be good for her to apply? Does she have to have that bachelors already or can she go ahead and get that, what's the best thing?

Angela Frobes:

So when you, when you haven't, when you haven't completed a bachelor's degree yet, what you can do if you're in your last semester is get what's called a graduation verification letter from your registrar's office, it's called, we called a GVL.

So you can call your registrar and get a graduation verification letter. Gen and I can actually give you and send you some information on what that GVL needs to state. But basically what it's saying is, Alyssa, you've met all the requirements to to receive your bachelors degree upon completion in december, right.

With that GVL and your official transcripts, you can still go up for review as long as you have the three prerequisites completed. So a lot of students when they're finishing out last one or two semesters of the bachelor's degree, they'll start incorporating some of the pre reqs in their bachelor's degree.

Also some of my students and their last semester are having a very light load so they'll actually do the portage learning or straighter line while they're finishing up their bachelor's degree because the prereq courses don't require a completed bachelor's degree to get started on.

So it's kind of how, it's dependent upon how you want to approach that but you absolutely, you can certainly apply and then we can walk you through and again coach you through and support you through that process. So certainly you can. Again, first requirement is to have a conversation with Gen and I.

Erin Hueter:

Excellent. Thank you. Let's see here what other questions do I have coming in from the chat, make sure I've got everybody.

Thank you all for sending these questions. These are great questions. We really enjoy answering these live as well. So again go over the application deadlines just for anybody that may have missed those and those will, I'm also going to send out I think I mentioned this but just so everyone knows again and you're not panicked about missing any information.

We're gonna send an email out with the recording. I will also drop in the email, the dates for you. So again you have those, those dates coming up which general go through right now and that way you'll have all this information fresh in your inbox using the email that you registered with.

Angela Frobes:

And the deadline date section is gonna give you specifically for fall, if you don't qualify for fall due to lack of bachelor's degree or whatever the case is, then these states don't necessarily apply directly to you.

Genevieve Berger:

Yep. So july 15th, that's really the date that you want to aim for to have everything and buy and and really, I mean you have to have your clinical clearances and pre reqs done by July 29th. So even while July 15th is the last date, that that would not be enough time to get your critical clearances done.

If you didn't have any, you would have to start them beforehand. So the whole idea apply early, see if you get accepted and then we will guide you through all the next steps. So, while those are the deadlines I say apply now if you think you, think you have a shot for fall, go for it, let's see if we can get this going to make it happen for you. The sooner, the sooner you can get everything together and it takes a while to get everything together takes a couple of weeks for your application and then the critical clearances those can take 4-6 weeks as well.

Angela Frobes:

And then Erin I, I was gonna answer the question I think, and I think Gen can, can have some additional information to because she's had a couple of guys in her students.

What I always want to say is when you're working with tuition reimbursement you always want to follow up with your HR department before you lean on us for anything because they're gonna have the most accurate and up to date information on what benefits you have as an employee of Geisinger.

Maybe it's departmental whatever the case is and then I'm gonna pass it over to you just based on your, I don't know I don't mean to put you on the spot. I don't know if you have any additional info.

Genevieve Berger:

Yeah I know there are some hospitals now that are offering help with tuition, especially if you commit to staying on after each position. Tenure, right, those factors are all taken into consideration that Geisinger or wherever whatever hospital you might be working at but definitely reach out to them to see if you are, eligible for that and then if so let us know and we can figure everything out with you, but it's certainly up to the employer.

Erin Hueter:

Good question. We also had some kind of leaning into the financial stuff here when we're talking about financial aid. what are the most, what what options people had, what do you guys recommend? is it filling out all that good stuff.

Angela Frobes:

Can I just, and so there's a couple of ways to answer this too and then Gen can add more probably too. So you can absolutely apply for FAFSA. Because it's a second bachelor's degree, the Pell grant no longer applies, but you can still apply for student loans through FAFSA, which oftentimes can have a better interest rate than a private loan or even private student loans.

However, I always tell students, be very careful with applying for student loans too early because at some point they expire and you have to reapply and every time you apply for a private student loan, it dings your credit, right.

It's just applying for any, any other type of loan. So what we tend to do is really help students hone in and focus on hyper focus on what's right in front of you versus the long term because we don't want that to negatively impact your credit, which may impact your eligibility.

Primarily most of my students, and then I don't know if this is the same for you, but I did not and most of my students for summer utilize discover or Sallie Mae for their student loan provider. That was the main, I don't know if anybody else, if yours was the same, Gen?

Genevieve Berger:

Yes, yep. Those are probably the two most common. FAFSA, right? The government does not give you, me or anybody 62 grand in a year. It's just not how it rolls right.

