Complaint Review: Medical Prep Institute of Tampa Bay - Tampa Florida

 Briefly, the LPN to RN online program is advertised as a 12 month program. In actuality it is taking three years to complete and this does not include a bachelors degree. The school does not inform you that the last course consist of 6 exit exams. The majority of the test are made up by the owner, Jenna. The problem with this is that they give no rational and the testing format is completely different from the actual boards. When people take these test they fail repeatedly. Jenna will yell at people and in one case she told a student they will never pass the nursing boards and they should give up. That student paid 8k to another school and is an RN. Actually, MANY students have transferred and paid this high fee to complete this last course. When many of us have called other online programs the school will tell us that they only administer the traditional and recognized HESI exit, not multiple tests. They made us pay for ATI testing program only to use it once during the whole program. They also made online students have to pay for proctor testing during the exit exams using ProctorU which this was never told to us during the admission process. After students repeatedly failed exams they made us pay for an additional review course of the schools choice in St Petersburg called ROPHEM NURSING EDUCATION for $500. We were unable to choose our own review course in our local area. Attendance was for 5 full days. I had to take off work for this because it was mandatory or be removed from the program. Keep in mind that we already had a supposal nursing review course at the school which was taught by the owner Jena and her sister Maggie. We have complained to the board of nursing and they state that they monitor pass rates and that there is no tracking for high transfer rates. Also the board of nursing says that there is no way to track why students all have different graduation dates. Not all the students have the same graduation date. This school is recently accredited with ABHES. Many students are now filing complaints with them. The owner Jenna would teach class to the nursing students and she is not even a nurse. So she is not allowed to educate the students. Her name is similar to her sister and we are certain she uses her sisters credentials, which is an RN. Now, that brings us to the next point. The owner has allowed several of her family to attend her school and they have obtained their RN and bachelors degrees from the school. The problem with that is that other students complained that they would not attend class when in the bachelors program. Now, many students are taking 1-3 years to complete 6 test. I completed school in 2015 and they gave me a gown and tassel for 2015 which they just recently mailed the gown and tassel back in March 2017. I just completed my testing in April 2017. They still have NOT given me my AA diploma. To date several of us keep calling and requesting this be sent to us and they refuse to do this. It took them over one month to get my name submitted to the board of nursing and now I have to pay extra fees because I didn't test within 90 days of finishing the course. If you investigate her school from when she opened her doors you will see that these same problems have been happening since day one. None of her students have ever had the same graduation date and most all of her students took years to complete exit exams. I have many students willing to attest to the information I am providing. I would like to have my diploma, cap and gown with the graduation date they gave me of May 22nd, 2017 even though I finished testing April 2017. I also want a full refund for all fees paid for their program including ATI and also for the additional nursing review course at Rophem Nursing Education. I also want a refund for fees paid for ProctorU. I would also like for them to be upfront with future nursing students regarding exit testing and that most students average exit testing 1-3 years. Also Jena should not be able to educate nursing students as she is not a nurse.