A day in the life of a nursing student

bhanson · Mar 23, 2011

Last semester:

Lecture days: (twice a week)

Wake up at 0500

Workout for an hour

Eat breakfast

Study for an hour

Be in class by 0830 because attendance is mandatory

Do nothing for 4 hours because lecture is a waste of time

Get out at 1300

Eat a snack and study in the library for 2 hours and then eat a late lunch

Study for a couple more hours

Eat dinner

Prep for next day

Bed around 0000

Repeat

Clinical days: (twice a week)

Wake up at 0500

Eat breakfast

Leave at 0600 for clinicals

Get out of clinicals at 1300

Workout for an hour

Eat lunch

Study for a few hours

Eat dinner

Prep for next day

Bed around 0000

Repeat

More or less studying depending on the week. I was still working a lot of hours but to be honest if all I had to worry about was school and didn't work it would be pretty easy. It's hard if you have other obligations.

kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 24, 2011

Hah..this was my typical day when I was in the BSN program.

Lecture days with no test that week

Wake up at 630

Go to class from 800-1100

Go get lunch at around 1130 with some friends

Go home and play XBOX from about 2-5

Play some ball til the sun went down

Eat dinner around 6 or 7

Watch Wheel of Fortune at 630

Watch Bones at 700

Play some games on the computer

Pass out around 1AM?

If I had a test coming up in a few days

I would usually substitute the XBOX for studying the couple days before the test

Clinical days

wake up at 530

Clinical from 645-315

Go home and nap cuz I hate getting up early

Wake up and eat, see if I had any assignments or anything

Then more games

Some people say you have to study everyday...but it's really up to the person. Some folks need to, others may not need to. I found that a stress free life helped a lot in school. Don't kill yourself studying, unless you need to

cpartrid · Mar 24, 2011

At my school we have to go to the hospital the day before to pick our patient for the next day, then (depending on the professor) do a bunch of prep work (i.e. looking up all the patient's meds, the patho for their diagnosis, etc.) that usually took me 1-2 hours.

My BSN program varies quarter to quarter, usually we have 2 lectures (3-4 hrs/week) and 1 clinical (9 hrs/week). To be honest I've worked at least 20 hrs/week all the way through and taken electives every quarter, and been president of the nursing students association and still get mostly A's.

Time management!!!!!

FLhusker · Mar 24, 2011

Thanks to all who posted. This is pretty encouraging. I don't work but I do have kids and a very supportive husband. I'm beginning to think this might be manageable after all!!!

kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 24, 2011

I forgot my work days. I usually worked 32 hours/week. And we did have those pre-lab days. It wasn't bad though.

symphie · Mar 24, 2011

Our weeks rotate whether we have lab or clinical.

A typical lab week:

Monday: Lecture 8-12

Tuesday: Lecture 8-11, Lecture 1-3

Wednesday: Lab 8-12

Thursday: Lab 8-12

A typical clinical week:

Monday: Lecture 8-12

Tuesday: Lecture 8-11, Clinical planning 1-4

Wednesday: Clinical 6:30-4

Thursday: Clinical 6:30-4

Things differ a little if we have tests, validations, meetings, etc. But that's our basic schedule for a first semester BSN student.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2011

Ok, Monday as a representative sample:

Wake up at 0700.

Pee, shower and brush my teeth, shave, get dressed

Drive to school which takes about 40 minutes

Start class at 0900.

I never leave my seat, btw.

Over the next three hours teachers will come and go in the room teaching their

respective subjects. I listen but mostly veg out during that time.

Lunch starts at 1200.

I generally go to my truck, drive around for about 15 minutes, and go park in my shady spot, eat lunch however I may have acquired it, listen to the radio, play my Agent game on my phone, or on the rare occasion I may read a text book.

Go back to class at 1330.

Sit through two hours of acute care.

Leave

Get home at about 1600.

Insert here any assortment of eating, napping, watching TV, running, reading a

school book, and going to bed by 2200.

(Tuesdays I don't have class and am usually off on that day as well so if I'm going to do any reading it's usually on Tuesday.)

I never work on Mondays. If I picked a work day you'd wonder why I'm not even more aggravated and disgruntled than I really am, LOL. Work for me is usually Wed. - Sun.

TheCareerStudent · Mar 25, 2011

I do not start clinicals until May but here is my schedule:

Wake up 0530

Eat, Dress

Get to school by 0700 because we either quiz or test EVERY day. So I study for an hour each morning.

