I received my BSN (bachelors in nursing) here, so I did the professional / clinical phase of the…read morenursing program (full time) here as well as several of the pre-reqs for it part-time so I have spent some time here, unfortunately. I say that is unfortunate because the entire institution is a bit of a scheme. They take every penny they can from you, I had to fight to get some of my pre-reqs transferred over and they wouldn't accept several of them because they said it was not comparable although the descriptions were nearly identical.
It is worth mentioning that they recently have started a paradigm shift in administration and protocols, so that gives me hope that things here will improve. Although one of these changes is getting rid of the capstone rotation (ie nurse 1-1 preceptor ship at end of program and the one that really matters the most) and replaced with lab simulations and group clinicals, which I do not approve of but at least I was the last class to get the real preceptorship. Would I gamble it, knowing what I know now, with nearly forty thousand dollars a year? Not likely, but it would be interesting to see if the changes will improve or worsen their standing. The new dean of nursing seems to want to change things for the better, so I cautiously have my hopes up.
I can look past that, what I can not look past is the attitude of the administration and staff here (NOT referring to the professors, they are the only saving grace this school has other than being close to an empanada truck and the newly built market across the street). I am referring to the nursing "advisors" who I can not even refer to as not being able to care less about you because that would implicate some level of neutrality or apathy; even worse, in reality several of them have more vitriol toward you than apathy.
Not only that, but the only thing they are consistent in is their inconsistency and lack of communication. I don't think I can count high enough to document how many times students would miss a deadline, a class, an event, a registration, a requirement, an-ANTHING because they do not communicate it. They don't tell you what needs to be done, when or how. When you ask them they religiously tell you to ask your colleagues / other students, then when you get misinformation from people who, themselves hearing it by word of mouth, they literally yell at you for not knowing something that is their responsibility to inform you on. I honestly don't get it - they have Blackboard, it seems like it would cut out a lot of the back and forth to just make one CLEAR, COHESIVE and STANDARD schedule of requirements, resources and instructions and post it for all students to have access to. To demonstrate my point, I remember one time I went to them in 1st or 2nd level nursing program about classes because there was some confusion about signing up for odd-number clinical with odd-number lecture sections or something. The advisor saw me reading the schedule on her door -- said nothing. After several minutes of planning my schedule I asked her a question about it and she said "oh those are out of date, they have been for over six months". Then WHY ARE THEY STILL ON YOUR DOOR (facing the hall for every student to see and refer to as an "official" source of information)? Literally every semester there were always, always, always, always several issues with clinical rotations. Either they have not been able to get enough locations signed up so students don't get placed (and thus either get held back or have to watch videos in school of procedures that we are paying 38k/year for hands-on experience), or they don't have enough instructors, or the instructors don't show up and fall off the planet, etc.
I think you get the idea, and look I'm not salty. I graduated dual honors cum laude and was in the top 5% of my class but if you're considering LIU nursing I think you should be aware of their past struggles.
The only saving grace this university has is the professors, who are the only reason they got the stars they have (if I could rate the professors on Yelp independently I would give them 5 stars). The professors here really truly do care. Several will give you their personal number if you have any problems or questions, or make themselves available to you. Honestly I would have a hard time finding a better group of people and respectable professionals.
/END rant
