Denver School of Nursing
Denver School of Nursing is a established in (unknown). The campus is located in and hosts students with an endowment of .
Address:
Phone: (no local phone number)
Email: (no public email address)
Institution Type: Unknown
Established: Unknown
Campus Enrollment: N/A
Acceptance Rate: N/A
Graduation Rate (6Y): N/A
Campus Endowment: N/A
Tuition (Local): N/A
Tuition (Non-Local): N/A
Tuition (Foreign): N/A
Mandatory Fees: N/A
Housing (Room): N/A
Latitude:
Longitude:
Tax ID: N/A
For anyone considering this school, it is THE WRONG CHOICE! They put fear in you to not voice any concerns you have as well as putting on the fakest facade of wanting to help you through you nursing student career. They couldn’t care less, they just want to make you pay outrageous amounts of money for an incredibly mediocre education.
They also hide their reviews on Facebook because instead of fixing the problems people come forth with, they choose to hide them. One of their Deans, Sean Elliot, was dismissed from her last gig at a nursing school because the student body petitioned for her to be fired because of how badly she treated the students and how poorly she ran the school. And DCN gladly took her in to run their school. That should tell you enough.
It took me a year after graduation to find a job and I had to leave the Denver/Metro area because I truly believe that the school’s reputation is so tarnished, no Denver area hospitals will hire it’s students (the only exception to this being students with previous employment as a tech/CNA etc.). If you want a considerably better education for substantially less I’d suggest CU-Denver, Metro State, or UNC. I’m shocked that this school is still around and that the state hasn’t shut them down. The recent change of name seems to be an attempt at a re-branding or possibly the terrifying possibility that they are finally making good on the creation a Master’s program.
Overall, a terrible school that I could go on and on about. Avoid this place!
This link speaks for itself. This school is nasty and extremely unprofessional. They block anyone who leaves a negative review or comment on their page.
The cost is outrageous, especially for the poor reputation. I am considering cutting the funding off because its appears fraudulent, which isn’t making my child pleased, but i dont want to spend all this money only to have a worthless degree.
I recently graduated from DSN this past June. My graduating class went through some crazy obstacles the past 21 months. Between a high rate of teacher/staff leaving mid-quarter, disorganization in the clinical office, threats from Meghan McClintock and lateral violence happening between classmates in the classroom….I can say that this experience was hell. However, I have seen a huge change happen when the education affiliates came in, took over and finally listened to the students’ concerns. This is my second bachelor’s degree and for the longest time, I was not happy. But the new administration and positive changes taking place right now, will help overturn this school’s reputation for the better. I feel as though the level of professionalism in the school has drastically changed to what I have experienced in my previous degree at a university. Nursing school is going to be hard no matter what. The program takes a lot of dedication and you have to be all in, in order to succeed. At my time in that program, I did feel as though there were a lot of unnecessary stressors because professionalism was lacking. The school was being run more like a business than a school who was concerned about the students’ well-being. I feel as though right now, I would actually recommend it to anyone because of the changes that have been made. I was doubting myself that I would pass the nclex, but I did! I did a lot of self-teaching, but all of my hours living in coffee houses and libraries finally paid off. In the end, I feel as though this experience has turned me into a stronger person because nursing is not a glamorous field. You will come across challenges with other coworkers, patients, management etc. and you have to learn how to be strong. Keep telling yourself to keep going no matter how difficult it may be, because in the end….it is all worth it!
Sure, at orientation they will treat you super nice and put on the show. The environment is threatening, militant, and not conducive to learning. There are many turnovers in staff. I feel they set you up to fail so they can charge you more money to re-take a class. PLEASE talk to others before you agree to attend at DSN. This school is all about the money and treating you horribly!!!
DO NOT GO HERE!!!
