A Typical Week at Nursing School?

Published

I'm a junior in high school and I am pretty sure that I want to become a RN. I was wondering what a typical week is like at Nursing school? I know there is a lot of school work involved, but how much? What are clinicals like? What are classes/lectures like?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ED.

Do a search on this same topic. It has been discussed quite a bit.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Every school is going to be different, especially with how many clinical hours you're doing. Plus it varies largely by the year of the program. But if you want an idea of how my first year of BScN went...

Semester 1:

7 classes/wk

Nursing Theory - 3 hrs - Lecture

Assessment - 1 hr + 2 hrs lab

Nursing Practice - 1 hr + 2 hrs lab - This is learning clinical skills (bedmaking, washing, feeding, etc.)

Anatomy & Physiology - 3 hrs.. LONG hours.

Nutrition - 3 hrs class

General Psych - 3 hrs

Elective - 3 hrs

Plus many people opted to attend a 2 hr A&P review every week.

If you keep up with your readings, there's a chapter each week for every one of those classes. Depending on the class and how fast you read that can be 30 min - 1.5 of readings for each class, each week. I was assigned 800 pages of readings my first week and almost lost it!

2nd Semester:

Nursing Theory, Asessment and A&P continued like first semester.

Once we went into clinicals, we didn't have Practice class anymore, and had 5 hrs clinicals a week (which is nothing!)

Developmental Psych - 3 hrs

Professional Values/Ethics - 3 hrs

In terms of assignments... some weeks you have nothing to do, some weeks you'll be juggling 3-4 major due dates in 5 days. You'll be told this a million times, but time management is essential.

What are clinicals like? For our first year we did gerontology, so we worked in nursing homes and geriatric hospitals. It was pretty basic, we shadowed nurses and performed basic skills - bed baths, feeding, changing incontinence briefs, changing beds. But we got a feel for what nurses do.

What are classes/lectures like? Probably depends a lot on your school, the size of your program, and your personal strengths & tastes. Some are long and hard to sit through (anatomy!) and some can be really fun when you're practicing on your friends and getting your hands dirty (assessment & practice.)

Good luck! Hope that provided some rough idea of what it's like!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Every school is different. Just as many classes as possible before you start the nursing program so that way you only have nursing to focus on....it'll make things a little easier. My 1st semester was lecture once/week and for the first 6 weeks we were in the lab learning skills. Last 6 weeks we were in clinical in the hospital on a medsurg unit. 1st semester was tough....you just have to get used to everything, it takes time. I find lectures seriously boring! Good luck to you!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am in my second semester in an entry level BSN program. My schedule is:

Foundations of nursing

Foundations of pathophysiology

Foundations of health assessment

Problem solving skills/critical thinking

Skills lab (10 hours a week)

After these classes, I study an average of........about 20 hours a week, sometimes more

My test and quiz schedule is heavy, tests and quizzes every week, sometimes two in one day, and unannounced quizzes (my fave :uhoh3:)!

It is alot of hard work, but if you are dedicated to learning all that you can, you will be fine. After all, If I was laying in a hospital bed I would like to have the nurse who absorbed everything he/she possibly could :D and studied their butt off!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am in an ADN program at a community college. Our program is 2 years, so all the pre-reqs have to be done before you start (actually, I think they let you take a few things during the program, like Sociology, but I can't imagine doing that because I have my hands full with work and school. Anyway...)

We take one class at a time, 2 classes per semester (so each class lasts 6-7 weeks).

Each class consists of three components: lecture, clinical, and skills lab.

A typical week varies SOOOOO much depending on the class and whether you're first-year or second-year, but I'll give you a typical day for me in my current class, Med-Surg 3 (2nd year).

Monday - off (which for me means an 8-hour workday at my office job). study when I get home.

Tuesday - off for real (I try to schedule at least 1 day off from work AND school if I can, for studying and doing errands and sleeping)

Wednesday - off again (work), study for exam or review session the next day.

Thursday morning - either a review session for the theory exam (multiple choice), or a supervised practice for a skills evaulation, or an actual skills evaluation (1.5 hour oral/practical exam with a partner where the lab instructor watches you perform skills like putting in a foley cath or cleaning a wound and/or asks you questions about it).

Thursday afternoon - work, then home to read for the lecture.

Friday - 5 hours of lecture with a 1/2 hour lunch break. Sucks balls.

Saturday and Sunday - clinical days, at the moment 6:45am-3 or 3:30pm, but clinical schedules vary greatly. I only have it every other weekend, so weekends off I usually get to actually relax, or study for a test, or write a care plan.

Oh, and there might be an observation day in there. At most I've had one per class, either OR or dialysis or a maternity class, whatever applies to the class you're in. Observation days are cool, even though you're by yourself. You typically shadow a nurse and get to ask as many questions as you want. A lot of the time its as good as you make it, you kind of have to be proactive. There may be a simple set of questions you have to fill out for your teacher, or just get a form signed, to prove you were there. There may also be a studyguide you have to read before you go.

