What is a day or week like in nursing school?

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Hopefully I will be starting nursing school soon and I'm just interested to know what a typical day is like.

Do y'all have classes everyday? How long is the classes? What do you do during clinicals? How many days do y'all have clinicals? What part of nursing school are you struggling with the most? If you are working and going to school full-time how do you manage? What resources are you using to pay for nursing school? etc.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

LVN program, 2004/2005: I did not work. I lived off unemployment payments. I lived 95 miles from the school, so I commuted five days per week. I attended three 8-hour clinical shifts per week every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and classroom days were on Thursdays and Fridays.

LPN-to-ASN transition program, 2009/2010: I worked 32 hours per week as an LVN at a nursing home. My work hours were from 6am to 10pm every Saturday and Sunday. I lived 225 miles from the school, so I commuted several times per week. Classroom days were every Tuesday and Thursday from 1pm to 5pm, and the one clinical shift was scheduled for every Wednesday.

I didn't struggle with any of the nursing courses. As far as the nursing prerequisites were concerned, A&P and micro gave me the most issues. The LVN program was financed with a private student loan, and the LPN-to-RN transition program was financed partially with federal student loans and partially paid with cash.

During clinical practicum you accumulate hands-on patient care experiences through performing clinical skills such as administering medications, assessment, planning care, dressing wounds, cleaning tracheostomies, giving feedings through feeding tubes, inserting urinary catheters, and so forth.

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Specializes in Aesthetics, Med/Surg, Outpatient.

The schedule changes every class every semester. I started in spring of this year and currently third semester.

For example I just finished MedSurg III two weeks ago and my schedule was clinicals Mondays and Tuesdays and classes Thursdays and Fridays with exams on Thursday. My current schedule with OB/peds is clinicals Mondays and Tuesdays and classes Wednesdays and Thursdays. Now the adjustment is I'll be having three or more different topics covered on each Wednesday and Thursday as compared to previous semesters. I.E. Classes are essentially 10 AM to 4 PM whereas before my classes would be 8 to 12.

1st (Spring) semester I worked 8hr midnights every weekend but it got to be too much with friday classes so I ended up without sleep before going to work at 11:30pm. Also, first semester had a lot of lab hours and some were on saturdays so you can imagine how Id be up for 24-36 hrs from friday morning until the end of lab saturday afternoon before being able to get some sleep. So in the middle of the semester I switched to the Cardiac ICU where I work every other weekend doing 12 hour shifts :facepalm:

1st semester 1:1 patient ratio

Clinical's: Monday and Tuesday (6a-1p or 2p-9p)

Class: Wednesday and Friday (about 1-3 classes/day for about 1 1/2 hr each class)

Exams: Thursday

2nd semester 1:1 patient ratio

Clinical's: Monday and Tuesday (6a-1p or 2p-9p)

Class: Thursday and Friday (about 2-3 classes/day for about 2 hrs each class)

Exams: Thursday

3rd semester 2:1 patient ratio

Clinical's: Monday and Tuesday (6a-1p or 2p-9p)

Class: Wednesday and Thursday (about 2-3 classes/day for about 2-3 hrs each)

Exams: Thursday

As far as my most difficult course, Id say it is this Ob/Peds because its a lot of work and responsibilities, and we wont get quizzes prior to exams so there is a limited way to measure/gauge how we are grasping ALL this information. And we have two ATI exams along with all the exams :(

Hope that helps

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Thanks ! I guess I better get ready for plenty of sleepless nights.

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Specializes in ICU.

My school does semesters but our classes change almost every 4 weeks. I am in an ASN program first semester. I go all day Tuesday, 8:30-7. I have all day clinical on Thursday 8:30-7. This is med/surg I and clinical. We have already completed fundamentals lecture and lab along with med/surg lab. Next semester will be crazier with pharm, psych, and med/surg II.

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My school does semesters but our classes change almost every 4 weeks. I am in an ASN program first semester. I go all day Tuesday, 8:30-7. I have all day clinical on Thursday 8:30-7. This is med/surg I and clinical. We have already completed fundamentals lecture and lab along with med/surg lab. Next semester will be crazier with pharm, psych, and med/surg II.

Do you work also ? If not do you think you would able to manage having a job (part-time or full-time) and going to school those hours ?

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Specializes in Aesthetics, Med/Surg, Outpatient.

LOL I wouldnt say that. I have never stayed up later than 11pm studying and so far I am doing well :woot:

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For me..it is constantly reading, studying, watching skill videos, between two kids and keeping the house somewhat tidy..i have very little "me" time. I also noticed you are going To have some weeks like you are on cloud 9 feeling like you are on the right track ..and then you have the other weeks like you want To go 2008 britney spears where you want To shave your head...not joking..keep up with projects and your readings...make some "you" time and you will be fine.

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LOL I wouldnt say that. I have never stayed up later than 11pm studying and so far I am doing well :woot:

My only thing is that I work overnight and it's not a set schedule ? lol. I'm not sure if I should save up some money then quit and just focus on school or just try to work and go to school ..

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Specializes in ICU.
Do you work also ? If not do you think you would able to manage having a job (part-time or full-time) and going to school those hours ?

There are several people in my class that do work, but I do not. I would say it is about 50/50. I don't know if I could handle full time, but I could maybe handle about 20 hours a week if I had to. I know though of a few that work full time. Personally, I could not.

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Thanks. Y'all were very helpful !

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I'm in the middle of my Fundamentals semester (1st semester, only six more weeks including this one!), so my schedule so far is different from some of the others you've seen. Right now, it goes like this:

Monday: Day "off", the off is in quotation marks because even if you don't have to physically show up, there's probably something else you should be doing to get ready for your week in clinical/class, or the next exam, or a project, or something.

Tuesday, Wednesday: Clinical, for 5 hours, bright and early. That means I'm up at 4:30 in the morning getting ready, because my clinical site is not close to my home.

Thursday:

-Lab - 2 or 3 hours, first thing in the morning, length of the lab depends on that week's content.

-Lecture - 2 hours, immediately after lab.

-Break, about an hour and a half.

-Pharmacology, 1 hour.

Friday: 2 hours of lecture.

We have short clinicals, for now. I think they get longer next semester, and we've been at the same clinical site all semester, but that won't be the case next semester. Next semester, our site will change every few weeks, I've been told. All of this is not to mention the prep work we have to have done before we go to class, and the study time.

I don't have a job, I take care of my kids though. As other replies have said, time for you is important. For me, that's time that I don't have to study or clean, but can hang out with my family for a while without suddenly remembering something else that needs done. A lot of people in my program work, and they're hanging in there. If you have concerns, you mostly need to focus on good time management, and discipline to keep you going, because studying is harder after a few straight hours of it.

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