What can I expect in Accelerated BSN Program? - Page 2

What can you expect in an Accelerated BSN program?

You can expect to have no life because all you will be doing is studying and going to school. Good luck!

!Chris

I am an assistant dean in a Direct Entry MSN program. My students report that between homework, clinical practica, clinical prep, and logbooks they are spending 40-50 hours per week outside of class on nursing. Added to taking 15 credits per term, this means 50-60 hours/week in total.

Needless to say, there is not much time for other activities. But they are going from being a non-nurse to a MSN in 24 months and completing over 1000 hours of 1:1 clinical practica.

Entering an accelerated nursing program (ABSN or DE-MSN) is a big commitment of time. As HazeKomp mentions, you need to be focused and directed.

Hey UVA, what kind of grades do you need for grad school? I keep hearing from people here about getting ~3.5 even though the average in my patho class is a 77% (C).

Yes, I think I see that now.

Thanks

Aragorn:

For our Direct Entry MSN, the mean GPA is a 3.5, with grades of A or A- in all of the prerequisite classes. The undergraduate GPA is just one component though (this year we did not admit several students with GPAs above 3.9 and accepted two students with undergraduate GPAs under 3.0). About 1/3 of our students have graduate degrees already (MPH, JD, MBA, etc). Our admissions committee is particularly focused on prior healthcare experience (as CNA, EMT, paramedic, HIV educator on Peace Corps, primary care giver to parent in a terminal illness, caregiver to own children with chronic medical conditions, etc).

I'm an attorney and I am presently one month shy of beginning my prereqs, planning to apply to an accelerated BSN program that begins in May 2010. I am very excited and am starting to get psychologically prepared for the "no-life" it will entail for a whole 13-months. I am a little nervous about it all, but the more I see people on here talking about it and getting through it, the more I can convince myself that there isn't a reason in the world that I can't do this either.

Classes for my accelerated BSN program starts June 1st so this thread is really helping out a brother! Thanks a lot ya’ll!!

I think the amount of free time is dependent on your life ouside of class and the length of the program. 13 months is very short and you have a test 3/4 days a week, so all you do is take tests for the first 10 weeks, the second ten weeks for us is 2 days clinicals for 12 hours each day and 2 days class from 8-4 with one have a test every week and the other having a lot of homework. Then the rest of the weeks progress as 2 days clinicals and 2 days class. Clinicals are no joke and you will probably have the infamous care plans in which you will write nursing diagnoses, interventions, rationales, goals and outcomes, and this can take a lot of time. A good book for care plans is called "All in one" they sale it at borders, amazon, barnes and nobles.

I bought a pda for nursing, well an Ipod Itouch actually, you really only need an 8GB, and you can download resources from skyscape.com and epocrates. There are also free applications at the appstore for medical purposes, and it is very helpful in clinicals when looking up disease etiology, lab values, drugs, etc........of course several people still use the internet and bring their books to help them alone. The only problem I found with the itouch, is navigating through the menus to find just what you are looking for.

Other great resources can usually be found at your hospitals bookstore, especially if it is a teaching hospital. I am not talking about the giftshop, but a bookstore. They have quick references such as "RN notes", "RN PDQ" these were all helpful for my classmates. The itouch had the RN notes through the appstore, and was very helpful to review 10 seconds before i gave a patient a foley catheter, but the PDA is obviously no substitute for reading your book and practicing the skills involved in nursing in lab.

I went through a BSN program. I hated it at the time, but looking back it was not the worst thing I've ever done.

- Stay organized
- Expect to do a lot of busy work (eg. papers, writing and more writing). I went through with an attorney and he said he wrote more in nursing school than law school. Not sure if an exageration, but we did write a lot.
- Treat it like a full-time job, monday through friday. I had dinner every night with my wife and watched football on the weekends, though I did study at night and on weekends when necessary.
- DO NOT procrastinate. There is no time for catch up. If you have a paper due, get cracking on the rough draft.
- Figure out what to read and what not to read. Books are 800 pages. Use your notes as a guide. There are typically quite a few paragraphs in the book you don't need. x-through them. Maybe even look into a "speed" reading course.
- Know that it's like drinking from a fire hose. You will not retain everything. The real learning comes when you work on the floor.
- Everyone recommends study groups. I do not. YMMV, but i do not see how the material is at all relevant to a study group. You are not working through phyics problems or massive case studies. Just my opinion. I quickly found them a waste of time...
- Keep your head up. I made straight A's through school, but those who made C's got a job just as I did and made the same money. The key is passing the test at the end and if you put in the time now that will not be an issue.

Good luck.

What a GREAT analogy!