I was a graduate from UPMC Shadyside after St. Francis Hospital’s nursing school closed mid-education year and we all got transfered into Shadyside’s nursing program. Because of that, I can’t speak for the whole of the educational experience because I did my first year at St. Francis. It was a good school that focused a lot on being very hands on and they were very demanding academically — which is the way it should be. There were multiple clinical experiences at different hospitals associated with the hospital — for example psych was done at Braddock, ICU was done in Shadyside, etc… Microbiology classes were done through Carlow College… The location is great because it is close to most of the areas that you have to do clinicals, there is a book store and a whole foods right across the street so students are able to get healthy lunches and pop over to the bookstore for more resources. I sincerely hope that they have expanded their school because there were times that there were too many classes, too many students and not enough class rooms and we were sitting on the floor of the computer lab trying to learn about labor and delivery, etc… so this was certainly a failing point for the school. The teachers were very dedicated to each students success and made a concerted effort to reach out to help struggling students. The whole«nursing shortage» thing is a myth these days and new grads are having a very very difficult time finding jobs — that should get better as the economy does, but it isn’t a good market for jobs anywhere these days.