Transcript

Katie Macaluso

First, I just want to welcome you and say, thank you so much for coming today. We're really excited to share more about the a ABSN program at Elmhurst University. Before we go ahead and get started, I do have a few housekeeping reminders.

This event is being recorded for future viewing. So we will be sending out the recording after the close of the presentation. That'll go out tomorrow for all of you. And then as well, all attendees are on mute so you can hear us, but we cannot hear you.

If you do have any questions during the presentation, please feel free to type those in the Q and A box at any time. We'll reserve time at the end of the presentation to handle all of the questions.

So here is a quick look at our agenda for today. We're looking to go over Elmhurst University and then take more of a deep dive into the ABSN program.

We'll touch on the curriculum, residency, clinicals, why choose an ABSN program and then finally share some information about the application process and requirements.

And then of course, we'll save time for any questions that you have at the end. And then as well, here is a look at our speakers for today.

So very excited to have Professor Laura Brennan with us today. She is the ABSN program director. Her career includes experience in nursing management and education, and her specialty area is adult health nursing.

So she has extensive experience helping students to prepare for the national licensure examination and also serves as a faculty member for a national NCLEX preparation firm.

And then with her, we have Mary Katherine Howard joining us from our admissions team. Many of you have probably already spoken with her or another member of that team, but she will be here to speak more about that application process later on.

So with that, I'm going to go ahead and move this over to our about Elmhurst University slide and turn that over to Professor Brennan.

Laura Brennan

Thank you, Katie. So welcome everybody. I'm glad you're here. So a little bit about our university. First of all, we switched from Elmhurst College to Elmhurst University last year or last July, and it is our 150th anniversary this year.

We were established in 1871. We're located in Elmhurst. It's a nice little town, just west of Chicago. We're about 20 minutes to O'Hare Airport.

We're right in the middle of this town. It's just kind of funny, you have houses and all of a sudden you have our little college. We are private. We are aligned with the United Church of Christ, which is a very liberal, all welcoming type of Christianity.

We also are very big on social justice at our college. We were the first university to offer scholarships to the LGBTQ community and like I said, we're welcoming to all.

And we have been recognized as one of the best values of higher education by the US World and News Report by Money Magazine and by Forbes.

So even though we're small, we're mighty. So just an overview of our accelerated BSN program.

So you have to already have a bachelor's degree. Although, I have to say we are getting students who also have master's degrees and some in doctorate in different fields.

So you have to have at least a bachelor's degree in any discipline. It doesn't matter. And that's what's so nice about our program, we get people coming from all different backgrounds.

And it's for people who want to accelerated path becoming a nurse. So we have two entry points each year, the end of August and the end of January.

So a regular traditional program at Elmhurst University only has one entry point. So it's nice with the ABSN to have two of them. It is 16 months and it is full time and it is continuous.

So if you start in the fall, you go fall, spring, summer, fall. And if you start in the spring, you go spring, summer, fall, spring, so you don't get time off.

Okay. It is 60 credit hours all nursing. Most of our courses are asynchronous, meaning you do everything on your own, but every single course has a one hour synchronous session every week.

And we try to make that on Wednesdays. That's what we've been doing so far. So that everyone knows on Wednesdays, you make sure that's a day that you dedicate to your one hour synchronous sessions.

At any one time, you would have maybe three synchronous sessions in a day because you would have your courses. And usually in a semester you're doing four courses, but you might be doing two the first half and two, the second half of that semester.

And then you have a clinical course too. And we really like having that synchronous. Some schools are totally asynchronous, but that synchronous gives you time to really meet your classmates via Zoom, of course, but meet your classmates, meet your professors.

Get those questions answered right away just in time teaching. So students really do like the synchronous sessions. The faculty really like the synchronous sessions.

You do have a ton of clinical. So about over 600 hours of clinical. The clinical you will be doing it at a hospital, hopefully close to your house.

