Apples to apples: tell me about your program

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in critical care.

Forgive me if this thread already exists (and feel free to point in me in the right direction) but I am curious about comparisons between programs and degree types.

I'd like to actually see what the different programs include. We have all of these discussions about the benefits and downfalls of different degrees, and I'd like to join the discussion, but quite honestly I know very little about non-BSN programs, and I wish I did. Will you share details about your program?

Type of program:

State:

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? (so no pre-reqs or gen eds - nursing classes ONLY)

How is the program structured? (semester system with summer and winter breaks, year-round, etc.)

List what classes are included, in order:

Do you feel like your program could do something better?

For me:

Type of program: BSN

State: Maryland

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? 2 years (4 semesters)

How is the program structured? Semester system with summer and winter breaks

List what classes are included, in order:

Semester 1: adult 1 lecture, adult 1 clinical, health assessment, intro to nursing practice

Semester 2: adult 2 lecture, adult 2 clinical, maternity lecture, maternity clinical, research

Semester 3: psych lecture, psych clinical, peds lecture, peds clinical

Semester 4: community lecture, community clinical, leadership and management lecture, internship clinical

We are also required to take a 3-credit elective. Their choices quite honestly are not that great. I decided to do an independent study instead. There are externships they allow students to do, and there was also a study abroad opportunity between semesters that students could do, but it was crazy expensive.

Do you feel like your program could do something better? As we've seen expressed on here, I don't feel like I have had enough hands on experience, although my internship really did help that a lot. I am in a rural area, so quite honestly, the lack of exposure wasn't something that could be helped, and the ADN program here locally has the same trouble.

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Type of program: BSN

State: Mass

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? (so no pre-reqs or gen eds - nursing classes ONLY): three years

How is the program structured? (semester system with summer and winter breaks, year-round, etc.): six semesters, summer and winter break

List what classes are included, in order:

Semester I: Foundations of Nursing and it's lab, Health assessment and it's lab, and pathopharmacology I

Semester II: Pathopharmacology II, Med-Surg I with clinical and microbiology

Semester III: Evidence Based Practice in Nursing, Med-Surg II with clinical, Mental Health with clinical

Semester IV: Maternity with clinical and Pedi with clinical

Semester V: Chronic Illness with clinical and Community Health with clinical

Semester VI: Leadership and Management and Your selected practicum.

...And a crap load of other gen eds at the same time as all this just to stress you out! :)

Do you feel like your program could do something better? No. I love the program I'm in. I feel challenged but also supported, I never feel like the professors are "out to fail us" or as if they are unfair or anything like that. If I get a good grade- great for me! If I don't do so hot- I know I should have studied harder. I feel lucky I got into such a great program!

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Specializes in ER.

Type of program: ADN

State: Midwest

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? 2 years excluding summer semester. However, you could take some lecture classes during the summer like pharm or critical care elective.

How is the program structured? Semester system with summer and winter breaks.

List what classes are included, in order: It varies. People had the choice of switching some around or taking some classes early such as any theory. The semesters with multiple clinical components could also be arranged differently so someone may take mental health before adult health II. Technically the pre-reqs were built into the semesters but no one ever took it without most or all pre-reqs done.

Generally this is what most probably did:

1st Semester

Nursing Fundamental Skills w/lab and clinical

Some kind of nursing history/theory class

Pharmacology

2nd Semester

Adult Health I w/clinical component

Patho

3rd Semester

Nursing Community

Adult Health II w/clinical component

Mental Health w/clinical component

4th Semester

Peds w/clinical component

Adult Health III (geriatrics which was like a week or two weeks) and Leadership w/clinical component

OB w/clinical component

Preceptorship for 120 hours (co-current with other clinicals)

Some other nursing class that we met and talked about NCLEX, finding jobs, etc

There were other programs that funneled into the 2nd year of the program such as the Paramedic to RN and the LPN to RN. Instead of adult health II, they had other classes for their program and then the rest were the same.

Do you feel like your program could do something better? I think helping the LPNs who were transitioning might have been a bit more helpful for them. I also think the amount of other stuff they had come in to campus to do should have been scheduled more appropriately. Like an EKG class. They gave some students a week notice about when the times would be and this would impact families who needed to arrange childcare a head of time.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Type of program: BSN

State: Maryland

How many months or years are you in nursing classes?: Two years

How is the program structured?: Four semesters

List what classes are included, in order:

- Semester 1: Foundations, Gerontology, Health Assessment, Nursing Informatics

- Semester 2: Med/Surg I, Pediatrics, Nursing Research, Pathopharmacology

- Semester 3: Med/Surg II, OB, Mental Health, Nursing Trends

- Semester 4: Practicum, Senior Seminar, Community Health, Nursing Leadership

Do you feel like your program could do something better?: No, I love my program. :-)

