Mohawk Valley Community College Nursing Program Review

Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) is a two year institution that is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. There are about 6,000 students enrolled at this time, with 82 international students. Mohawk Valley offers on campus housing and assistance in finding housing off campus. It is not common for community colleges to offer on campus housing, so this is a real advantage to students who live too far from campus to commute.

There are many activities, clubs, and organizations available for students, including intercollegiate athletics and intramural sports. An associate degree in nursing is offered, and entrance into the program is very competitive. An important feature of Mohawk Valley’s nursing program is that it offers hands-on experience during the first semester.

Nursing Program

Nursing AAS

Mohawk Valley Community College offers an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree in nursing. This program is for those without any nursing background who wish to enter the nursing profession. Graduates of the program are eligible to enter the nursing profession as beginning practitioners. The AAS program prepares students to pass the New York State licensing exam, the NCLEX-RN that qualifies graduates to practice as a Registered Nurse. It takes four semesters totaling 71.5 credits plus a college seminar to qualify for graduation.

Admission to the program requires that the applicant is a high school graduate with either a diploma or GED. Students who want to enter the nursing program are expected to have completed high school Regents Level Chemistry with lab. They are expected to have earned at least a score of 70. College level chemistry is also required with a minimum grade of C. Applicants must take a math placement score and complete any remedial math course, earning at least a C in it. Another prerequisite is taking Anatomy & Physiology 1 at Mohawk Valley and having a grade point average of at least 2.85. Students who need to take Chemistry, Math, and Anatomy & Physiology prerequisites may follow the Pre-Nursing Curriculum.

Some of the features of this nursing program are that there is a State-of-the-art-Nursing Lab, and a professional nursing tutor is available for students requiring help. There are small clinical groups made up of about seven students per group. Lecture classes are also very small. There is a Student Nurse Organization at the college, and both day and evening lectures and clinical are offered. In addition, Mohawk Valley has a 64 hour Capstone experience during the final semester of the nursing program.

Admission to the nursing program is extremely competitive, so meeting all of the prerequisites does not guarantee that an applicant will be accepted into the program. Those who currently have a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) license or military corpsmen are eligible to enter the program with advanced standing. LPNs must take the LPN Transition Course to receive any credit for nursing experience.

Students begin taking nursing courses in their first semester, and this is not the norm for nursing programs. During the first semester, they take their college seminar, Nursing 1, Human Anatomy & Physiology 1, English Composition, General Psychology, and Nursing Pharmacotherapeutics. The second semester consists of two nursing courses, Anatomy & Physiology 2, and Life-Span Developmental Psychology. The second year at Mohawk Valley consists of Nursing 3, Microbiology, and Introductory Sociology. The final semester continues with Nursing 4, and a math course.

Contact:
Mohawk Valley Community College
1101 Sherman Drive
Utica, New York 13501-5394
(315) 792-5400