University of Oklahoma-Accelerated BSN Program

Nursing Students Online Learning

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Hi All,

I'm new to this site and to the field of nursing. Has anyone gone to this school and if so, what did you think?

I live in San Diego, CA, and there is an online program that this school offers. I'm 3 prerequisites away from applying to the school, with a start date of August 08. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Nicole

Thanks for the greetings! honestly, I do work part-time nights (even though they told me it was going to be impossible to work and do this program) and find I have enough time for studying if I manage my time correctly. It's really all about managing your time wisely, and using every little bit of time you have to just look something over or read something. You can't change the fact that you have to be on-site for skills labs once or twice a week, and when clinicals start you have to be on site for one and half days. Granted I am single and have no kids, but there are a few parents in the class that are doing great with good grades. A lot of us actually have jobs and are doing this program too. For me personally, having to work two nights a week really keeps me on track. School for me this semester went like this: preclinical on sunday afternoon for an 1hr, then the rest of the night spent doing our care plan for monday, then clinicals on monday at the hospital starting at 0630 (early I know) and get out around 230 or 3, then go home, take a nap, study a little bit/take quizzes for tuesday's skills lab. tuesday all day 9-3, wed half day usually done by 1 or 2, then go home do laundry/normal life stuff. I work thurs and fri nights and our other classes had hw due on fridays so I made sure to get it done before then. Then go to work, and then sat would be my day to spend with friends and do some hw for the next week. It worked out pretty good for me

We are full-time students meaning we have 4 classes. Clinicals, health assessment, human experience (fundamentals of nursing), and a paper writing course that consisted of a 3pg paper and discussion boards/drop boxes. nothing too crazy. However, remember it's the first semester. Oh they don't tell you that there is a community health component that requires you to do community health hours (observation/volunteering) outside of the on-site experience. That's what sucks! And I guess the number of hours they require increase each semester. That's the hard part because it takes time to plan for those things and takes time away from family/studying/life. I do have a medical background, having worked as an EMT in the ER for 6 years so a lot of the skills aren't especially new to me and the terminology isn't a foreign language. However, some of my classmates struggled with abbreviations or medical roots (-itis, ectomy, etc) but that kind of stuff hails from our microbio days. As long as you have decent study skills you will do fine. All my nurse friends laughed at me when I first started bc I tried to read EVERYTHING, which I realized is impossible. They just told me to skim the important stuff and focus on what the professor emphasizes in her reviews, powerpoints, audio lectures, etc and I found it really helped me cut down on the extraneous stuff I was filling my brain with. Anyways, gotta go to work again...got called in. Guess I'll have to study later! Feel free to shoot me more questions, I'd love to answer them.

PS clinicals start I think the 2nd or 3rd week of school, you just go the day before with your classmates and find a patient on the board, look up their diagnoses, their past/present med hx, medications, labs, etc and then create a plan of care for the next day. basically as you progress in the semester you will do more and more for the patient. we started slow, but we do the assessment, serve them their meals, weigh them, change their sheets, give them meds and just be their personal nurse basically. then we have to go back and fill in the blanks of our care plans. We learn skills in our clinical lab on tuesdays that allow us to do things on patients in the hospital under the care of their primary RN. At first you feel like a pest following the nurse around but as you learn to do more tasks, they like you because they put you to work!

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Thank you so much

Now what do you mean by volunteering? how many hours and what type? lol my husband is going to kill me I kept advertising this program for not having to leave the house much

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Hi all-I went to the open house at Glendale today. They still didn't tell us whether or not if we were accepted, but told us that we should wait for the letter in the mail. They just got the ok to send out letters yesterday. They made it seem like that if you meet the minimum requirements you shouldn't have a problem to getting accepted. Well, we shall know very soon!

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Hi all-I went to the open house at Glendale today. They still didn't tell us whether or not if we were accepted, but told us that we should wait for the letter in the mail. They just got the ok to send out letters yesterday. They made it seem like that if you meet the minimum requirements you shouldn't have a problem to getting accepted. Well, we shall know very soon!

do you have pre-reqs in progress?

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Nope, I finished all of them.

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Hi Everyone,

I am just finishing up my first semester in the San Diego program.

Yes, it's an "online program", but don't be fooled.

You will be going to campus a lot. This semester, I had school 4 days a week. Skills lab, health assessment, picking the patient at the hospital, and clinical. Also - you have community service hours you have to do throughout the semester at various locations.