Some can go through an entire BSN degree with almost no hospital acute care clinical experience. What happened, DSN??? Did you lose placements in Denver hospitals, or were you never able to get them in the first place? They DO teach nursing students in hospitals, right? Could you have warned us about this at ‘interview’ (aka sales pitch) instead of promising ‘oh, we have so many at Children’s, University, PSL, etc etc. Yes, some popular spots are limited….’ The likelihood of non-acute placements is much higher than advertised, and for a school smack dab downtown in Denver we shouldn’t have been stupid to assume we’d get hospital access.
This is just one complaint about the school, but it’s the biggest. How are we to prepare to be the future of healthcare delivery if we can’t learn anywhere outside SNFs and elementary schools?
She spent tons of money (we will be paying this off for the next 15 years!) and gained little from her experience. There was incredible fear mongering that took place at this school. Students were not free to speak to any of the administration about concerns without fear of repercussions.
During her clinicals, it seemed they put no concern on making her travel hours away at facilities that did her no good with her education. They did put her up in a hotel if the travel was far, but with no concern what type of hotel it was. She stayed a few times at different motels, the kind people will “rent” monthly and were even told they should be grateful they put them (her and her fellow students)in a place even though the room above sprung a leak and no other rooms were available. She ended up sleeping in shifts in one of her friends cars. No apology or concern for her well being.
I see some people say things on here like, “Grades were altered.” and stuff of this liking. This seems like it can’t be true…but oh how wrong you’d be!
Fellow students were put on probate and even removed from the school for speaking to the Dean or President about concerns. What kind of tyrant is running that place? Why should a student be worried to speak to the staff about concerns?
I had to endure my wife slowly being worn down over her time there and listen to her horror stories. Whenever I tried to tell her she needed to speak up and bring her concerns to someone’s attention, she would say she couldn’t. How terrible.
She was bumped from one cohort to another for no reason. That’s tough when you start to build a bond with your fellow students.
Please take these things into consideration when deciding on a school. I have no immediate personal investment in this school, but I would be quick to tell you to spend your money elsewhere. There are so many other things I could talk about with this school to warn you, but the short of it… STAY AWAY AND SPEND YOUR MONEY SOMEWHERE YOU ARE VALUED! AS THE STUDENT, YOU ARE PAYING THE SALARY OF THE FACULTY AND SHOULD NOT OPERATE IN FEAR OF THEM!
==
Very unorganized! Students not treated with respect by anyone, but receptionist! Terrible education!
==
If there were zero stars, this is what this institution would have!
==
I finally did some research and found out that DSN is under review for not being in compliance. They did 100% SIMS lab for OBGYN. In April, the board will decide to move forward, or put them on probation. If that happens, no one can take the NCLEX! This is why the admin are all leaving the same week! Nice job, Meghan Turner McClintock, the Dean , and Presidebt!
Needless to say, this organization was just sued for 13 million dollars! It’s all on ,” Whistle Blower,@ and the Feds sued them! This says it all! Look online! Stay clear away from this institution!
If you choose this school, you will be stuck! Your classes will not transfer and you’ll be sorry you wasted your money!
Worst experience for my child ever, from admin bullying students and Meghan threatening students that they will not pass and she will hold the whole class back!
The school is being audited at this moment and it is important that you go to the state education office and do your homework, prior to wasting your money here! They will let you know about the multiple auditing this school has endured!
Please don’t go to this school. The new administration and the high level of disorganization makes this school by far the worst. You get treated with disrespect whenever you go to Megan McClintock with a concern, they overcharge you and you’re doing more self study than learning what is taught in class. I have had teachers quit and leave mid quarter, the clinical office has overlapped my rotations more than once and it’s terrible how the faculty and administration treat the students “who are the payers” of the institution. So hold on to your money, go to CU Denver or any other school besides this one.
==
Let’s start off, I graduated from UC Berkeley at 22 and I decided to go to DSN to become a nurse……all the positive reviews on here are written by the DSN staff. I’m throwing my middle finger up to Megan McClintock, the president, the dean and the rest of the staff that has made my education terrible. 2 more quarters left and I will be reporting the highest level of unprofessionalism that I have ever seen. Everything is documented
It is hard to stay engaged, no matter how the teacher does his or her teaching, most of them read power point presentations directly but I don’t really see any other way to talk about somewhat dry material of nursing, once you’re in the field, seeing it and doing it, is when it gets interesting.