Class starts at 0800

1130 Lunch

1200 Class Again

1500-ish class ends

Go Home and Study, Eat, Shower, Get things ready for the next day

kenpochic · Mar 25, 2011

Hah..this was my typical day when I was in the BSN program.
Lecture days with no test that week
Wake up at 630
Go to class from 800-1100
Go get lunch at around 1130 with some friends
Go home and play XBOX from about 2-5
Play some ball til the sun went down
Eat dinner around 6 or 7
Watch Wheel of Fortune at 630
Watch Bones at 700
Play some games on the computer
Pass out around 1AM?
If I had a test coming up in a few days
I would usually substitute the XBOX for studying the couple days before the test
Clinical days
wake up at 530
Clinical from 645-315
Go home and nap cuz I hate getting up early
Wake up and eat, see if I had any assignments or anything
Then more games
Some people say you have to study everyday...but it's really up to the person. Some folks need to, others may not need to. I found that a stress free life helped a lot in school. Don't kill yourself studying, unless you need to

Also depends on the school you are attending. some schools are tougher than other. there is no way that would fly in my school. i so wish it would. i heard bsn programs are easier than adn programs. 99.9% of nursing students do not have a routine like yours. We have to work hard. my theory is the harder the program the easier the nclex. our passing rate is 99.9% on the first try. best of luck to you but thats not a true reflection of a nursing students life for people who have no idea about nursing school

kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 26, 2011

Also depends on the school you are attending. some schools are tougher than other. there is no way that would fly in my school. i so wish it would. i heard bsn programs are easier than adn programs. 99.9% of nursing students do not have a routine like yours. We have to work hard. my theory is the harder the program the easier the nclex. our passing rate is 99.9% on the first try. best of luck to you but thats not a true reflection of a nursing students life for people who have no idea about nursing school

We also had a 98% pass rate. And who said anything about not working hard? Did I say I didn't pay attention in lecture? Or use my clinicals to apply what we learn in lecture? Also I worked an extern, so that really helped with applying school things as well. And as far as difficulty, we started with 130 people...and finished with 57 of those original people. Not being defensive, but I'm just saying it's different for everyone. There were some people in my program who studied hours everyday and still didn't make it to the end. I switched majors from Chemistry to nursing..so if you ask me, taking Organic Chemistry, Biochem, Physics I and II, etc. etc. etc. really made nursing school not that bad. And like I said, not being stressed helps a lot.

And your theory is somewhat correct about the harder the program..but I took the NCLEX last year and was done in under an hour with 75 questions. In my opinion, school tests were harder than the real NCLEX. The NCLEX is really what you make it out to be, to some it's easy as pie, and to others it's the world's most evil thing. Education is subjective. Don't generalize it. I also disagree about ADN being harder than BSN, how can you speak for everyone? I work with a couple of ADN nurses who graduated and can barely read an EKG strip. They also said they never heard of this or that or this or that in school. Like I said, don't generalize it

By the way, thanks for the luck, grad school kinda sucks because of all the writing. But I'm about halfway done with the MSN program.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Mar 26, 2011

We also had a 98% pass rate. And who said anything about not working hard? Did I say I didn't pay attention in lecture? Or use my clinicals to apply what we learn in lecture? Also I worked an extern, so that really helped with applying school things as well. And as far as difficulty, we started with 130 people...and finished with 57 of those original people. Not being defensive, but I'm just saying it's different for everyone. There were some people in my program who studied hours everyday and still didn't make it to the end. I switched majors from Chemistry to nursing..so if you ask me, taking Organic Chemistry, Biochem, Physics I and II, etc. etc. etc. really made nursing school not that bad. And like I said, not being stressed helps a lot.
And your theory is somewhat correct about the harder the program..but I took the NCLEX last year and was done in under an hour with 75 questions. In my opinion, school tests were harder than the real NCLEX. The NCLEX is really what you make it out to be, to some it's easy as pie, and to others it's the world's most evil thing. Education is subjective. Don't generalize it. I also disagree about ADN being harder than BSN, how can you speak for everyone? I work with a couple of ADN nurses who graduated and can barely read an EKG strip. They also said they never heard of this or that or this or that in school. Like I said, don't generalize it
By the way, thanks for the luck, grad school kinda sucks because of all the writing. But I'm about halfway done with the MSN program.

I love it when someone else pops on who doesn't think nursing school is/was that hard.