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Type of program: BSN

State: Mississippi

How many months or years of nursing classes? 5 semesters

Structure? fall and spring semesters only

list of classes:

Junior l - Fall Semester

NUR 302 Fundamentals of Client Care

NUR 332 Fundamentals of Client Care Practicum

NUR 303 Health Assessment

NUR 333 Health Assessment Practicum

NUR 312 Basic Pathophysiology

Junior 2 - Spring Semester

NUR 305 Nursing the Adult Client I

NUR 335 Nursing the Adult Client I Practicum

NUR 314 Health Policy & Ethical Decision Making

NUR 304 Pharmacology

Junior 3 - Fall Semester

NUR 306 Nursing the Adult Client II

NUR 336 Nursing the Adult Client II Practicum

NUR 307 Mental Health/ Psychiatric Nursing

NUR 337 Mental Health/ Psychiatric Nursing

Practicum

NUR 309 Nursing Research/Evidence Based Practice

Senior 1 - Spring Semester

NUR 401 Maternity Nursing

NUR 441 Maternity Nursing Practicum

NUR 403 Community Health Nursing

NUR 443 Community Health Nursing Practicum

NUR 405 Pediatric Nursing

NUR 445 Pediatric Nursing Practicum

Senior 2 - Fall Semester

NUR 402 Management of Client Care

NUR 442 Management of Client Care Practicum

NUR 406 Nursing Preceptorship

NUR 408 Nursing Synthesis

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I attend a diploma program.

It is 2 years long, composed of 6 semesters. 2 months off in the summer. No other breaks, we got a week for Christmas.

1 semester: foundations and pharm

2nd semester: 8weeks maternal child and 8 weeks gerontology.

3rd semester: med surg

4th semester: 8weeks mental health 8 weeks acute care

5th semester: 8 weeks complex (crazy course with mental health and maternal child) and 8 weeks critical care

6th semester: preceptorship 240 hours, not sure what the class time will consist of, mostly nclex prep I think.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

Type of program: Prelicensure BSN

State: CA

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? (so no pre-reqs or gen eds - nursing classes ONLY): 4 semesters/2 years

How is the program structured? (semester system with summer and winter breaks, year-round, etc.) Fall and spring semesters

List what classes are included, in order:

Semester 1: Fundamentals/Care of the adult client, Maternal/Child

Semester 2: Care of the adult client, psych, research

Semester 3: Critical care, peds

Semester 4: Leadership, Community Health, preceptorship

Do you feel like your program could do something better? It's pretty recently gone to a 2 year, so there are still kinks being worked out, mostly organizationally. One thing I think a lot of people wish we had was more skills lab time- we really only get a day or two at the beginning of each semester, and everything else is learned on the floor. Thankfully I came in with experience, but there are plenty of skills I'd love to have more practice with, and I know my classmates wish we had more time in skills lab. I am REALLY happy with my professors, for the most part, and they all advocate for us. There is no "nurses eat their young/thinning of the herd" mentality; it's very supportive.

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Type of program: BSN

State: CA

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? 3 years (6 semesters)

How is the program structured? Spring and Fall semesters with summer and winter off

List what classes are included, in order:

1st Semester

Fundamentals of Nursing

Health Assessment w/lab

Introduction to Nursing Research

Introduction to Nutrition and Pharmacology

2nd Semester

Pharmacology

Adult Health I w/clinical

Professional Nursing

3rd Semester

Transcultural Nursing

Maternal Child Nursing w/clinical

Pediatric Nursing w/clinical

4th Semester

Mental Health w/clinical

Community Health w/clinical

5th Semester

Adult Health II w/clinical

Leadership and Mangement

6th Semester

Preceptorship

Pre licenensure Seminar

Issues Facing the Profession

Do you feel like your program could do something better? I really like the fact that our program is 3 years long compared to the traditional 2 year programs. I also feel like our school does a great job giving us the whole picture of nursing with all the extra courses we take (professional nursing, nursing research, issues facing the profession). I am very happy with my school!

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Specializes in CV/CT SICU.

Type of program: BSN

State: Texas

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? : 2 years

How is the program structured? : 6 semesters (broken into 2 8 week sessions per semester)

List what classes are included, in order:

Semester 1: Fundamentals + lab (session 1)/clinical (session 2), Health Assessment + lab, Pathophysiology

Semester 2: Adult Health + clinical, Pharmacology

Semester 3: Maternity + clinical, Peds + clinical

Semester 4: Mental Health + clinical, Critical Care + clinical

Semester 5: Community Health + clinical, Collaberative Health (i.e. Leadership) + clinical

Semester 6: Capstone (session 1), Graduation (session 2)

Once you have successfully passed semester 2, you can take classes from semester 3 and 4 in any order.