We try our best to get you as close as we can to your house, but you could be traveling and I'll talk about that in a little bit. But you're doing it one on one with a preceptor at that facility.

Most will be hospitals, but we might be out in the community for certain clinicals. We might be in clinics, but you're one on one with a preceptor, but you have a clinical instructor online who touches base with your preceptor, who's touching base with you regularly, who has a synchronous session with you regularly.

So that's clinical. You will also have lab and simulation here in Elmhurst. So you'll come to Elmhurst, we're actually at the hospital.

And I'll talk about that in a second. But our lab is in the basement of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. We are not affiliated with each other. We both just live in the same town and we're both very good partners.

So our simulation lab is in the basement of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. So you'll come in your first semester... Oh, can you go back one slide, Katie? So it says two five day residencies at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.

That's the very first semester, but half of you will go for one five day residency. And then the other half of the cohort will go the second five days. So we have 10 days allotted for this residency, but half go the first five days and half go the second five days.

And it's an immersion wherever you live, you're going to have to come and stay in Elmhurst for those five days. Thanks, Katie. You can go ahead. So this is what it looks like if you were to start in fall.

So if you look at that first semester, you'll be doing health assessment and we do health assessment across the whole semester. Because you're learning a lot of things and it's just going to help you reinforce what you're doing in clinical.

And then you're going to have foundations for the first six weeks. We're building a foundation for our program. And then you'll come on campus for the residency. Again, half the cohort will come for the first five days, the other half for the second five days.

And it's a real immersion. You're going to be doing low fidelity simulation, and you'll be doing high fidelity simulation with our mannequins who talk and breathe and seize.

And they have a heart rate, they have pulses. So it's really, it's very lifelike. Then you'll do pathophysiology pharm across the whole semester, because that's really a hard class so we like to break it up.

And then the second half of the semester, you'll be doing adult health, which is where you have your clinical and you do conceptual basis for nursing practice. Which is just kind of getting a feel for what nursing's all about.

Your second semester, you're going to have two clinicals. You'll have adult health for the first half and you'll have mental health for the second half. Each one of those you'll be doing about, I think it's 70 or 80 hours of clinical.

And then the whole semester you'll be doing a second patho pharm and you'll be doing a research course. So those two go across the whole semester. And then the summer, you'll be doing pediatrics, which is child raring for the first half and you'll be doing OB the second half.

So again, two clinicals, about 90 hours each of clinical. And you'll be doing a policy, finance, and legislation course for the first half and a leadership for the second half.

In your final semester, we put it all together. We called it synthesis. So you'll be doing the first seven weeks, you'll be doing complex care. That would be like critical care, ER, oncology, telemetry.

And you'll be doing a class called synthesis at the legal dimensions of professional nursing practice. And that's just kind of looking at a lot of ethical case studies, looking at the legality, looking at the nurse practice act, things like that.

And the second half you would do in public health nursing or community. So you might be in a school, you might be at a health department, you might be in a clinic. So you're looking at not just individual patients, but population health.

And then we also do test taking strategies to help you get ready for that NCLEX. And between the community and complex care you have about 90 hours each of clinical there.

But then you come back in for a residency and we're just updating it. It's actually going to just be two days. So you'll do your final residency where you'll be doing really complex simulations, where you're doing multiple patient simulations.

You'll be doing OB simulations, you'll be doing pediatric simulations and we're bringing it all together. So as you can see, it's very clinical heavy.

And we're making you more of a well rounded nurse. This is how most nursing schools do it. We don't focus on one specialty because when you take NCLEX, you are going to be tested on OB and peds and community and adult health and psychiatric health.

So we do a little bit of everything. We make you a generalist and then when you graduate, then you find what specialty you want to go into.

So what are some of our prerequisites? So you have to have a C or higher in these prerequisites in order to begin the program. A C minus does not count.

