Pima Medical Institute - Albuquerque — Attraction in Albuquerque

PIMA HID MY PREVIOUS REVIEW - REPOSTING!

This review has been 1.5 years in the making. I attended Pima’s dental hygiene program and was one of the top students in my class. Now that I’m a licensed RDH and working, I can confidently say Pima didn’t prepare me for private practice. I’m behind on time management and scaling speed. Why didn’t we practice timed scaling?

Had one teacher who was really good.

Unfortunately, the negatives outweighed the good. Here’s what I think needs serious improvement:

Clinic: • Grading is inconsistent — some instructors grade much harder than others • Let students pick their own loop brand. Our class was forced to get Designs for Vision, while other classes got Oroscoptic. Mine are unusable. • Our Cavitron inserts were worse than those given to other classes — even instructors said so. • Contradictory information from instructors — please get on the same page. • Probing should be done before Check-In 2. • Calc detection varies widely between instructors, with some identifying more calculus than others • We never went over our mock boards results — how do we improve without feedback? • Dry cleaner bags touch the floor — unhygienic. • Cavitron cords/pedals should be stored separately. • There were frequent passive-aggressive remarks and inappropriate comments made by instructors. An instructor told me she “wouldn’t want to work for a dentist like me” after I shared I wanted to go to dental school. • Instructors talked negatively about students in front of others. • Constructive criticism was lacking — I learned I was hand-scaling incorrectly just one month before graduation. • Student-to-instructor ratio was too high to be effective. • Not enough patients or realistic practice — too much time spent on assessments instead of scaling. • Clinic observations were minimal. • No one got an A in clinic. We’re students — grades should reflect growth. • Instructions were often unclear. • Clinic huddles took place in the wet closet, blocking access to supplies. • Better patient recall and phone communication systems are needed. • Losing 2% of your grade due to patient no-shows is extreme. • “Watch once, then test” teaching method doesn’t work for hands-on skills. • The doctor frequently cross-contaminated and misdiagnosed — I had 6 active caries marked as “watches.” • Rules weren’t applied consistently. • Mosby’s medication book is not sufficient; Lexicomp was better. • Vitamins binder is outdated. • A student failed clinic but still graduated after doing “extra credit” — unfair. • Freckles shouldn’t be a critical error. Scalloped tongues aren’t a real-world concern.

Wasted time: • Medication worksheet (wasn’t even checked) • Risk assessments • Detailed charting not relevant to clinical work • DHCP and x-ray findings documentation

Didactic classes: • More interactive learning is needed. Promises were made and not followed through. • Quiz formatting should be consistent. • We learned almost nothing in community — had to self-study for boards.

Other concerns: • Expanded to 4 cohorts but not enough instructors = less learning. • Financial aid staff was unhelpful and rude. I missed a $9K grant because I was advised incorrectly on the deadline.

My sister and her classmates literally burned their scrubs after graduation — that says a lot. The only real benefit was it being a 2-year program instead of 4. I hope future students take all of this...

If I could leave a review without stars I would! Please… please…please…. Do not waste your money on this school. I have wasted over $50,000 on a degree I can never use. For one the price you pay for a degree program isn’t just double, or triple the amount of a community collage or collage in general it’s 4x the amount!!! I really wish I would have done my homework before picking this school. Second, they make so many promises on how they will help you and give you pstudying options if you have a hard time with your boards, but never do! I was a class of 12 people and when we all finished out of that 12 only 4 people could pass the boards. We were told by the director ( ohanika) that we had to fail once before he would help us and don’t reach out until we failed once (mind you every time you take the boards it’s $190 everytime). Then after myself and a classmate studied for two solid weeks we failed and tried to reach out to all the instructors and the director only for them to tell us it was on us to figure it out!!!! Mind you I was a solid A student through the whole program. Trust me when I tell you I don’t want you to waste your money on this Ponzi scheme of a school. Go to CNM they actually take care of their students and are preferable when going to clinicals and being hired. PIMA does not have a good reputation in the community and I was embarrassed going to clinicals with everything that was said about us before we even got a...

This is from my own experience. Everyone else’s experience differs, although I would say to do your research before attending to this school and think thoroughly. I did not have the best experience. The education is quite mediocre considering that you are paying large amount of money for it. I had to drop because I felt like I was not getting my money worth it. Personally I would advise one to attend a local community such as CNM where the programs are well structured, and where the education is superior. Yes you do have to do your pre requisite, but the amount you’re paying is less than here at PMI. Also, for the certification such as DA, MA, PT (pharmacy tech), etc; you do not have to attend to school for those, and as a matter of fact you can quite easily get on the job training at some clinics and get your certification from there. Please do your research before spending large amounts...