When people write that professors “fail you,” I can honestly say that is impossible. Test scores are the only thing influencing the grade percentage until the end of the quarter, and ONLY if you get a 78% average or better on the tests. Things like papers, projects etc are added after you’ve received a 78% or higher, and it usually raises the grade.
I feel that I have had a valuable education here, the class ratios are fine, the idea of actual campus amenities are lacking, however. I do like that there is a receptionist working on a daily basis. There is not a parking lot, a light rail pass isn’t provided, and the overall quality of the building is sub par. It’s small, but I never feel like there’s no space for all of us. It’s old and needs renovating. It’s no university, so if you’re looking for top of the line facilities, here isn’t it. However, the rooftop lunch area is lovely.
For a while the internet was impossible to connect to via computer but they’ve fixed that for us per several angry suggestion box notes. Schedules come out late, and clinical trials are changed and are often all over the state, sometimes they’ll provide you with a hotel. Clinical groups and facilities are chosen on a random basis and sometimes they have difficulty finding locations until the middle or late part of the quarter. Simulation labs are done as half of the clinical, as a supplementation for more acute problems not necessarily seen in off-site, real life clinical. A lot of the time is spent learning the charting system, which doesn’t prepare me for patient care, if they want us to chart electronically, I believe a separate training should be held so simulation lab can be used for patient care.
DSN notifies you before you start the program that you either may not work, or you must have a flexible schedule because this is it, this is the last chapter before you become a nurse, and it crams 3 years of education into 21 months, it’s tough, it’s frustrating, but it’s not forever.
It is expensive, and if you fail two courses, they terminate you from the program. Thankfully I had my parents sign on a parent plus loan and I don’t have previous student loan debt.
I do think they should raise their standards for acceptance because I think from the start of my BSN program we’ve lost 10 people.
As a student, I have received several emails from the president stating that our school has not lost accreditation, and if it had, I think they would notify the actual students.
As far as NCLEX, the state of Colorado lists all of their nursing schools and yearly NCLEX pass rates, I read an 81.31% pass rate.
If I can become a licensed registered nurse, I will do whatever it takes, even if it means dealing with Saturday clinical and crammed classrooms.
Here’s the link: https://cdn.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobheadername2=Content-Type&blobheadervalue1=inline%3B+filename%3D%22RNPassRates2014+Associate+Degree+Programs.pdf%22&blobheadervalue2=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1252053010335&ssbinary=true
This school ONLY uses ONE shabby loan company whom denies a majority of the students that apply for a loan (I am not exaggerating when I say this). I was denied by this loan company because I already have a previous bachelor’s degree and was not allowed to reapply even with a cosigner. Since DSN does not have a relationship with any other loan company, you are forced to go on an outrageous payment plan (between $3500-$4600 every TWO MONTHS!!!) that has to be paid out of pocket if you don’t get a loan from this shady company. The financial advisors are not advisors, but completely useless. My advisor basically told me “Well if you can’t get this loan and you can’t pay out of pocket, you should withdrawl.”
When looking into transferring my credits to another nursing school, I was notified that their credits DON’T TRANSFER and that they don’t do transcripts. WHAT!?
We had instructors leave in the middle of the quarter, only to be replaced by other instructors who had never taught the class before and didn’t know the format.
Very unprofessional, and they definitely do not care about their students. One would think that if they made upwards of $50,000 per student and they accept roughly 70 students for each quarter, they would work at making sure their students could afford to stay in the program.
Complete waste of 11 weeks of my life.
The acceptance rate is now lower than it used to be (which is fine – they need to weed out the students who aren’t all that motivated enough for nursing school) and I’m not sure about the graduation rate. Again – it should go up when they start to be pickier with who they accept.