It has to be a C or higher and you can only repeat one science class and one non- science class. That means if you had less than a C in anatomy physiology I, you could repeat that.

We allow for that, but you cannot repeat two different science classes. So sciences are anatomy physiology 1, anatomy physiology 2, general chemistry with the lab, and microbiology with the lab.

All of them have to have a lab, but there is a lot of our students do Geneva College. You may have heard of that and it is online even it's even online with the lab. So that's how a lot of students will do some of these courses.

I do want to point out too, we say general chemistry, but as long as you have a chemistry with the lab, we want to make it as easy for you as long as you're meeting the general prerequisite.

So if you have any chemistry with the lab, I usually can give you credit for that. And then we do lifespan psychology and abnormal psychology. Some places call it patho psychology and then statistics.

So again, you have to have a C or higher in all of these and you have to have them done before you can start the program. Okay. So we have small class size.

Our class size, the largest, it would be 30, but most times it's smaller than that. So our faculty really know the students. Our faculty are experts in their area.

So we don't have a med surg person teaching mental health, for example. The mental health person has experience in mental health. And then again, a lot of clinical time and simulation time, which is really important.

And as I said, we have a class dedicated for NCLEX prep. However, you're getting NCLEX prep right from the beginning. And if you talk to anyone, who's a nurse, they'll tell you that nursing classes and nursing tests are different than other classes.

They'll ask you a question or we'll ask you a question, NCLEX will ask you a question and there's four right answers, but they want to know what are you going to do first? What is your priority?

wants know, can you prioritize? So we teach you right from the beginning, right? From the very first semester, how to do NCLEX style questions because it's really all about critical thinking.

And we have programs that we use that help you with the test taking strategies. So even though we have that class at the very last semester, we are actually doing a lot of NCLEX prep right from the beginning.

Okay. Why not just go for an ADN? Why go for an ABSN? Most hospitals are hiring BSNs. They want BSN to be the lowest level of education for a nurse.

Now are there ADN students, associate degree students out there? There are. But most hospitals prefer the BSN. Especially if they're magnet hospital. A magnet hospital shows excellence in nursing and magnet, hospitals have to report on their skill mix.

Meaning, how many of their nurses are ADNs? How many are BSNs? How many are masters prepared and how many are doctorly prepared? And magnet hospitals want a higher percentage, BSN and higher.

And research has shown that BSNs have improved patient outcomes. So they can tie that back. And then the accelerated BSN is the fastest way.

Our traditional program, once you get your prereqs done, it is two years. There's no way you can do it faster in our traditional program. So it is much faster.

Our program is 16 months straight through and a lot of our students will go on for masters or go on for their doctorate. Now you can go on for a doctorate, a DNP, doctor of nursing practice without getting your master's.

A lot of schools have that. We do not have that right now, but a lot of schools do have that. So by getting your ABSN, you'll be in a perfect position to go on for further studies.

Okay. So again, let's talk about the simulation center. So you can see that picture of Elmhurst Hospital, beautiful hospital. It was built about 10 years ago. It used to be right in the community, walking distance from our university, but they moved about three miles south of us.

And that way they had a lot more room. It is a gorgeous hospital. You feel like you're in a hotel. It is very green. They did a lot of... it's plane tree, which means the environment is very important to them.

So we are in, like I said, the lower level of Elmhurst Hospital. The picture in the middle actually shows some of our ABSN students during their residency last fall.

And we have five high fidelity simulation rooms. That means those mannequins talk and everything. We have two adults, a woman who delivers babies.

We have a child and then we have infant. So we have all those different simulations. And if you look where all the people are behind that glass door sitting in those desks, that part back there is our low fidelity.

We have four beds in the low fidelity and that's where we might just practice doing injections. We might practice doing wound care or putting down an NG tube, things like that.

So we have both high fidelity and low fidelity and very exciting, we're starting with virtual reality and it is just amazing. You put this VR stuff on and you feel like you're walking in a patient's room.

