Rasmussen College Evening Program Sold Using False Pretenses Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

In early February of 2012 Rasmussen College announced an evening practical nursing program would be launched. Our evening class is the first cohort to go through the program. This process and the program itself have been a complete nightmare. We have reached out to Rasmussen to meet and discuss the inconsistencies we are experiencing versus what we were sold. As of today the Rasmussen regional dean of nursing has avoided all communication and correspondence with members of the class. This letter is our way of expressing our concerns so that others considering the nursing program with Rasmussen do not make the same mistake that we have made.

Evening and weekend program falsely sold by program managers in order to fill class. Each member of our class received a different promised schedule; evenings and every other weekend, evenings and all day Friday, evenings only, and weekends only. This was a complete shock to those of us that found out our schedules just 2 weeks before class started. Rasmussen's response - they refuses to discuss the scheduling inconsistency. Unfortunately there are many members of the class who work in Healthcare and have been forced to quit or find other alternatives for their every other weekend shifts. Rasmussen's response - students jobs are not our responsibility.

Falsely selling clinical components during nursing information sessions. We were shown via powerpoint presentation that Rasmussen had exceptional relationships built for clinical sites in the Twin Cities; Allina Hospitals, VA Medical Center, Presbyterian Homes, Health Partners Clinics and the University of Minnesota. They are still selling this falsely on their website says we should receive clinical experience in hospitals, clinics, long term care and hospice as well as "real world clinical partnerships" http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/nursing/practical-nursing/ We are halfway through our program and this class has attended clinicals at one, disgusting, long term care facility that isn't even up to code. The staff at this location consistently does not follow legal procedures for administering medications; giving meds in hallways, leaving meds with patients in rooms, giving expired medications, administering hours after they should be given. Rasmussen's response - the class has been told this happens everywhere and we need to just turn our cheek. Rasmussen's response on falsely selling clinical sites - they've avoided all communication regarding this matter.

Clinical instructors are uneducated in professional communication skills. Constructive criticism is extremely important for nursing students. Condescending, rude, and discriminatory criticism by an instructor is unacceptable and should be grounds for dismissal. Comments made to students of foreign decent by instructors, "didn't you learn how to read in your country" in front of facility staff and patients is embarrassing and discriminatory. Any other institution would fire that instructor. Instructor freaking out by raising voice and waving arms in hallway around staff, patients and other students is embarrassing and unacceptable.

Exams for most classes are administered via ATI. Once the exam is taken, students do not know if they've answered questions correctly or not. There is no review of individual test results. As nursing students it's extremely important to understand if we are correctly applying procedures and rationale for legal reasons. Therefore, not going over exam questions and answers with prospective nurses is negligence on the part of Rasmussen. Rasmussen's response - must be a glitch in the system that we can't pull individual test results.

Communication by all staff members is downright unprofessional. From online course instructors not responding to questions, to program managers waiting until last minute to release schedules, to deans of nursing avoiding communication all together. Ask yourself if this is what you want to deal with when going to college. Had we known it would be this way, none of us would have signed up with Rasmussen.

Program cost versus experience. The powerpoint presentation from the nursing session showed us that the cost for a 2 year associates in practical nursing runs around $40,000 without financial aid. Even if you get the max financial aid you are maxing out federal loans each quarter and in most cases will have to pay out of pocket. Please listen - the best advice we can give is to shop around programs and be patient. Rasmussen gets students signed up that don't want to go on waiting list, however their program is so bad that students are better off signing up at community or technical colleges with an overall program cost of $10,000 or less. Take the waiting period to finish all generals and classes that can be used for bachelors it will lighten your load when you take your nursing clinical courses. Don't get suckered into this deceitful practice by Rasmussen as we have found out after the fact their reputation in Healthcare industry is so terrible. Many organizations will not hire Rasmussen graduates and the regional dean of nursing told a student that the only jobs LPNs can get are working in long term care.

Unfortunately, members of the first evening cohort are being treated like lab rats. Rasmussen had 8 months from press release to start of our first clinical courses and didn't spend that time effectively planning and organizing the program. Now that issues are being brought to their attention they are avoiding dealing and compromising on a fix for their errors. They didn't hire specific instructors and are just trying to fill in the slots with their existing staff. The clinical instructors lack effective teaching experience and professional communication skills. Rasmussen should have offered this first cohort a reduced tuition rate while they fixed the bugs of this new program.



Rasmussen is accepting no accountability or resolution for our class, instead the overall attitude of staff and dean is that we are whiners that constantly complain. Perhaps if we took $40K out of their checkbooks for something that was sold to them with false intentions they might understand.

The worst college experience ever!