With clinicals, I am unsure how so many people are unhappy with placements. I was in acute care for most of my clinicals and was able to do and see a LOT in nursing school! The clinical office, however, is extremely difficult to work with. They treat you like you’re a nuisance (when they really should treat you with respect and kindness – my money is paying THEIR bills, after all).
The professors are fine – I’ve never had a problem with one. The career services employee is wonderful. The area around campus isn’t the best but it is just a few short blocks from the 16th street mall, which has many food options and little coffee shops to study in. There are some extracurricular opportunities for students to join if they’re interested.
Overall… nursing school here is what you make it! Your hand will not be held throughout the program – it is long and tough but you will get through it! There are downsides to DSN, as with any other nursing school, but there are also some nice perks. I truly believe the school is trying to improve and I have been able to see it when I spent 21 months there not too long ago. I am excited to see where DSN will go in the future. (Hopefully it involves new and improved clinical office staff, internet, and a new building/location with that 50 grand per student they’re getting!)
The post by “IG:)” on May 29th, 2012 is absolutely misleading. The info in that post is either from a completely delirious student that may very well have received “incentive” from DSN, or it is from some faculty member at DSN…Please look at the other posts, the number of disapproving posts to positive responses makes it clear that this one post is one that should be highly suspicious.
Please read below. All of what you will read about this miserable place is correct.
This isnt a school, it is a for profit program owned and run by Education Affiliates. The program is an utter disaster to say the least. There is in incredible turnover rate in faculty, the administration is miserably unorganized, and the students are strapped with huge loan costs, poor educations, and no way to gain any help to solve any issues.
Students and instructors are threatened frequently with dismissal/termination from the program if they speak out against what is going on at DSN. The program charges a premium price for education and delivers a bottom of the barrel experience.
For example: We are charged large fees for “simulation labs” of which the mannequins are frequently broken and the nursing supplies are always recycled and useless (IV tubing, needles, syringes, etc.). The labs are typically 4 hours of mainly wasted time sitting in a crowded little room doing crossword puzzles or reading outdated materials regarding a scenario. Usually the lab scenario only runs for 45min of the 4 hours and with equipment malfunctions happening every single day it’s nearly impossible to get anything accomplished.
Clinical rotations are an even bigger disaster. Now, Denver has an issue of having too few clinical spots in general, but there are a fair number of my classmates that will finish this program and have NEVER set foot in a hospital. All of their rotations have been at LTC facilities (it’s an old folks home), Daycare organizations for pediatrics rotations, or in an all day “on-site clinical” which is nothing more than a 9 hour day of simulation lab with all the same issues as previously stated. The clinical office is a mess. The rotations are constantly being changed at the last minute, clinical instructors are given little to no information about what the requirements are, and if any conflicts arise due to clinical office mishaps they essentially tell students that it is up to them to figure it out and adapt. Often clinicals are scheduled on the same days that students have class, this of course seems like a silly issue to have considering the school is responsible for scheduling both classes and clinical rotations, yet every quarter this happens. This in turn leads to an onslaught of students needing to have clinical sites and dates changed, which constantly leads to many students having to spend countless hours contacting an office that never manages to properly place students and often causes a student to travel to numerous sites in order to fill clinical hours.
The NCLEX pass rates are the third worst in the state. 2014 pass rates were at 80%, this is down from 94% just two years ago. This comes as no surprise as many of the instructors are not teachers rather former nurses with a limited area of experience and are asked to teach about subjects they themselves have likely never worked in or when they did it was 30 years ago. Class time is often spent racing through PowerPoint slides that frequently present wrong or misleading information. The exams are all from test banks and are poorly written at best. Ive never understood how it is acceptable to use questions that have obvious spelling and grammar mistakes, are contradictory, and correct answers that do not actually answer the questions. Another issue that I briefly mentioned is the turnover in instructors. Both didactic and clinical staff are coming and going at an alarming rate. In the past 4 months alone there has been 6 classroom instructors and 3 admin faculty that have left, that should say something. Not to mention the alarming number of clinical instructors that refuse to continue to work with DSN.
