Lehman's Accelerated Program

Nursing Students School Programs

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Hey all,

Here you'll find specifics about Lehman's Accelerated Program. The stuff they don't address during orientation, very little, if any, about professors and the same as for my opinion. I'll go pre-program and then semester-by-semester. Drop questions below if there are any.

-tUbS

Awesome, thanks for creating this! What time do your classes and clinicals (?) start?

All right let's get started. Pre-program stuff (apologies if I'm jumping around from topic to topic):

Before I begin, make copies of EVERYTHING.

If you're going to do the accelerated program I suggest setting an appointment for your physical in early August (close to orientation so you won't have to repeat the physical before the end of the program). You'll need blood titres and/or shots for most of the common diseases.

Take a BCLS for Healthcare providers class. I think I took advantage of the July 4th sale and got mine for around $60.

Orientation may be around the August 10-12. You'll need to block out 9am-5pm on the first day. The last day is really just taking the drug calculations quiz in the morning for everyone and calling it a day. Yes, a test before you begin! Just know your ratios and ounces to mL conversions and you should be good. The kicker is that you can only get one question wrong. If you get more than one wrong, you have to do remediation and you'll be given one more chance at a quiz. If you get more than one wrong again, you're out (allegedly).

Also for orientation: read the student handbook? sure.

The uniform top is $47 before S&H (They'll provide you the link for their vendor).

Supplies: A good stethoscope. They suggest the Littman Classic II SE Stethoscope. Bandage scissors and a penlight for neuro checks and finding stuff in the dark. The Nursing Department pin with your name is roughly $10-15 (depending on whether you get the clip or the magnetic pin).

Malpractice insurance? I'm not sure if they'll cover for you but keep a little extra in your pocket just in case you don't.

It all depends on the semester. See subsequent posts for semester breakdown

Thanks for this information! There are a lot of Lehman threads. Are you able to tell me what time the earliest class or clinical you've had has started regardless of semester and the time the latest class or clinical has started?

Ok, Fall Semester:

Actually before I even get to the class-by-class breakdown, things you should know about tests in this program: All tests are given either via Blackboard or the HESI Reach program that you got familiar with before admission. You will NEVER be able to backtrack during a test and you will NEVER be able to know exactly what you got wrong on a test (unless you've discussed with classmates and remember what you wrote/selected.) It's a sin for a professor to even say or allow you to see a question after an exam. This in particular irks me because you lose the ability to learn from your mistakes.

You'll have 4 classes with ridiculous names. Let's just settle on calling them:

300 Actually I don't have a good name for this class. Intro to Nursing Profession?

301 Fundamentals

330 Pharm(acology)

344 Patho(physiology)

Fundamentals is the most important because of the amount of work required to stay on top of things and it's 6 credits. Your 301 experience won't be the same as ours since the professor who taught us has gone on sabbatical for a year. So associated with the classroom session which is one day a week (M 9:30-12:15pm), you'll have a clinical day and a lab session. Clinical is one day and it's a 12-hour shift. You'll get to practice your assessments (based on body system), give medication at least once (depending on the institution) and just learn about how nursing works in the hospital setting. The lab session, ugh...It's only person to teach the entire program. It goes very slowly (this is the nicest I can put it without throwing anyone under the bus.) If you're lucky, it's scheduled on a day you're on campus and not an off-day. The first few sessions are about 4 hours and then I believe 1-2 hour sessions there after. Oh, in relation to going to the hospital. Don't worry, they won't throw you right into the fire. You'll have 2 clinical days on campus to learn some skills and orient you to how things will be. Textbooks for this class: Buy them, especially the Pocket Guide for Physical Assessment. 3 exams plus final.

Pharm: Really good professor. The first few sessions will seem easy and then things will pick up. When you start learning about medications, here's what you'll want to focus on: Name, Indication (reason it's given), classification, mechanism of action (how it works), any assessment you may have to do before administering, side fx. She'll tell you not to memorize and I guess if you're not a physiology whizz, you'll have to. I had to. Text: Ask around for pdf. Buy the blueprint to support the professor. 3 exams plus final. (Tues 6-8:40pm)

Patho: Don't kill yourself over memorizing the patho (for example, the complementary system). The complexity of the topics don't match the ease of the tests. Know the fundamentals and vocabulary associated with a disorder. That being said, understanding the basics of the pathophysiology of a disorder/disease is the heart of the program. After this semester, every other class will reference this class. "You learned this in patho, right?" Textbook: Get a review book for patho that has simple explanations, don't buy the textbook. You can rent if you want. Pdfs exist, scan those for vocabulary and figures. 3 exams plus final (Wed 2-4:40pm)

300: Rent the textbook. You write a few papers. 2 exams. (Tues 9:30-12:15pm)

Ok, here's the kicker for the semester: whenever you have exams, it's hell week. One day after another of exams and right now you may think that that's feasible. When you see the amount of prep you have to do before the exam for one class, you may think again.