It's just totally amazing. So we're just starting with that. Again, you'll have a five day residency your first semester and that two day residency your very last semester.

And again, we have all these different simulations that feel like you're really working as a nurse. When you're doing clinical, there's always a nurse with you.

You're not doing anything on your own except maybe bathing a patient or something like that. In simulation, you are the nurse. You've got to make the decision. You've got to figure out how much of this medication do I give this patient?

You have to figure out, do I have to call the healthcare provider? Do I have to ask for assistance? So it is simulating you making those independent RN decisions.

The nice thing about that is if you make a mistake, it's okay. It's okay. We debrief. We talk about it. We might go back and read you the SIM and see what happens.

So it makes things very realistic. Students get very nervous about it, but they really like it when they're done. You get to really work really closely with your classmates, with your faculty.

And it gives you a little bit more hands on experience before doing your clinical hours with that first residency. So we're giving you that practice with not real patients before you go out with real human beings.

So clinical hours are going to be in your local area. So we have to be approved to do states. We can't go to all 50 states right now. So the states we have are Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

And we'll be adding more, but that's what we have right now. And then we do have a lot of students from the Chicago area and they have to do clinical outside of Cook, DuPage, Will and Lake Counties for the most part.

Now we might have them in some of those counties, but they cannot go to any place that our traditional students do because it's too confusing for those hospitals. If we have some that have a nursing clinical instructor right on the floor with them and some who are working one on one with the preceptor.

We make sure you, we go to different hospitals for that, but we really try to put you as close as we can to where you live. Now you might say, I've got this great place that would be great for pediatrics.

We don't want you going to recruit them. We want you maybe call and say, Hey, we've got this clinical place, I'd like to go. We will do the vetting for the clinical sites.

So feel free to recommend them to us. Please don't go and recruit for us. And then the placement coordinator will help everything you need to do because there's a lot of things we have to do before we go to clinical.

Our clinical sites ask for background checks and make sure that you have titers for all of those immunizations you got as a kid. You have to have your COVID, fully vaccinated.

You have to have flu shots every year, all that stuff. So your clinical coordinator will help you with that. And we always try to put people as close like I said, as we can. You could be up to 120 miles, but we had students over a hundred miles, maybe one, maybe two.

But we just want to let that there could be a possibility. So just know that we might not... You might live right by, you might be in Chicago and live right by Elmhurst Hospital for example, but we just can't put you there.

So I just want to explain that. Okay. So the online learning, we work with educational designers and we work on Blackboard to deliver our courses and we really have made them interactive.

The students we get really great feedback from the students on how they like the way the Blackboard is set up, how interactive it is. So we do a lot of case studies.

We do a lot... We quiz in some classes and we do some quizzing just that don't count in other classes. Not every class has exams. All of your clinical courses will have exams, but courses like concepts or ethics or leadership or policy finance, those won't have exams.

Those will have more projects that we would do. People always ask too when you buy your books, you really use the books? We in nursing use all of our books. We have a lot of reading that you have to do, and it's all pertinent into what you're learning and what you're seeing in clinical.

And then we do have a lot of support. You have a student advisor that you can go to all the time. You have placement coordinator who helps you with everything and your faculty are very good about responding to any needs that you have.

And then a lot of students also email me and I am very responsive with the students. And the flexibility is to study online from your home. So if you're someone who wants to do your test in the middle of the night, feel free.

You won't have technical support if something happens there but very seldom, do we have that issue, but you can take your test in the middle of the night if that makes you happy. Okay. So we try to make it as flexible as we can.

We do have, like I said, at one hour synchronous session every week that students are expected to attend. I do want to say right here too, that it is an accelerated program you are doing on your own.

You have flexibility, but we encourage you not to work. It is really hard to do this full- time program while working, but just be cognizant of that. We can't say that you can't work.

We just really do not want you working. We want you to have a life school balance.