Currently the program costs in the range of $54,000 for the BSN. That is only the tuition, books, and some lab fees. This doesn’t include travel, vaccinations, CPR recert costs, any number of “administrative fees” ranging from test rescheduling fees to clinical/simulation lab rescheduling fees…again most of which are due to mistakes made by the school yet passed onto the students almost as a punishment for deciding to enroll at this program.
I could go on for so much longer, but in the interest of saving myself from having my blood pressure spike to dangerous levels I’m going to summarize with this: DO NOT GO HERE! It will be the worst academic mistake a person could ever make. I fear for my career prospects based on such a horrible and insufficient experience. Not only that but there is a strong possibility that I will end up forfeiting on my loans because they are all through private loan companies and charge higher interest rates and have significantly shorter repayment periods. PLEASE, STAY AWAY FROM THIS PROGRAM.
Feedback I received from instructors is that there is no support nor orientation for new instructors, and because this is a for-profit school, instructors informed me the deans take the side the of the student over the instructor–which may sound good for the student but cultivates an environment where the instructor feels neither supported nor appreciated.
Likewise, students had many negative things to say, not the least of which was the incredible disorganization of the school and the shoddy way in which business is conducted. The school certainly has the feel of a business enterprise rather than a nursing school.
I opted to attend another school, and I am very happy with my decision.
Accelerated nursing schools will demand A LOT of studying.
DSN is TOUGH.
OVERALL:
I LOVE DSN! I’m in the BSN program. I’m getting ready to go to Sky Ridge Medical Center and Denver Health for clinicals. The hospital I used to work at loves to hire DSN grads. I have friends who went to DSN who are now working at Parker Adventist, Swedish Medical Center, Rose Medical Center, and the Children’s Hospital in California. They are all in ICU settings. YOUR SUCCESS IN NURSING SCHOOL IS A COMBINATION OF THE EDUCATION PROVIDED AND THE EFFORT YOU PUT IN. You have to work hard at DSN, and from my experience, the staff works hard to help you.
QUALITY OF EDUCATION:
I am going into med-surg 2 soon, and so far I believe I am very prepared and well educated in terms of quality nursing care, basic fundamental nursing, skills and competencies, and critical thinking. I am currently working in the ICU at University Hospital as a CNA, but they let me help and observe along with the nursing externs. The nurses like to ask us A LOT of questions (What does this machine do, why would you put the patient in these precautions, what is your priority with this patient, how do you do this procedure) and I answer all of them correctly and confidently and the staff is impressed. I am confident and proud of the education I have gotten so far from DSN and it shows at my work and with my patients.
– Last month, a few DSN med-surg 2 students were eating lunch during their clinicals at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s and saw a man fall off 3 stories while washing a window. They thought critically and eventually saved his life.
– 3 DSN students did their capstone at St. Joseph’s Hospital. They impressed the staff so much that once they pass their NCLEX this summer, they have jobs waiting for them at that hospital.
DSN AND THE COMMUNITY:
The school has done a lot of international contributions to Haiti and visited Haiti twice. Last month, a few DSN students traveled to Africa for two weeks to do their Community Health rotation. Next March, ten of us are doing our Community Health and Leadership rotation in Asia.
STAFF:
Quarter One is the one complaint I had with staffing. The assessment teacher was bad, and the school definitely heard about it from the students through the end-of-the-quarter staff evaluations. The school responded appropriately by replacing her after the quarter was finished. Most people who hate DSN dropped after Quarter One, and I completely understand. It was NOT a pleasant quarter in terms of the teachers. However, the BSN coordinator CARES a lot about the quality of education, and works hard to find a suitable teacher. After quarter one, I have had no complaints with the educators. I love my med-surg professor. I loved my pharmacology professor. I ABSOLUTELY loved the training and education I had from the foundations lab. There will always be some rotten apples in any school, but the majority of the educators want you to become a proficient, hard-working nurse that utilizes evidence-based-practice.
