UNLV Nursing School

Exsayana Flores
4 min readMay 11, 2020

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Pre-nursing majors apply each semester for the UNLV nursing school hoping all their hard work paid off and they would be accepted.

Just recently in the summer term of 2019 they increased the number of acceptance from 48 to 56. In the fall term of 2019, they increased that number again to 72.

Reyna Dominguez and Janae Walton are two pre-nursing students. They both applied in the summer of 2019 when the acceptance was raised to 56.

Dominguez and classmates at simulation center for post conference for first clinical for level 1. Photo Credit: Reyna Dominguez

“I was actually pretty upset that they increased the number to 56. If I knew they were going to increase the number I probably wouldn’t have tried as hard as I did during my prerequisites. I also was worried there wouldn’t be enough teachers for the students” Dominguez said.

Dominguez had a negative viewpoint on the increase of students that were being accepted, but Walton had a positive view on it.

“I was very excited that they increased the acceptance rate. That meant I had a better chance to get in. Vegas also needs more nurses, I think that’s why they raised the number which is really good. The program also got a new grant that I’m super excited about! I think that’s also a reason they increased the number due to having more money for more students” Walton said.

Dominguez and Walton outside simulation center. Photo Credit: Reyna Dominguez

UNLV nursing school is a very well and known nursing school. Every pre-nursing students hopes to get accepted, but only the students who received the better grades during their prerequisites are the ones who get accepted. The prerequisites include a lot of sciences, from biology to anatomy. These classes are on a point-scale score and the students only get two times to retake a class if they are not happy with the grade they received.

Dominguez said, “I chose UNLV nursing school over anywhere else, because it’s the cheapest nursing school here in Nevada. It’s also the fastest school. It’s a 16 month accelerated program as where Nevada State and CSN is two years and it’s also the best nursing school in Nevada.”

Dominguez said, “I chose UNLV nursing school over anywhere else, because it’s the cheapest nursing school here in Nevada. It’s also the fastest school. It’s a 16 month accelerated program as where Nevada State and CSN is two years and it’s also the best nursing school in Nevada.”

Dominguez and classmates at UMC for last clinical for level 1. Photo Credit: Reyna Dominuez

“We basically take care of the elderly. We take them to their medical visits. We go to their houses and assist them to make sure they are aware of things.” Dominguez explained about her community service, Helping Hands.

Walton’s community service is a the Health District.

“They have me rotating doing different clinics. Like food inspections, environmental, home visits with newborn mothers, community based things,” said Walton.

Level three consists of OB (obstetrics), Peds (pediatrics), GERO (gerontology), EBP (Evidence Based practice) courses. Level four is critical care. They combine the whole class for three weeks. Each student gets their own preceptor and what department they want. This level is basically like an internship.

Dominguez and Walton can be found spending their time at UNLV on Monday and Tuesdays, studying in the Lied Library on the fifth floor. On Wednesdays, they are at Summerlin Hospital and Thursdays at Boulder City St. Rose Dominican, Rose de Lima. Their days start as early as 7 a.m. They have to be very flexible with their weeks, because weeks are always changing and very stressful. They have to be ready with whatever nursing school throws at them.

“I can never have my week planned out, because every week a curve ball is thrown at me,” Dominguez said.

They both are graduating in December 2020. They know all their hard work will soon pay off and have the dream career they both have always wanted. They are both very excited to graduate and start their careers.

“I have always wanted to be a nurse, since I could remember.” Dominguez said. “It’s crazy to me that my dream career is about to start so soon.”

Even though they are both excited to start their careers, they also get very worn out with how much work they have to do. They only get one day to rest and have the day all to themselves. Dominguez and Walton said one way they both relax and relieve the stress from their bodies was going to the gym.

“Going to the gym for at least a couple hours, lets me not think about how much school work I have to do,” Dominguez said.

Because being in nursing school is time consuming and work overload, Dominguez and Walton wish they had more free time in order to hang out with their friends and do things normal young adults do, but they know everything will pay off soon.

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