Katie

Thank you, Professor Brennan. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Mary Katherine to talk a little bit about the admissions team and application process.

Mary Katherine Howard

Hi everyone. So my name's Mary Katherine. I am one of our five enrollment advisors for this program. So you may have already spoken to me or Nancy, Amna, Traci or Kim.

So we all kind of perform the same role, which is we help you from the initial conversation to see if Elmhurst is a good fit, all the way through your first week of class. And we help you figure out your prereqs and your application process and registration.

You need to do to get started with the program. If you have not spoken to one of us first, that is your first step to seeing if Elmhurst is going to be a good fit for you.

So I know everybody wants to know what are the requirements to get in and then how do you apply? So professor Brennan kind of covered some of these, but you do have to have a bachelor's degree completed.

This is a second degree program. You need to have a 2. 8 minimum cumulative GPA. So we do look at everything together and then the prerequisite courses that were listed.

So step one, talk to an advisor. We do not recommend students apply before they talk with an advisor because we need to figure out what will work best for you.

Some people can start right away. Some people can't start for a few months because they need to work on classes. So we want to know a hundred percent where you stand with everything before we get you started with applications and starting taking classes and everything.

So step one is to talk with an enrollment advisor. Then we'll have you do the application. It's free. It's pretty simple. Application transcripts, that's your first step that gives us the ability to do an evaluation and see where you stand with the prerequisites.

And then we will continue the rest of the steps. The rest of the application steps are relatively simple. Personal statement, resume interview, you don't have to get letters of recommendation. We don't have any standardized testing.

So completing your application is relatively simple, but we need to make sure that Elmhurst is a good fit for you and that we get all your prerequisites in order before we actually get you started.

Katie

Great. Thank you, Mary Katherine. So with that, we are actually going to go ahead and move over to the Q and A section here. If you've got any questions now is a great time to go ahead and put those in that question to answer box.

I think that should be at the bottom of your screen and then we'll try to get through as many as we can today. So go ahead and submit those questions and we'll take a look right now to see what we've got here.

All right. It looks like our first question asked, when do I need to have the prerequisites completed by? Can I apply before they're all completed?

Mary Katherine, I'll turn that to you.

Mary Katherine Howard

Absolutely. So we have a lot of students that work on their prerequisite classes during the application process. So we don't know until you have that conversation with your admissions counselor and that we have your evaluation completed.

That is step one. But yes, many, many students start the process while they are working on their prerequisites. I would say very few people come in completely ready to go from day one.

That's great if you do, but if you don't, it's not an issue at all.

Katie

Great. Our next question asks, what is the male to female ratio in the program? I don't know, professor Brennan do you want to take that?

Laura Brennan

Sure. I don't have it exactly, but I would guess on my first cohort, I think we have six guys. So about six guys out of 22 and our second cohort, probably around the same, about six or seven.

I could look at the rosters and figure it out. So as the questions are going, I can figure that out, but we have about six or seven guys in each cohort.

Katie

Okay, great. Our next question. Do you have any information on how many clinical hours per week are completed? Will we work full shifts?

Laura Brennan

Yeah. So that one, it depends on you. So you have to get, for most classes you have to get 90 hours per, it's usually per seven weeks, but it just depends on you and your preceptor.

So some will do 12 hour shifts, some will do eight hour shifts. We really don't want you doing four hour shifts, especially if it's kind of far, but it just depends. So each week you might front load your clinical, you might back load your clinical.

It's totally up to you and your preceptor in your clinical instructor. So it just depends. You just have to get those hours in that timeframe of that class.

Katie

Great. And then the next question asks for a confirmation on the residency for the five day residency, would that include weekends?

Laura Brennan

Yes. I'd have to look at the dates, but yes, it does include weekends. And so it used to be a 10 day. They reduced it, but it would have a weekend either at the beginning or both them would have a weekend included in them.

Katie

Perfect.

