collageYou will have no regret reading through the article below as it offers you the best information on sac state nursing program point system, sac state nursing program ranking & nursing point calculator.
You will also discover related articles on chico state nursing acceptance rate, sac state nursing handbook, sac state masters in nursing, sac state pre nursing acceptance rate, sac state 4 year plan & sac state nursing jobs on collegelearners.
Only 40 students will be accepted to Sacramento State’s competitive nursing program this fall due to uncertainties surrounding whether students will be able to fulfill required courses amid the ongoing pandemic, according to university School of Nursing administrators.
An email sent to nursing applicants said over 311 applications were received, but only 40 seats are available, down from the usual 80 admitted each semester.
“Our goals and hopes were to be able to admit some students as opposed to none,” said Heidi Travis, the admissions advisor for the School of Nursing, in the email.
Travis said the plan may change depending on how the pandemic develops and how the university responds.
Tanya Altmann, chair of the School of Nursing, said in an email that it feels wrong to deny more students. She said some other nursing programs are not admitting for fall and even spring.
“It saddens me as there are so many students wanting nursing and a looming nursing shortage,” Altmann said.
All but one of the 72 nursing students in their final semester will graduate with help from UC Davis Medical Center, Altmann said. She added that students in the other three semesters of the nursing program were unable to complete clinicals and will receive incomplete grades in at least one class.
Altmann said that Sac State President Robert Nelsen’s statement that 271 nursing students are unable to graduate is incorrect. Nelsen used this incorrect figure at Monday’s virtual town hall addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, where he said that the nurses would not be able to graduate because full clinical placements at hospitals were not possible.
As of the time of publication, Altmann has yet to respond to further email requests for comment, including how many students will receive incomplete grades and how Nelsen got that number.
Only 80 students are admitted into the program each semester since at least 2012.
“It’s definitely going to be more competitive than it already is,” said Logan Tuazon, a first-year, expressed interest, nursing student.
Applicants will be notified if they were accepted into the program by email Friday after 5 p.m. Sac State has the 16th highest rated nursing program in California by Registered Nursing.org’s program rankings.
Nursing students have always needed to prove their academic skills if they wish to be accepted. The 76 students who were enrolled last spring semester had an average “adjusted” GPA of 3.995, according to data from the School of Nursing.
Nursing students must also do clinicals, the process of being sent to a hospital and doing direct patient care. The California Board of Registered Nurses (BRN) regulates that 75% of the work done in clinicals is that of direct patient care while the other 25% is indirect training such as simulations, hospital orientations and hospital equipment training.
Altmann said the California BRN is opposing requests to waive requirements for nursing students.
The program currently has no labs due to classes no longer being held face-to-face. Altmann said that if labs resume, they may require social distancing.
Apart from potentially not being admitted into the program, some students are worried about how they will take the Test of Academic Skills (TEAS) to get into the program. The test consists of 170 multiple-choice questions that are designed to test skills students will need to perform in the program in the areas of reading, math, science and English. “I don’t know how the TEAS test is gonna go since the clock is kinda ticking,” Tuazon said.
Story continues below table.
High standards for Sac State nursing applicants
Number applicants and percent accepted with GPA and TEAS scores:
| Year | Applicants | Percent accepted | Average GPA | Ave TEAS Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2014 | 462 | 17% | 3.95 | 89.30 |
| Spring 2015 | 287 | 27% | 3.95 | 89.50 |
| Fall 2015 | 500 | 16% | 3.97 | 89.70 |
| Spring 2016 | 293 | 27% | 3.96 | 89.70 |
| Fall 2016 | 441 | 17% | 3.97 | 89.90 |
| Spring 2017 | 289 | 27% | 3.96 | 90.00 |
| Fall 2017 | 469 | 16% | 3.96 | 90.90 |
| Spring 2018 | 375 | 21% | 3.99 | 92.50 |
| Fall 2018 | 500 | 15% | 4.00 | 91.40 |
| Spring 2019 | 247 | 31% | 4.00 | 91.75 |
Table: Max Connor Source: Sacramento State University Get the data
The nursing program takes into account factors other than just test scores and GPA, including background and language skills, but does not include a personal essay or interview.
“(At) Sac State the program is not strictly numbers,” said Lyna Khuu, a nursing major in her third semester. “It would be nice if that had a little short prompt for us to write about so that they could see our personality as a whole, because nursing is a lot about skills but it is also about the person you are like why you want to do this and to take care of others.”
Students suggested other more personal aspects of the application process that could be added in addition to an essay prompt.
“You need people skills. I definitely think that would be a good idea to do interviews or recommendations to feel like the more personal side of things,” Francis said. “I feel like that would be a really good idea.”
When asked if there should be more elements added to the application process, first semester nursing major Daniel Schmitgal said personalizing the application process could potentially allow for a more diverse group of applicants to be accepted.
“I do think it would be helpful to add some more elements to bring in a little more diversity,” Schmitgal said. “This is a diverse group, don’t get me wrong, but I have noticed there are certain populations that aren’t a big part of our groups. I think adding more along the lines of an interview would be pretty helpful.”
The competitive nature of the program has made some feel that there is a risk that the type of person admitted may not always be well-rounded.
“When you take people who are all perfectionists, it doesn’t create a very well-balanced, diverse team,” Van Winkle said. “You need to be able to look at the holistic person and what other extracurricular activities are they involved in, because when you get into the field, you want a well-diversified, well-balanced team that’s not so cutthroat”.
Another reason the major is so competitive is the job market and the post-grad life of a nurse. Nurses require a lot of clinical practice and many travel all around the country to gain more experience. This, in turn, affects faculty numbers, as students don’t generally come back to teach.
Finding former nurses who are willing and interested in becoming educators is a barrier in the potential growth of the program.
“The faculty we have is amazing, but we’d like to get more faculty of course,” Parsh said. “We’d like to get people interested (in teaching, but) the salary is just not what it is (working in the field). Hospital jobs are way more rewarding.”
The national job market for nurses is expected to grow by 12 percent from 2018 to 2028 according to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, some students say the market to work in Sacramento as a nurse is overly competitive.
“I think it’s horrible, I think it’s so bad,” Francis said. “I feel like new grads are having a really hard time, especially Sacramento area because we are so populated and experienced nurses are coming from everywhere and coming here to Sacramento because we have really high paying jobs.”
One thing that is clear when talking to nursing students at Sac State is that the nursing program has a great environment, and is widely considered to be something special and prestigious to be apart of.
“I love the clinical aspect, so hands-on learning. The facility is really inclusive and there for you so they have your back,” Wills said. “You form really strong bonds with your classmates. They kind of become your second family.”
Nursing Degrees Available at Sac State
Sac State Nursing Rankings
The bachelor’s program at Sac State was ranked #298 on College Factual’s Best Schools for nursing list. It is also ranked #37 in California.
Popularity of Nursing at Sac State
During the 2020-2021 academic year, California State University – Sacramento handed out 255 bachelor’s degrees in nursing. Due to this, the school was ranked #192 in popularity out of all colleges and universities that offer this degree. This is an increase of 1% over the previous year when 253 degrees were handed out.
In 2021, 61 students received their master’s degree in nursing from Sac State. This makes it the #165 most popular school for nursing master’s degree candidates in the country.
collage