Registered Nursing

Major Sheet

General Education for AS Degree

New Application Requirements!!!

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Nursing is the art and science of caring for a person to maintain or restore health to an optimum level for each person.

The profession of nursing involves the provision of health care services, both direct and indirect, that focuses on the maintenance, promotion and restoration of health. This includes basic health care that helps people cope with difficulties in daily living that are associated with actual or potential problems of health, illness or the treatment thereof. Nursing process is dynamic problem solving that focuses on the response of the individual to health problems. The practice of registered nursing requires substantial amount of scientific knowledge and technical skills as well as leadership and managerial abilities. Students attend classes on the Fresno City College campus. The Nursing clinical experience is provided in selected local hospitals and health agencies.

Fresno City College is the largest community college nursing program in California and the second largest program in the USA. It is designed to educate the student at the basic technical level of nursing practice, obtain an Associate of Science degree, be eligible to take the NCLEX (national nursing licensing examination) and work in a structured health care setting. The nursing curriculum is the same for all programs and takes four semesters of 9 or more credits per semester to complete. The student may take additional credits during each semester to complete the general education requirements for the A.S. degree. There are also additional specialized elective nursing courses that a student may take to supplement their nursing education.

Financial aid is available and students are encouraged to apply. It is not recommended that a student work more than 16 hours per week during the nursing portion of the course work due to the combination of theory and clinical course work that requires rigorous academic studying to insure both patient safety and in preparation for passing the national nursing NCLEX examination.

Courses and credits are designed to be transferred to a four-year college for obtaining a B.S. degree in nursing. Generally the four year college will transfer a maximum of 70 credits and each school decides which courses it will accept toward the BS degree they award.

RN LICENSURE
Upon completion of requirements for the AS degree in Nursing the student would be eligible to apply to the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) to sit for the NCLEX examination and be considered for an RN license in California. A student should visit the BRN website at http://www.rn.ca.gov to learn more details of requirements and restrictions for obtaining a license to practice as a Registered Nursing (RN). Persons who have prior criminal record will need to make a special application to the BRN which will be reviewed by the BRN to determine if they will grant the RN license.

LVN ADVANCED PLACEMENT
Those persons with a license as a Licensed Vocational Nurse may apply for advanced placement into the second year of the RN program. To do so the person must have completed the prerequisite courses, meet the admission requirements of the college and the nursing program, including the minimum of a 2.5 GPA. At the completion of the AS degree requirements they are eligible to apply to the BRN for an RN license and take the NCLEX examination

TRANSFER STUDENTS
Students who have attended a nursing program at another college may apply to FCC nursing program. To do so they must meet all the admission requirements of all nursing students and they must bring copies of the college catalog and course syllabus of all courses requesting to be considered for advanced placement. Since not all courses in each college are identical in coverage of theory, skills and clinical placement, additional work may be needed to determine which courses can be given credit and which courses the student can be placed to insure there are no gaps in the learning process of being an RN and in preparation for the NCLEX examination. Please speak with a nursing counselor and the Director of Nursing to determine the specifics needed for the individual placement, call (559) 244-2604 for an appointment. 

PARADIGM PROGRAM/CONTRACT EDUCATION
Fresno City College has two programs. One is the traditional nursing education program and the other is a Contract Education program known as the Paradigm program. The curriculum for both programs is exactly the same as is the criteria for college admission. To be eligible to apply to the Paradigm program the student must work for one of the hospitals that are a contracted member of the group. The individual applies to both the hospital and the college and must meet both sets of criteria for the hospital and college for the hospital to consider sponsoring the person in the Paradigm program. Each hospital has it’s own set of criteria for consideration but usually you must work for them for about one year to be eligible and agree to work for them after graduation. Once sponsored and accepted by the college the student is part of the Paradigm cohort of nursing students and will graduate in 4 semesters for the basic RN student and two semesters for LVN articulation students. Once in the Paradigm program the student can only take required nursing classes and sections reserved for the Paradigm cohort of students and cannot take classes in the required nursing classes offered to the traditional nursing students.

Student Handbook - spring / summer 2009