Laura Brennan

And you will know those date ahead of time.

Katie

We have another question here. This question asks, when does all of the paperwork, supply purchasing, et ceter for clinicals need to be completed?

Laura Brennan

We do have a timeframe on that and I want to say the paperwork and all that. I think it's like July 15th for starting in the fall. I'd have to get the exact dates, but we want it before the semester starts.

And we use a program called InPlace for you to upload all your stuff. But I want to say it's about a little bit more than a month before the semester starts.

I could get the exact dates.

Katie

And I don't know if you want to touch or MK, if you want to touch on this, but we have somebody who kind of helps support with that paperwork.

Mary Katherine Howard

Yeah, I was going to add, as soon as you are admitted to the program and confirm your seat, you do get in contact with your clinical coordinator and they stay with you through the program.

So they get you set up with your clinical paperwork at the beginning and they help you monitor and get in into your different clinical sites throughout. So they will be your one on one contact specifically for everything clinical related.

Katie

Perfect. All right. We have another question here. Do ambulatory offices count as clinical settings?

Laura Brennan

My famous answer is it depends. It can and we have used them so. Definitely we use them for community health. We are using them for some pediatrics. We have a pediatrics ambulatory office so we do use it.

So it just depends. So when we get a new clinical site, Dr. Salvador, who is our executive director, and I will kind of go online and look at the site and deem if it's appropriate for whatever clinical we're at.

But yes, we do use ambulatory sites. So if you've got one in mind, let your admission counselor know and they can pass it on to our clinical placement coordinator.

And I see a question too, if we live near Elmhurst, do we need to stay on campus? Let me clarify you. No one has to stay on campus. If you live far away, you're going to have to find a hotel. And we suggest some hotels to stay at.

Nobody lives on campus for the residency, but we've had people come from Indiana who prefer to drive an hour and a half to come to the residency each day and go back home. So no one has to stay there, but if you're coming, obviously from Minnesota, you got to stay somewhere.

But yeah, if you live within driving distance, you don't have to stay there. And again, we just recommend hotels, but we don't have any affiliation with any hotels and they will not give us a...

We thought we could use some dorms, but there's just not dorms for us to use just for that short duration.

Katie

Great. Another question here, where are some of the facilities that online students can do clinicals at?

Laura Brennan

Oh my gosh. There's so many. I can't even begin to tell you, but in the Chicago land area, we've got some people down at Jesse Brown VA, Ingalls Hospital.

Let's see, where else? Northern Suburbs we've got like in Missouri. I know we got somebody at Barnes Jewish. We're all over the place. The list is just almost every student's at a different place.

So I have so many different places.

Katie

And would you say the settings are very varied as well in terms of hospitals or long term care or rehab, or?

Laura Brennan

We really try to stay out of long term care. We've got as many BSN students in there and it's just different. So we try to stay in acute care.

So we try to have for all of our adult health clinicals to be in an acute care hospital, but they might be at an outpatient surgical center in the PACU, for example.

But for the most part, we want them in acute care. Same thing for OB, we really prefer them be in acute care, but they might be at a physician's office. They might be at a prenatal clinic.

For pediatrics for the most part they're in acute care, but they might be at a physician's office working with the nurse there. Mental health though is a little different. A lot of times that's going to be outpatient.

Because sometimes it's hard to get inpatient. So it really, it depends.

Katie

Okay. And then our next question is, where do you recommend for online prerequisites and are there any online course providers that you would not accept or recommend?

Laura Brennan

MK, do you want to take that or do you want me to take that?

Mary Katherine Howard

Oh, I can do that. So when you talk with your advisor, we will do an evaluation of your transcripts, give you an exact list of what you need and then give you recommendations of places that we accept them from.

So we have some online options. I know some people prefer to do kind of more the traditional in person community college. So we will always kind of vet everything before we have you sign up and take it.

So yeah, we'll run that through with your enrollment advisor.