SCHEDULES:
Scheduling is also a weakness at DSN. There are a lot of students and not enough clinical instructors. The problem is NOT that DSN cannot get enough clinical sites – it is the lack of instructors to precept that site. As a result, scheduling takes forever and some clinical rotations get pushed back or changed entirely. I admit, that is unprofessional and could easily be avoided. However, I talked with the clinical office in charge of assigning and scheduling, and they really try hard to accommodate everyone – that is another reason why it takes forever. Before the upcoming quarters, the clinical office gets bombarded with scheduling requests from ALL students anticipating clinical sites/dates, so naturally this will prolong the process if the staff tries to accommodate them all.
*My suggestion was to utilize a scheduling program to lighten the load for the scheduling staff and make the process go by faster*
**SOME RUMORS ABOUT BAD DSN STUDENTS**
One bad egg can ruin the reputation of the school. A few quarters ago, one student kept on consistently being 2 hours late for clinical days or not showing up at all, and sometimes sleeping during the shift! The hospital staff was so displeased that they did not want DSN students for clinical rotations anymore. They still hire DSN grads though, which I think is kind of weird, but fortunate.
SOME RUMORS MAY BE TRUE, BUT PLEASE DO NOT LET A FEW UNPROFESSIONAL STUDENTS TAINT YOUR VIEWS ON ALL THE STUDENTS OR THE SCHOOL AS A WHOLE.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS:
I study a lot. I take a lot of notes and ask a lot of questions. When you don’t understand, DON’T HESITATE TO ASK. I had to quit my previous job because working full time was impossible, so I got a job PRN at the U. I also moved with my parents so I don’t have to worry about work and I have one play day out of the week – the rest of the days are focused on work and school.
1. I ALWAYS visit my teachers during their office hours. Even when I understand the material, I go there just to run through the material just to make sure I know the concept.
2. All my teachers who I’ve emailed have always responded within that day.
3. There has NEVER been a teacher who was not available for tutoring or was not able to schedule a time to meet. I read the lecture material, I read the books, I practice online questions, and I ask my teachers for help when I need it, and they have always been available. I have a 3.85 gpa.
CONCLUSION:
There are some extremely negative things you can hear about DSN, and some extremely positive. We often hear a lot of negative things about the school, but what happened to all the DSN grads who are successful and happy, working at Hospitals, working for the community, working as travel nurses, are in nursing management, and getting their Nurse Practitioner Licenses? Every school has their weaknesses, but obviously DSN is doing something right if we have some really great Grads doing really wonderful things for patients and the healthcare community.
People write about the bad, but please do ask successful DSN grads for information about DSN because there’s a lot of good out there that is not being heard or not so highly advertised – but it should be! DSN is great!
===
DNS program is so unprofessional and so out of touch with the students that pay the bills. They have succeeded in running the school into the ground. I do plan on writing a letter to the Board of Accreditation as one of the reviews stated we should do. They will not get it if I have anything to do with it. I will air my concerns and disgust with this program.
===
Let’s all call the accreditation board and let them know why this school sucks. This school is a scam, rip off, and run light circus. Clinical are worthless, teachers suck, they need to fail some to meet expectation, and they have fired so many staff if is a mess. Let’s call all the board members and complain about the truth. We should sue them. Email the board of accreditation. [email protected]
She is top of her class, made all A’s on her tests, received compliments on her clinical experience and now she is at the end and cannot get any help for her clinical experience-Nursing Home or Psychiatric Hospital???? This is unacceptable
and Unconscienable on the part of the leaders of this school. I am a retired RN and I have another daughter who has a Master’s degree in Nursing and we both are shocked at how this is being handled. It would seem as of today that a new person is assigned to help and hopefully she will do better than the previous or current administration. When I see how much expense my daughter has had, I cannot help but be tempted to inquire into the legal aspects of this institution.There promises are not met…..
Good luck to everyone on the nursing profession journey
Kicking myself for not doing more research before enrolling. . .