How Many Credit Hours are you taking???

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi ALL,

I am taking 17 credit hours (plus clinicals) starting Jan. '06. I think it's safe to say that I will have a limited social life :wink2:

How about all of you????

Hope all of you gals (and guys) have a fun and safe NEW YEAR!!!!

-Erin

Med Surg AND Pharmacology. That's a tough combo -- but a smart one. My school doesn't require us to take Pharmacology, but I'm planing on taking it anyway. Same goes with Pathophysiology.

Do most other schools require these two classes? Is this a defining factor between ADN vs BSN? With just 2 years, it's tough to squeeze everything in.

:-) Carol

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Specializes in Surgical/Telemetry.

I am in a BSN program, and we are actually not required to take separate pathophys and pharm classes, but it would have been a good idea to take them (they are offered as electives) early, as that information was packed in with the med-surg classes. Hindsight 20/20 :idea:

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.
Med Surg AND Pharmacology. That's a tough combo -- but a smart one. My school doesn't require us to take Pharmacology, but I'm planing on taking it anyway. Same goes with Pathophysiology.

Do most other schools require these two classes? Is this a defining factor between ADN vs BSN? With just 2 years, it's tough to squeeze everything in.

:-) Carol

How can you NOT take pharm and patho? I thought everyone took those. How do you learn drugs and diseases?

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I sat on the Curriculum Review Committee at the college and they all said they thought it would be great if - - - and that's a big if, only they could squeeze it in.

Our program doesn't require that you complete Anatomy and Physiology or General Psych before entering the program. That's 3 classes (11 credits) that cut into the program time. They don't want to make them prereq's because the program will start to look like what it really is -- a three-year program. Marketing, schmarketing. Sometimes it gets in way.

I took A&P, psych and a number of other classes scheduled throughout the program before applying. Others didn't. I think they're missing out. jmho.

:-) Carol

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Med Surg AND Pharmacology. That's a tough combo -- but a smart one. My school doesn't require us to take Pharmacology, but I'm planing on taking it anyway. Same goes with Pathophysiology.

Do most other schools require these two classes? Is this a defining factor between ADN vs BSN? With just 2 years, it's tough to squeeze everything in.

:-) Carol

The BSN program I'm applying for has Pharmacology and Pathophysiology as seperate 3 credit courses. As for Med Surg, and beyond that, I can't tell, 'cause they lump everything all together into 8 credit and 6 credit courses and label it things like "Adult Health I" or "Professional Synthesis"....who knows what all they cover... mystery to me. :rotfl:

Cats

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Specializes in NICU.

Pathophysiology and Pharmacology are required at my school, and I am in a BSN program, so maybe we take them because we have a little more free time, especially since we have 2 and half years of clinicals instead of the typical two which is par for my area.

So, starting January 9th I will be taking 16 credits, I am taking Nursing fundamentals, and fundamentals practicum, health assesment, pathophysiology, life span development, western civilization, and a fitness class. So, not too bad, I am sorta nervous though. Good luck to everyone:D

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.
Med Surg AND Pharmacology. That's a tough combo -- but a smart one. My school doesn't require us to take Pharmacology, but I'm planing on taking it anyway. Same goes with Pathophysiology.

Do most other schools require these two classes? Is this a defining factor between ADN vs BSN? With just 2 years, it's tough to squeeze everything in.

:-) Carol

I'm in an 5-semester ADN program. We do a full year of pre-reqs beforehand, and then we have our 5 semesters.

Pre-reqs are: ANP 1 & 2, Microbiology, Chemistry, American Government, English Comp 1 & 2 (or Speech instead of Comp 2), Algebra, and some philosophy/bioethics/ethics class.

We don't have a pathophys class, that is taught in Med-Surg. However, we do have pharm. Except for 2 classes in the first semester that you could take ahead of time, you have to take a full load of what they specify. We are a small school, so they only offer the classes once a year. So, if you fail anything you have to wait an entire year to get back in to retake the class.

Our first semester we had up to 19 credit hours: Foundations (7 credits), Medical Math (1 credit), Professions of Nursing (2 credits), Physical Assessment (4 credits); as well 2 you could take ahead of time: Nutrition (2 credits) and Growth and Development (3 credits).

Now, next semester we have Med-Surg 1 (12 credits), and Pharmacology (5 credits).

Then, with only a week of break, we start OB/maternity/peds that we do all in 7 weeks! Then, we get 5 weeks of break before we start our second year.

I'm not sure of the full schedule for the second year, but I know we have Med-Surg 2 & 3, Leadership, Mental Health, and some others I'm not sure about.

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Specializes in Surgical/Telemetry.

"How can you NOT take pharm and patho? I thought everyone took those. How do you learn drugs and diseases?"

I know of a few 2nd-degree entry BSN programs, including mine, incorporate pharm and patho into their med-surg units. Still covering the same info in the same detail, but it is very rushed.

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

I'm taking 15 credit hours. No clinicals yet, but A&P 2, Nutrition, Growth and Development 1, and Sociology!

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I'm taking Adult Client 1 (med/surg), nutrition, and patho (14 hrs). Upperclassmen have told us about patho being harder than it may appear. Please God let me remain sane.:sniff: Good luck ladies and gents on Spring semester '06!

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Im taking 8 credits--just my final nursing class (med surg #2) But its not 8 hours, its 5 hours class time and 9 hours clinical.

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Credit hours *used* to be a good indicator of how many hours I was working! LOL! I took 18 hours (that was all we had for pre-req's - not too bad) my first semester, and have had 12 hours every semester since then. I'm one of only a half dozen students I know of in my school who's actually really full-time (12 hours/sem for us) because nursing class credit hours do NOT represent face-time in class!

Our clinicals are anywhere from 1-3 credit hours (most 2, 1 is 3, 2 are 1). To get that, we have clinicals twice a week for 6-8 hours each day. Now add in commute. Our theory classes are not quite so bad, but even if we cut the class hours in half (since we go in quarters rather than semesters for most), we still are in class, on average, twice as long as we would be for other classes, including biologies with labs, to earn the same number of credit hours... Like attending one class 4 hours/day 4 days/week to earn 2 credit hours in 8 weeks. Nice, huh??

It's an intense and wild ride, this nursing school business is, isn't it? But who among us would trade it for anything else?? I sure wouldn't! LOL!

So this next semester I will be taking 12 credit hours. I will be in class Tues-Fri 6:30 or 8:00 until 2:30, and saturday 1-4:30 for 16 weeks to get that. I figured this out yesterday: I will be in class or commuting to class 37 hours per week. I have scheduled in 33 hours a week study time for me, and another 12 hours for week to help my 2 children with school (that's almost as much as they need, more than I can really spare). Needless to say, I told dh that if he wanted me to finish in the least amount of time possible (by not goign part-time for a very long time) then I would *not* be able to work even part-time too! LOL! Thank God he is really supportive, and thinks that 2.5 years of heck is better than 5 years of semi-heck ;-)

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