Also - you have to take all of your exams on campus so that can be an additional day.

I just wanted to let some of you know that it is an online program, but you will be showing your face a lot. Oh, and the first week, be prepared to be on campus EVERY SINGLE DAY! ALL DAY LONG!

Best of luck to you all! :D

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"volunteering" for community health took us about 36 hrs total, but you have to understand we have a health promotion teaching project where you group up with a couple of your classmates to find a topic to present that is related to health promotion. You get community hours for that, then we had to volunteer 20 hours of our off-campus time to working health fairs, observing at flu clinics, volunteering at blood drives. I think it is more just to get you out into the community setting, at least that is how it was for us. Depending on where you live you may be spending more time away from your family....you do have to calculate in driving time and such. At least at Glendale we were there max 4 days a week, and our exams were bundled in with our skills labs for health assessment and clinical skills so we didn't have to go down an extra day. For instance this coming next week we have an exam, our health teaching project, then the rest of the day is spent practicing our skills, and then next day we have our final exam for clinical skills where we come in for a half hour and get tested, then we go home. seems like a waste, but oh well.

Our new facility is kick-ass though, I don't know if you saw it but it definitely feels like a real nursing school now! A lot of my classmates have study groups at the library in Glendale, I just opt to study by myself because I really don't want to be in Glendale more than I have to! Next semester they are telling us that we will be having two clinical days, a preclinical day, and an onsite skills lab day. Sounds like it should be the same amount of on-campus time, but they upped our community health hours so we will have to spend more time off-campus doing volunteer work.

Take care...I know the anticipation killed me...but remember why would they make you pay all that money and send you to open house if you weren't accepted? that would be plain dumb! Good luck!

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wow really my husband is going to kill me lol...how long does it take the preclinical? ...I know the clinical is 8 hours what about the other days?

why are we going to be in school every day the first week?

By the time I will start ...if I am accepted I am planning for August ...we will have classes every day lol

any other tips for us beginners?

thank you all

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Specializes in ED.

Preclinical time length depends on your instructor, some make you meet with them, others let you pick your own patient. Either way you do the research on your own time before clinical. It took me a while in the beginning, but after you get the hang of what to look for in the chart, you can be out of there in 20 mins, as long as your chart is there. Sometimes someone is using the chart or the patient is in surgery or something, so the chart is unavailable.

You will be in school every day first week b/c you'll be listening to presentations about school, about community clinicals, etc. It may be different for you guys, things are always changing. Its a lot of info.

After your first semester you'll be in class on campus a little less, since Health assessment lab is only during the first semester. But I hear also that every semester, your community clinical hours become more and more, so you'll still be out of the house.

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I am so happy that you girls came back with some info for us

BBOOGEYSMOM...I know you are a mom as well I need to know how did you feel it affected you and the relationship with your son etc....do you feel is doable if I am able to study only at night etc

Again I am so glad you are giving us some more info about the program

Thanks

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I know it is early to ask but is anyone applying for August 2009?

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Specializes in ED.
I am so happy that you girls came back with some info for us

BBOOGEYSMOM...I know you are a mom as well I need to know how did you feel it affected you and the relationship with your son etc....do you feel is doable if I am able to study only at night etc

Again I am so glad you are giving us some more info about the program

Thanks

I think its totally doable, as long as you have a good support system. I fortunately do, so I feel that even when I am away, my son is being cared for by people I trust. There are many moms in the program and a lot of them are doing really well. I can't speak for the future semester workloads, since I haven't gotten there yet. But I never imagined nursing school would be easy, so I'm not counting on anything to be a breeze.

As for my relationship with my son, it hasn't suffered at all. In fact, I think it works out for both of us. I think he gets to explore without me and it actually gives him time to miss me, and vice versa. I find it incredibly rewarding to come home and he is so excited to see me. And it gives me built in breaks to be with him. I don't study when he's awake, unless I have note cards or some sheet of something to study handy and there is a big test coming up.

It is definitely harder when DH is out of town, like he is right now, but I still get in 2 or 3 hours at night and 2 or 3 when he's napping. And weekends are all about studying/eating/spending time with family. Yes, I barely get to chat with DH, but I make it a point to at least talk to him in the evenings at dinner time or as we're falling asleep. I look at it this way, its only for another year, and we'll survive it. This first semester has flown by.

HTH

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