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Nursing After Degree (Calgary) - GPA Question


karate-kid

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I'm considering the nursing degree holder route (2 year program) at the UofC as a backup to medicine. Does anyone have any experience with their program? ...I'm more or less interested in the marking schema, as I will very likely continue to apply to medicine. ...In fact I'm certain I will.

 

Does anyone have any idea on how grades are awarded (for the courses that count towards the GPA)?

- are B's just given out across the board?

- are A's achievable? ...achievable, but darn near impossible?

 

The last thing I want is to go into a second undergraduate program, and have it lower my medicine application/GPA score . Please advise :)

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Pretty sure UofC is pass/fail clinic grades (could be wrong). I wouldn't recommend Nursing as a route for med. Marking is highly subjective and if instructors are strictly using the marking rubric it's impossible to get an A (some are more lenient than others). It totally depends on the teacher, but it's not a gamble I would take (if I had the option of doing it all over). You're doing an accelerated program so it's nursing courses back to back which is a nightmare of it's own kind.

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I don't know about U of C, but I'm in nursing at TRU in BC and have managed to get nearly straight A's. I do work very hard for it but it's nowhere near impossible! B's are not just given out, you get the grade you earn, like any other program. Some classes of course are subjective (aren't all of them?), but work hard to figure out what your specific teacher wants in each class, by going to office hours and by having your profs look over your work before handing it in if they'll let you. I had heard by some people that it's impossible to get straight A's in nursing, which almost stopped me from doing it as my undergrad because I am also hoping to apply to med, but those people were definitely wrong!

 

Be prepared to work hard, but nursing is fun, interesting, and gets you clinical experience, which is much better than most undergrads!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

 

I did the U of A's after degree nursing program a few years back. Nursing is a great and rewarding profession and will teach you A TON in preparation for a medical career. For the record I LOVE my job. I work on a variety of critical care units in a large level 1 trauma centre and get to deal with the sickest/most unstable patients in the hospital. I've seen/been a part of some amazing resuscitations as well some heartbreaking cases as well. The experience and people I've worked with have been amazing and the money is really good.

 

However, in my experience, it was very difficult to do well in nursing courses. I'm a science guy, and I found nursing to be very subject, fluffy, airy-fairy, etc... To give you an idea we had to do "reflective journals" on our clinical experiences...basically talk about our feelings on clinical practice. As a 24-year old guy, I had no idea what/how I felt any of the time!! I was used to understanding molecular dynamics of ion channels and bacterial virulence factors, not talking about how I felt looking after patients! I remember one of my clinical instructors look at me like I was crazy after I explained the hypothesized molecular mechanism of action of digoxin to her. It didn't seem to matter how much or how little I studied, I always got the same crappy grade :(

 

I did a degree in molecular bio prior to my nursing degree. I didn't do well, however, did manage to get A's or A-'s in most of my 4th year and graduate courses as well as a 34S on the MCAT. In contrast my nursing GPA was an abysmal 2.3-2.5 ... I remember chuckling about a combination of course grades on my transcript:

 

* A in electrophysiology/ion channel pharmacology (a grad course)

* C- in community nursing theory :(

 

I would advise you against going into nursing school as it can potentially damage your GPA and jeopardize your med school application. I'm not saying its impossible to get good grades in nursing courses, but definitely difficult given how subjective the evaluation is. That being said, its a very rewarding profession and you'll learn A LOT about health care.

 

Good luck!

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Hi,

 

I did the U of A's after degree nursing program a few years back. Nursing is a great and rewarding profession and will teach you A TON in preparation for a medical career. For the record I LOVE my job. I work on a variety of critical care units in a large level 1 trauma centre and get to deal with the sickest/most unstable patients in the hospital. I've seen/been a part of some amazing resuscitations as well some heartbreaking cases as well. The experience and people I've worked with have been amazing and the money is really good.

 

However, in my experience, it was very difficult to do well in nursing courses. I'm a science guy, and I found nursing to be very subject, fluffy, airy-fairy, etc... To give you an idea we had to do "reflective journals" on our clinical experiences...basically talk about our feelings on clinical practice. As a 24-year old guy, I had no idea what/how I felt any of the time!! I was used to understanding molecular dynamics of ion channels and bacterial virulence factors, not talking about how I felt looking after patients! I remember one of my clinical instructors look at me like I was crazy after I explained the hypothesized molecular mechanism of action of digoxin to her. It didn't seem to matter how much or how little I studied, I always got the same crappy grade :(

 

I did a degree in molecular bio prior to my nursing degree. I didn't do well, however, did manage to get A's or A-'s in most of my 4th year and graduate courses as well as a 34S on the MCAT. In contrast my nursing GPA was an abysmal 2.3-2.5 ... I remember chuckling about a combination of course grades on my transcript:

 

* A in electrophysiology/ion channel pharmacology (a grad course)

* C- in community nursing theory :(

 

I would advise you against going into nursing school as it can potentially damage your GPA and jeopardize your med school application. I'm not saying its impossible to get good grades in nursing courses, but definitely difficult given how subjective the evaluation is. That being said, its a very rewarding profession and you'll learn A LOT about health care.

 

Good luck!

 

I'm going to U of A nursing next September, so could you tell me what you enjoyed about the program (even though it was an after-degree program)?

 

Thanks, and have a great day. (btw, I am a guy too haha!)

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I'm going to U of A nursing next September, so could you tell me what you enjoyed about the program (even though it was an after-degree program)?

 

Thanks, and have a great day. (btw, I am a guy too haha!)

 

Hey man,

 

To be brutally honest, I didn't really enjoy too much about it! I did really like the clinical experience but even then many things about those classes like the reflective journals and crap like that were a complete waste of time in my opinion. Nursing education at the U of A is much more social science-y and artsy, so if you're a science dude like me, you'll hate it!

 

I took a fair amount of other courses for interest sake... stuff like nutrition and lots of pharmacology. I found those courses really cool.

 

On the other hand, the actual job of critical care nursing is awesome! Its probably the only job I've ever had (and I've worked in A LOT of different areas) that I'm not thinking about quitting/getting out of all the time!

 

Any idea where you wanna work when you're done?

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Hey man,

 

To be brutally honest, I didn't really enjoy too much about it! I did really like the clinical experience but even then many things about those classes like the reflective journals and crap like that were a complete waste of time in my opinion. Nursing education at the U of A is much more social science-y and artsy, so if you're a science dude like me, you'll hate it!

 

I took a fair amount of other courses for interest sake... stuff like nutrition and lots of pharmacology. I found those courses really cool.

 

On the other hand, the actual job of critical care nursing is awesome! Its probably the only job I've ever had (and I've worked in A LOT of different areas) that I'm not thinking about quitting/getting out of all the time!

 

Any idea where you wanna work when you're done?

 

Hey, thanks for the reply!

 

I laughed a bit about the reflective journals and how the program is more towards social sciences than it is science. I kinda like that though.

 

I want to work in either the ER or PICU - I am kinda like you so hopefully I'll get into critical care nursing I guess. :)

 

I'm glad to hear that you like your job as this is a second career move for me.

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