It's not how it goes. So depending on how close you are to reaching that lifetime aggregate limit with FAFSA, if you've used it for undergrad or other coursework, you may get $0 from FAFSA per semester, you may get a small amount. It would not be enough to cover, typically, it is not enough to cover the whole, the whole amount. So students often will say, hey, I'm gonna do a little bit from FAFSA, a little bit from a private loan or they just say no, I'm just going to use a private loan. That way I have one vendor, one payment, etc.

Tt's really an individual decision kind of comparing rates and seeing what is best for you in your situation. FAFSA is – you, you complete it, you'll get that award letter the private loans that are more credit based and that's what Angiewas saying right when she was saying, don't go applying for a whole bunch or we encourage you to not apply for a whole bunch is we just don't want it to impact your credit until it's actually time.

Oftentimes if you get a rate from discoverer Sallie Mae those rates are good for usually 30-60 days. So if you, if you reach out to them and start those conversations, ask those questions again.

If you are going to have a conversation with them, talk to us. Let us help guide you through, some of the important things that you want to find out from the four for your conversation with that loan vendor.

Erin Hueter:

Awesome. Thank you. I did have one question come in. What we're talking about the schedule for the program, obviously it's, it's about what we say about 10 or 11 months worth of course work.

How is that broken up though? Are there breaks in between? Do they get a little bit of time off? What does that look like?

Angela Frobes:

So if you start in the fall, you have a three week holiday break and as of this year, please note everything changes, like literally everything will change, like things change here. And that is that is the one constant: things change. And that applies to Wilkes.

But there's a, there's a three week or 2.5 week two, let's just say 2 to 3 week christmas break depending on the calendar. There is a 10 day Spring break as well if you start in the fall and then you go straight through summer.

If you start in a summer term, you get a, I believe you still get the holiday break and then you get spring break as well. So there are, there's, there's little breaks but it depends on when you start, so it's not straight through and you will receive an academic, an academic calendar so that you can plan ahead and plan little vacations and things.

But you are, you are, we really want to stress, you're living breathing, sleeping dreaming ABSN for less, it's less than 12 months but it's, it is, it is a full, it is a full time full time job.

Genevieve Berger:

And it's only three semesters. So you really only have the two rigs to think about. So keep that in mind as well. You always go through summer.

Erin Hueter:

Great, thank you. Thank you. That was a really good information. Let's hear. We are winding down as far as far as questions and time allotted. any last minute pieces of advice or information that you ladies think we should pass on that.

We might not have touched on today. I know we covered a lot.

Genevieve Berger:

We had some great questions. You guys are certainly, you all are thinking and that's that's what this is about. There is a lot to this program. These programs are competitive. The seats get filled programs get wait listed all the nursing program so keep that in mind, reach out to us with questions.

We really we are here to help you because of the great the vast amount of detail. Let us help you with your situation right? Everyone has a different unique situation with life and family and things like that.

So so connect with us and let us let us help you through the steps.

Angela Frobes:

And I was also gonna recommend if you have not already. So there are people here that haven't requested information when when you request information through our website. What it does is it sends kind of an alert to Gen and I that you requested information and that we need to connect with you and we'll send you a link to our calendar so you can schedule a time with us.

Actually it's connected to our outlook calendar literally so you can see all of our availability. So if you have a requested information through our online nursing programs dot wilkes dot e D U website.

I would highly recommend that so Gen and I can reach out to you and we can get you our calendar link.

Genevieve Berger:

Mhm.

Erin Hueter:

Absolutely, and again I'm going to include those calendar links in the post webinar email. That's good though. It's so if you don't want to wait for that, but we do encourage you to go to the website too if you haven't, if you're not familiar with it, if you haven't had a chance to look around, it's got a lot of great information and you can submit your information if you want to today immediately and get that over and get on the schedule with an agent and because they would but obviously they're ready to talk to you, they want to make sure and get all your questions answered.

We're really excited. This has been such a great program for Wilkes. We're adding and actually it used to be just two terms a year. They're adding a third term and or a third star. Excuse me.

So we've got more opportunity to join. But we are we are here and ready to answer any questions. You all have the last thing I would say. And forgive us for not putting any professional statistics in the actual deck.

But I'm sure most of this that nursing is one of the fields that is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years. So job growth and job job outlook are very favorable.

We obviously a lot of that was due to the pandemic. Such a, the industry healthcare industry was hit really hard, so they definitely are looking to bridge that gap and the the job job opportunity will be will be exponential.

So for those of you that are switching careers of course I'm looking to get into the health health care field, this is a great opportunity. So, but again, thank you so much for your time today, email us, go to the website, whatever we can do to answer your questions, we certainly want to do that. We appreciate you and your time and we look forward to speaking with you soon.

So thanks for joining us and y’all have a great day.

Angela Frobes:

Bye everyone. Thank you so much.

Genevieve Berger:

Have a good one. Bye bye.