Do you feel like your program could do something better?

No. I love my program. They are all very supportive and want us all to succeed. Do some people fail, yes, but as with anything in life, you have to work hard. Nothing is given to you. The best thing is that semesters are broken into 2 8 week sessions so if you do fail a class you only have to wait 8 weeks to retake the class instead of a whole semester like at other schools. We are also on a school wide testing schedule. Exams are weeks 3, 5, 7, and 8 (HESI specialty)which make things hectic because tests are almost every other week. But on the flip side of that as soon as you get into the groove of class, POOF the session has ended and on to the next....

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Specializes in LTC, Rural, OB.

Type of Program: ADN

State: WA

2 years in the program

structured in 6 quarters with an optional summer quarter to become a LPN after the first year

Quarter 1: Fundamentals of Nursing, 2 day clinical at long term care, health assessment, pharm math

Quarter 2: Theory consisted of Skin/Burns/Pain, Eyes/Sleep, Ears/PVD, Diabetes, Respiratory; Clinical half on a surgical or med-surg floor and half ancillary; skills lab and pharmacology

Quarter 3: Theory (Fluids and Electrolytes, Cardiac, GI, OB), same clinical set up as quarter 2 but with an extra week, pharmacology and skills

Quarter 4: Theory (Psych, Advanced Respiratory, Heme, Peds), same clinical set up as before but now another 2 weeks and half of it was Psych, pharmacology, skills lab

Quarter 5: Theory (Neuro, Advanced Cardio, Cancer), Prof Issues, skills lab, same clinical set up

Quarter 6: Theory (Endocrine, high risk OB, Emergency Nursing), Prof Issues, skills lab which will actually be a bunch of guest speakers, Preceptorship of 136 hours (mine will be in OB!)

I actually like how our school has things set up because everything just builds on top of each other and they have the optional summer quarter where you can sit for the NCLEX-PN if you pass that. It makes it possible for someone who may fail at some point in the 2nd year get a job as an LPN and get the clinical skills they are lacking and be able to come back the next year and pass. There were some new things implemented as we were going through, such as the pharmacology class. That used to be incorporated into a different class, but at our 3rd quarter they made it a separate class, so it was kind of trial and error to how they would do it. I like that we get to do half of our clinical for the quarter in other departments to get an idea of what we might like, and of course certain departments like OB and Peds are required. In all I feel like the program is very strong and the teachers are incredibly supportive.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Corrections.

Type of Program: ADN

State: Maryland

Length: 2 years

Structure: semester system with summer and winter breaks -- we have two cohorts, one that starts in the fall and one that starts in the spring; I started Spring 2014 and will graduate in Fall 2015.

Classes:

1st Term: Medication Admin, Assessment, and Concepts 1/Clinical

2nd Term: Concepts 2/Clinical

3rd Term: Concepts 3/Clinical

4th Term: Concepts 4/Clinical

Every semester we have a concepts lecture 1x a week, and then clinicals 1x, sometimes 2x a week. 4th term is very little lecture and a lot of clinical, which is split halfway between a community health experience (school nurse, home care, etc.) and a hospital-based preceptorship.

I really like my program and how it's structured. I'm the kind of person who does really well with real-life learning, so all of the clinical time is very helpful. Also, we buy all of our books and supplies for the whole program prior to 1st term, so there are no hidden costs down the road. Granted, it's about $1000 at one time, but we use the same books throughout all 4 terms.

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Type of program: Accelerated BSN

State: Maryland

How many months or years are you in nursing classes? 1 1/2 yrs (18 months)

How is the program structured? (semester system with summer and winter breaks, year-round, etc.): I go to school Summer, fall, spring, summer and fall I graduate. So I will be graduating in Dec.

List what classes are included, in order:

Summer 1: Nurse 101, Foundation of nursing practice one, Nutrition in health and disease, Foundation of nursing practice two, Health assessment,

Fall Semester: pharmacology, pathophysiology, Med-serg, Gerontology,

Winter: Transcultural health and Wellness 1(online)

Spring Semester: OB, Phych. nursing, Nursing research

Summer 2: Nursing Practice community, Pediatrics

Fall Semester (last semester): Med-serge 2, Transition into professional nursing, Transcultural health and Wellness 2, and Nursing Comprehensive exam.

Do you feel like your program could do something better? For the accelerated program, definitely not! I like the way the program is setup and a lot of students that graduate from the accelerated part pass the NCLEX. Maybe its because it is so demanding. I get I think two weeks winter break, one week of spring break and a one month summer break (after my summer classes). I am pretty much in school all year round!

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