Daughter offered admission into nursing program

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Proud father today. Daughter was accepted into nursing at University Park. Anyone have experience with the nursing program? I'm not quite understanding the clinical portion of the program though. It states clinical will be done at Hershey during her junior OR senior year. Who and when do they decide which year it will be? I've heard you can do clinical at UP also but might travel between Mt. Nittany Medical Center and Altoona. So if she does clinical at Hershey one year does that mean she will be traveling the other? Or can both years of clinical be done at Hershey? We have a meeting/tour with the department on February 10th but thought it would be nice to answer some questions now. PSU is her dream school but she's been accepted at Gannon PA program, Duquesne Nursing, IUP Nursing, Clarion Nursing, and Penn College Nursing with all but Penn College offering much better financial deals. Decisions decisions

 

[ThePennsyOracle]

I can't offer much insight into the nursing program, but congrats to your daughter. It sounds like she has some wonderful options to choose.

 

[Ct. Lion]

I have very good friends who have a daughter who went through the Penn State nursing program. She did the Hershey clinical program her junior year. She did very well in the program and had no problem with job offers when she graduated. She worked for a few years at a NJ hospital and then went to Columbia for an advanced degree, maybe the PA program. Now she is running a Nicu at a Baltimore hospital.
Your daughter will never have a problem being employed.
This is my wife's 50th year working as a Registered Nurse, now with a Hospice organization. I can't get her to retire. Nurses are special people.

 

[BRETTPSU]

My wife is a RN also. She always wanted to further her education into a masters of nursing but life(children) got in our way. When she graduated every hospital or clinic she applied offered a job within 2 months of her applying.

 

[LemonEars]

My oldest daughter received her BS in Nursing from PSU and then received an MS in Nursing from another school. She was quite pleased with the quality of the instruction and is now a nursing professor at a local college. Her PSU education was top of the line.

 

[ClarkstonMark]

My gf is a pediatric oncology nurse for Children's Hospital of Michigan, and teaches clinicals for Michigan State School of Nursing at Detroit Medical Center.

At MSU, the students drive to Detroit (or other area hospitals - some actually go to Ann Arbor) from Lansing once a week for their clinicals. They are still taking classes other days of the week.
I would assume it is similar at PSU.

I'll just add that she says the Nursing program at MSU is incredibly competitive and hard to get into, requiring GPA's near 4.0. I am sure PSU is similar Congrats!

 

[Player2BNamedL8r]

She’s going into a fantastic field and will have no problems finding a well-paying position. That said, since she’ll be in a highly desired field - with opportunities to have tuition reimbursement as part of her employment package - my advise (only because you asked) would be to go where she really wants to go. If her heart says PSU, then that’s where she should go.

 

[psulongago]

She’s going into a fantastic field and will have no problems finding a well-paying position. That said, since she’ll be in a highly desired field - with opportunities to have tuition reimbursement as part of her employment package - my advise (only because you asked) would be to go where she really wants to go. If her heart says PSU, then that’s where she should go.

Daughter got MS in nursing, nurse practitioner, did all studies at Jefferson in Philly. Clinicals were done at multiple facilities throughout the region. Great career, excellent money. Daughter shocked me last time we had dinner, she "ripped" the check out of my hand and treated. Congrats to your daughter!!

 

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Proud father today. Daughter was accepted into nursing at University Park. Anyone have experience with the nursing program? I'm not quite understanding the clinical portion of the program though. It states clinical will be done at Hershey during her junior OR senior year. Who and when do they decide which year it will be? I've heard you can do clinical at UP also but might travel between Mt. Nittany Medical Center and Altoona. So if she does clinical at Hershey one year does that mean she will be traveling the other? Or can both years of clinical be done at Hershey? We have a meeting/tour with the department on February 10th but thought it would be nice to answer some questions now. PSU is her dream school but she's been accepted at Gannon PA program, Duquesne Nursing, IUP Nursing, Clarion Nursing, and Penn College Nursing with all but Penn College offering much better financial deals. Decisions decisions

Penn State is a good, big name, well-known program. I am a physician and I would recommend it over the others you listed. YMMV.

FWIW, I have worked at PSU-HMC, Altoona and volunteered at Mt. Nittany as a Penn State undergrad. All will provide good education with Mt Nittany offering the least breadth of experience, IMO.

 

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Also, I will be working there as a fellow next year (Hershey) so perhaps I am biased!

My wife just graduated from nursing school (was previously a LPN which she earned from CPI) and it is amazing to see how much work nursing school entails and how changed she is from the process.

Congrats to your daughter and to your family!!!

 

[Tom McAndrew]

PSU is her dream school but she's been accepted at Gannon PA program, Duquesne Nursing, IUP Nursing, Clarion Nursing, and Penn College Nursing with all but Penn College offering much better financial deals. Decisions decisions

Congratulations to your daughter.

Nursing courses are very demanding, but if she was accepted she's already shown she's smart and a hard worker.

I know several nurses that went through PSU's program. Virtually all of them did their clinical component during their junior year, and I believe all but one did so at Hershey.

They all loved the program. Some of them did bemoan being away from UP for a year. It was as if they had done a co-op or a year abroad, and missed the social life of UP, but had a nice time with the other nursing students in Hershey.

PSU is terrible in terms of offering financial aid. It is what it is. There's not much you can do about it.

She'll graduate with a very marketable degree, regardless of which nursing program she attends. If PSU is her dream school, and you can make the financials work, I hope that she picks PSU.

You can learn a good bit from PSU's web site about the program. Study that, and then have a set of questions ready for the Feb. 10th meeting.

If I recall correctly, only those nursing students that are also in Schreyer College, or in ROTC, or are athletes, get to do their clinical in the State College area.