Oh, for Fundamentals, the program is split into 2 groups for clinical and you're stuck with your group for the ENTIRE year. In the clinical midterm, you'll have a simulation (difficulty may depend on professor) which is really a learning opportunity for the group depending on your classmates. You'll assume one of the following roles: 2 nurses, family member of patient, physical therapist and I forgot the last role. Opportunity for the professor to see how you react to a clinical situation. For the final evaluation, you'll have to do a head-to-toe evaluation on one of your classmates. Get comfortable with each other. They'll pair you up with the same sex (if possible) and the professor from the other clinical group will grade you.

Thanks, you're awesome for this!

A few things about the Fall that I forgot:

Fundamentals: Don't be late for clinic. Or maybe I should say don't make a habit of being late. Life happens but you risk being sent home or getting kicked out if you're consistently late. Also they'll tell you nonsense like you're not allowed to miss clinical even for the birth of your child (and yes, they're serious). Do practice questions at least 4 times a week. Can't emphasize that enough. Maybe some pdfs floating around out there and some Quizlet sets. You'll have to do a process recording (Google it) and one nursing plan of care (also Google it). You'll also have a HESI exam which is 10% of the class grade. It's their predictor for how you'll do on similar questions on the NCLEX exam. You won't have an opportunity to view rationales after since they'll kick you out of the test room.

You'll have every class with the generic students except for Pharm. Don't slight the generics. They're not all 20 years old. Many of them already have degrees as well.

The Nursing Student Association (2nd year generics) will contact the incoming group probably the first week. One of you will have to stay in touch with them in order to have your voice heard for things like the Pinning Ceremony. They'll also connect you with former students who may want to mentor you along the way. I'm not sure if I'll sign up for that. Hopefully this is more than enough.

At the end of the semester, they'll tell you there's a mandatory meeting for students after one of the Fundamentals sessions...it's so Elsevier can pitch you their adaptive quizzing software/website.

Fall is the easiest segment of the program. I shrugged when I heard it from second year students but it turned out to be true.

Winter:

For your own sanity, take HIN 269 before the program officially begins. It will make the winter so much easier if you only have to focus on one class. 269: It's an online class. I think you have a total of 6 original posts and 6-12 response posts. 2 quizzes and a final and the Community Assessment paper which is 8-10 pages. Textbook: Rent. Nothing else to really say about that class.

304 aka Psych Nursing: Almost impossible to get thru the entire textbook in the 3-4 weeks of class but that's what's on the syllabus. 34 chapters! HESI or Saunders book will be your friend. This is where things start to get a little difficult. Class is Mon and Tues 5-9pm. Clinical for this class is 2 days a week (Wed and Thurs; still 7am-7pm). You'll have another process recording to do. You'll also have to visit a support group and write about it. 2 exams plus a final and a HESI.

Spring Semester (where most people run into trouble):

You'll have 4 classes but they're structured a little different.

302 Nursing Research

406 Critical Thinking

303 Med-Surg 1*

405 Maternity/Pediatrics/Community Health*

Research and Critical Thinking are the length of the entire semester...14 weeks.

Research: 1 exam, 2 quizzes, 2 papers and class participation (10%). The class is really about learning how to synthesize and critique research so that you're able to influence evidence-based practice in the future...y'know, should you choose to go that route. One paper on ethics based on a famous case (you may have ran across it in Psychology). The final paper is the heavy one but you'll have plenty of practice doing small portions of it throughout the semester...you'll critique either a quantitative or a qualitative study. Quizzes are doable. That final...umm, I suppose you'll be fine if you've read the textbook. Textbook: Rent unless you're passionate about research. Class: Mon 9:30-12:15pm

Critical Thinking: 2 exams, 1 presentation and 1 tedious paper. The exams are tough. But here are my two-cents: 1) Find med-surg practice questions based on the topics announced. The topics are based on case studies. 2) Never give KCl via IV push, IM or SQ. Always a pump and make sure your patient can urinate before administration. The presentation is of a case study. Your chance to show how you incorporate discharge, handoff reporting, IOM and QSEN competencies and your knowledge of pathophysiology and medication. That's the nicest that I can put everything ha. This presentation is going to drive you crazy. Oh, and you have the same professor for Research and for Critical Thinking. Textbook: scan in the library. Case Study Book: Rent. Class: Tues 2-4:40pm

Now to the part of the semester that'll drive you crazy:

Where Fundamentals required the utmost effort in the fall, so does Med-Surg but it's structured differently. Instead of meeting once a week for 14 weeks, you have class twice a week for 7 weeks. Peds/Maternity will be the second half of the semester on the same days at the same time. You'll also have 2 days of clinical for each class. Further breakdown below...