Laura Brennan

OK.

Katie

Thanks, MK. Our next question asked what if your GPA is a little lower than the required GPA? Is, is there any flexibility there?

Laura Brennan

So I will answer that one. So my famous answer, it depends. So if right now, you're 30 years old or 35 years old and when you're 18, maybe you weren't as studious as you are now, we would call that adult amnesty.

So if your GPA is from 10 years ago or more, and your GPA's a little bit lower and you've taken classes now and you're getting all A's and B's, we'll look at that. For the most part, we do want that GPA to be 2.

8, but there can be exceptions to the rule. So again, it depends, but we would have you submit a letter to our admission progression and retention committee of which I am the chair.

And we'll look at your transcripts, we'll look at what you're doing currently, we'll look at the reason. And so occasionally we will take someone whose GPA is lower. I want to also say too, sometimes the GPA's lower for undergrad, but someone's gone on for a master.

I might have somebody a master's in public health or a masters in health admin. And we'll look at your master's GPA then and make an evaluation based on that.

Katie

Great. This person asks for students who live in the Chicago area, what counties have you placed students in since some of the nearby counties might be restricted?

Laura Brennan

Yeah, we say it's restricted, but if we can find a hospital that we're not using or a facility that we're not using for the traditional BSN program, we might put you there. So we have had students in Cook County, definitely in Lake County, not so much in DuPage.

I don't think we've had anybody go to any place in DuPage County and Will County, we have had people. So for the most part, we're just not in DuPage right now for the ABSN.

So we looking more inner city for Cook County and Lake County a little bit further north and then Will County obviously further south.

Katie

Great. Another clinical question here. Could each clinical be at a different place or would you place students at a facility in which the student could do, I guess all of their different rotations at that facility?

Laura Brennan

Well, the answer is yes to both. So, I mean, ideally we'd like to keep you at one place because you won't have to spend time with orientation. But for example, Elmhurst Hospital doesn't have pediatrics or mental health.

So like for our traditional students, we don't go there for those places. So it just depends. It depends on if we can find a preceptor in that facility that you've already done something.

So students may go to different places or they may stay in the same place for all of their rotations. If that facility has everything that we need and they can find a preceptor for each one of those areas.

So again, it just depends.

Katie

Great. This next question's a little bit specific so I don't know if we can answer, but I'll need toss it your way to see. This person asked, can I finish the fall semester on December 12th if I were to submit assignments early?

Laura Brennan

No, because the exams are certainties that you have to do and the residency would happen after that. The residency would happen after that. So the answer would be probably not.

Unless we could make some accommodations, but probably not because of the residency.

Katie

That makes sense.

Laura Brennan

But you can work. You can work ahead on a lot of your assignments, but the exams are at certain times. We usually have the exams open for two days to allow some flexibility with your clinical and your family life, but they are during certain times, so we like to keep that consistent.

And your exams are usually about the second week, the fourth week, the sixth week. For a six week class, they would be about spread out for the 14 weeks, but we have them on specific dates.

Katie

Thank you professor. That was a lot of rapid fire questions. So thank you all for your questions. I think we've already gotten through all of them. Just going to, going to throw out one last call, if there's anything else you have, please go ahead and submit it.

But if not, as Mary Katherine said, we've got that contact information. We'll provide that on our next slide too, as we wrap up and you can absolutely reach out to the admissions team at any time with any additional questions that you might think of.

So I don't see any new questions here, so we will go ahead and wrap up here today. Just want to thank you all again for attending. Hopefully, this provided a ton of answers to your questions about the ABSN program.

We will send out a link to the recording tomorrow. So you can do that again if you'd like, and then again, there's the link on the screen here if you want to apply.

I think I had it on the previous slide, but also tinyurl.com/ absnchats. In the URL we created, if you want to go ahead and schedule an appointment with the admissions team as well.

So thank you all again for coming today. And we look forward to talking with you soon.