By Megan Habeger

Staff Writer

Due to the distance between the School of Nursing building and the main CSUSM campus there has developed a bit of disconnect between the general student population and Nursing students.

Here at CSUSM we have over 500 students pursuing nursing degrees through what is affectionately referred to as SoN. Many students may not even know where the School of Nursing is, let alone what the experience involves.  

To become a nurse, you first must put in your time as a pre-nursing student. Pre-nursing students are typically intelligent, highly-motivated and committed individuals who are willing to put in several years of hard work. This means carrying a heavy class load to get through a long list of prerequisites (including Human Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology and Organic Chemistry courses), while also beefing up applications with extra activities such as volunteering at local hospitals—all this is just to qualify for the Nursing Program.

There is no guarantee that pre-nursing students will be accepted because most nursing programs are highly impacted, meaning that many more students apply than can possibly be admitted.  Some students might believe that after acceptance, the hardest part is over. They couldn’t be more wrong.

The academic requirements to qualify as well as remain in the program are indeed extensive, but the intellectual challenges are not the only things to consider.  Nursing School goes beyond testing its students mentally, and pushes them to their physical and emotional limits. Through many group projects students are forced to learn to work together for long hours, despite various abilities, personality types and levels of exhaustion. Working hands-on with patients tests students’ ability to communicate with the sick, pained and irritated patients, physicians who may be impolite and intimidating and nurses who are busy and overwhelmed. Nurses-in-training have to be kind yet confident, setting aside the fact that they are terrified of doing or saying something wrong, and are likely sleep-deprived from staying up the night before writing a 40-page care plan assignment.

There are several degree programs offered by the SoN, with the majority of Nursing Students pursuing their Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) via either the 33-month Traditional (TBSN) or the 24-month Accelerated (ABSN) paths.  In either case, students are admitted into a specific “cohort” which continues through the duration of the curriculum – in other words, the students who attend orientation together ultimately end up graduating together.

The School of Nursing has two campuses with one in San Marcos and the other in Temecula. The San Marcos campus is located just down the hill from the CSUSM main campus, on the northwest corner of S. Twin Oaks Valley Road and Craven Road. The SoN leases space on the second floor of the Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) building, which also houses the Student Health and Counseling Services on the first floor.  The Temecula campus opened in 2008 and offers a more convenient location for students who reside in the southern region of Riverside County.