Re: Thomas Jefferson FACT Program
Hi again,
I currently have three 8-hour clinicals per week. I'm really going to try to get two 12s next quarter because I feel like I have less time than people who have 2/week. I'm on the 7-3 M/T/W rotation. We usually get out a little late, so by the time I get home, I'm tired and don't want to study much. In contrast, the people with two 12s will sometimes (not always) get done early and then they also have a whole extra day to themselves.
I live in West Phila and ride my bike so I have about a 20 min commute. Tons of people in our program from south jersey. Most take patco in. Some come from very far; I know of at least 2-3 people with an hour+ commute each way.
How much I study/read depends on the week. Most weekdays I'd estimate about 3 hours/day and on weekends probably about 4-6 hours/day. Some weekends I won't do one thing because I need a mental break (that was this past weekend). The instructors will tell you it's healthy to do that every now and then. I could have justified it fine all by myself, but that's good too.
I had thought most of my time would be spent straight studying, but we actually have a fair amount of smaller projects that take up time. My estimate of how long I spend studying includes these. (For example, we had to write a report on the support group experience, a report on the day we spent in the OR, care plans for clinical, etc.) Right now we have 5 classes. The three main classes are pharm 1, patho 1 and nursing management 1. These are taught by body system, so that in a given week you might do GI and cover GI drugs, GI path and GI nursing care. The other 2 classes are Health Assessment (this class has a lab) and Intro to Nursing (some busy work, laid back, not a lot of effort). I checked the schedule for our next quarter and it seems like the work load is a lot less.
We've had exams in all of our classes except Intro (no exams for that class). They structure exams like the NCLEX exam (including style of question and amount of time given to answer each question) so we're used to them by the time we graduate. I thought the exams were fine and easier than I studied for. They try to prepare you by guiding your readings with questions to focus on, and giving you NCLEX style questions in lecture to try to answer. The core courses (pharm, patho, management) are tested at the same time (i.e. you have all 3 exams back to back on one day). Makes sense since they teach them together. The Health Assessment exam was written, but they also have a practical exam at the end where you show up, they give you a body system, and you have to do an assessment on a classmate. They told us exactly what they were expecting though, so it's not too bad, just practice.
Well, I guess I've rambled on long enough. Sorry this is so long. I just remember what it was like when I was considering the program and I wanted as much info as I could find. So I thought I would share as much as I could in case it helps someone else. Any other questions, ask away.
I know how busy you must be, or at least I am imagining how busy you must be!
My husband is a little concerned about doing an intense accelerated program at my age. But I'm not!!! I think I have more energy now that I'm studying stuff that is so fascinating...
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