Med-Surg: Mon and Tuesday 6-8:40pm for 7 weeks. Clinical on Wed and Thurs 7am-7pm. Same clinical policies apply. Oh, I forgot to mention the weekly journal entries for the fall. Same here. 3 exams, 1 HESI, 1 final and weekly plan of care. No process recordings, rejoice. You'll have roughly 12 chapters minimum to cover each week. Med-Surg is like Fundamentals, Pharm and Patho combined plus you'll learn about the diagnostic tests for disease/disorder/syndrome and there'll be a psychosocial aspect thrown in. Here's a tentative formula for doing the best you can (and you really don't have to listen to me, come up with your own formula): Disorder/Disease/Syndrome, Pathophysiology, Assessment (Past medical history, risk factors, lab data, subjective and objective data), Diagnostics (interpretation of findings), Medication/Drug Therapy, Surgical Therapy, Nursing Interventions and Potential complications. I'm sure there's more that I've forgotten.

Now in the event that there appear to be clinical days off between Med-Surg and Peds/Maternity. Don't schedule a thing. I'm sure there's an error in communication where they won't tell you that you're suppose to report to the college for orientation before Peds/Maternity. They won't care if you had appointments set up and tell you that you'll be kicked out if you don't report to orientation. That was shade in case you couldn't tell.

Peds/Maternity: Begins the night after the Med-Surg final, which will be moved up to the afternoon. Mon and Tues 6-8:40pm as previously stated and 2 clinical days (one group had Wed & Thurs and the other group had Thurs & Fri) 8am-8pm. The clinical days are a little different. One day will be Peds and one day will be maternity/community health. You'll have 7 Peds sessions, 3 Maternity Sessions, 3 Community Health sessions (where you'll split time between women's health, pediatric clinics and antepartal clinic) and 1 session for orientation. Clinicals are at 3-4 different hospitals. 2 exams, 1 HESI, 1 Final, 1 ridiculous long plan of care (15-17 pages) and 1 newborn assessment. The topics are more manageable than Med-Surg. You won't have 12 chapters to cover in a short amount of time but you'll still have a fair chunk of reading to do mostly at the beginning of the class when there's a ton of new terminology. In case, one of your clinical days falls during spring break, you may have to make it up after the regular semester officially closes. Such respect for your time. You've been warned.

In case I neglected to say it before, still do tons of practice questions for Med-Surg and Peds/Maternity each week. Also, you won't be at the same hospital for Fundamentals and Med-Surg. Just assume a different hospital for every class that has a clinical and orientation for that hospital may have to take place on personal time.

Summer (and this will be a post in progress):

409 Med-Surg 2

408 Policy and Politics

410 Leadership & Management

You'll have 6-7 days off between spring and summer. The first class will be right after Memorial Day. 11 weeks of Med-Surg 2, Policy is held during Summer Session 1 and Leadership is during Summer Session 2.

Policy: Meets 2x a week (Monday and Wednesday), 5-8:50pm. Class participation, 1 Letter to an elected official, 1 presentation (you'll be assigned a partner), 1 exam and a final. Textbook: Rent unless you have a heart for politics. You're covering about 6-8 chapters each time the class meets. This class is doable. Highlights the nurses role in advocating for policies and change and understanding the healthcare system.

Med-Surg 2: Tues (5-9:30pm) and clinicals once a week, 7am-7pm. 2 exams, 1 final and 1 HESI Exit exam (they'll throw the entire nursing cirriculum at you). The topics are manageable. There are weekly case studies, journal entries, 1 simulation, 1 patient action plan and a term paper.

That's all for now. Leave questions if there are any after reading everything, otherwise I'll refer you to the appropriate semester post.

A few things I forgot to mention:

There's a skills checklist for Fundamentals, Med-Surg 1 and 2 and Peds/Maternity that require you to go to nursing lab. It'll take over a month, possibly 2, to complete each.

Uniform pants are white. Get some comfortable white shoes. Buy a drug guide.

If you're concerned about how much school will cost, at least in terms of tuition:

Fall: 3379.60

Winter: 1782.10

Spring: 2279.60

Summer: 3521.80

You're amazing, thanks! What semester did everyone start applying for RN jobs?

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