Clinical days, again, vary depending on the class. We are split into groups of 5-8 and each group is at a different site on a different day, so its not like your whole class will be at the same hospital. You have a clinical instructor, who may or may not be your lecture instructor. They will usually be with you any time you are giving meds or performing a skill (like trach care or tube feedings or chaning a wound dressing or taking out a foley or whatever). Sometimes, depending on the instructor, they may let you do that with your nurse ('your nurse' is the real RN who is assigned to your patient). I've had nurses that were super helpful and great, and ones that were downright *******. I've had ones that did everything before I got a chance to even ask to observe, and ones who never set a foot in the room, and everything in between. Sometimes you want their help and guidance, and sometimes you wish they would get the hell out and let you do the things your instructor is expecting you to do. I can take a damn manual blood pressure, leave me alone! Sorry, venting a little there.

First thing in the morning our instructor gives us our patient assignments. He is lazy so he just gives us the same rooms every time regardless of what kind of patient is in them, but if you have a good teacher who cares about your learning experience they will give you interesting cases, or diseases they know you've never seen before, or even ask if anyone has a preference. Then we go get report from the night nurse and introduce ourselves to the day nurse. In my case, the day nurse helps alot more than my instructor, but sometimes its the other way around and you really rely on your instructor when you have questions or problems, and BELIEVE ME, you will have a million questions throughout the day. Next you go see your patient, introduce yourself, do your assessment, take vitals. Then you might go look up your meds so you know what your patient's getting and why and how and when, then you wait for your instructor or your nurse so you can give the meds. You might chart your assessment on paper or in the computer, and your vitals too. You might give a bedbath, or just provide the necessities so your patient can do morning care themselves. You would also change the linens, either as you wash them or when they've gotten up to wash themselves. By now its usually time for lunch, which is half an hour. Then you might have to be back for noon vitals and/or noon meds. Throughout the day you'll do or observe anything that needs to be done for your patient. The reality for me has been that the chance to do a skill we learn in the lab is pretty rare in clinical, but you do have it every once in a while, and usually its nine times easier on a person than it was on a mannequin in the lab. At the end of the day we have post-conference which varies depending on the teacher, but my best instructors just have us go around the room and talk about our patient and what we did that day so everyone can learn about all the patients and all the experiences other people had.

You will start out with one patient and may, depending on your school or your class or your instructor, eventually get 2. I get 2 now and I'm finding it incredibly challenging. I don't understand how its possible to take care of 5 or 7 or 8 patients at a time. Its crazy. I hope I never have to do that.

Some rotations are better than others, for sure. Maternity was greaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. You get to hold babies and feed them and rock them to sleep! And Pediatrics was almost TOO fun - I spent the better part of one whole day just playing in the play room with a three-year-old! The instructor makes a huge difference too. Almost all of mine have been nurturing, caring, very smart, and very good nurses. My current one...well, I should keep those choice words to myself. Not my favorite, lets say. Shouldn't be a nurse, you could also say.

Lectures vary so much too. I've had some brilliant lecturers - funny, engaging, interesting, they almost made 3 hours go by quickly! And then I've had some that clearly didn't know the subject at all, or were just so boring and disorganized that you wanted to walk out in the middle of class and give them a dirty look while you were doing it.

As for the amount of work...care plans are heinous. Do yourself a HUGE favor and buy yourself a care plan book. It will be the single most important book you have, the biggest time saver you could imagine. And save all your care plans so that you don't have to look up meds or labs you already looked up for your last patient. Some of my classes we did a care plan every week - they took me about 8 hours at first. Now they take around 4-5 hours. Some classes just had 1 or 2, but they had alot of extra stuff like interviews and hugely long histories. You may have a project or a presentation you have to do, or just minor homework like a case study or a few nursing diagnoses that only take an hour or two. The reading takes a long time, but you can ask your instructor how to target your reading so you're not wasting time on things they'll never ask about on a test. And studying for tests is time consuming of course. We usually have 11 lectures per class, 2 exams and a cummulative final, each 100 questions. They're usually NCLEX style multiple choice questions, but if they're "alternate format" (choose all that apply, or fill-in or whatever) then thats much harder. There's an art to NCLEX questions, so the biggest thing for tests is understanding and mastering those kinds of questions. Talk to your instructors, get a tutor, buy an NNCLEX review book, or all of the above.

Hope that was helpful. Good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

While I have yet to experience nursing school, I start in the fall, and I know my schedule of classes, and have some friends who just finished their first year, and some friends who are graduating with their BSNs this weekend.

My schedule is as follows:

Monday:

NSG 101A (Fundamental Nursing Skills) 8-10am [5 weeks]

NSG 101B (Intro to Professional Nursing Practice) 8-10am [10 weeks]

NSG 100 (Pharmacology I) 1:15-2:15 [15 weeks]

Tuesday:

Clinical 7am-12pm

Wednesday:

Clinical 7am-12pm

PHL 201 (Philosophical Perspectives on the Human Situation) 5:30-8:30pm

Thursday:

Clinical learning lab 10:30am-12:30pm

NSG 101A (Fundamental Nursing Skills) 1-3pm [5 weeks]

NSG 101B (Intro to Professional Nursing Practice) 1-3pm [10 weeks]

PSY 220 (Life Span Development) 5:30-8:25pm

Friday:

NOTHING! Well, no classes anyway. I'll still have work that I'll need to do.

From what I've heard, it's a lot of work (Mondays especially since you have to do your process guides which take anywhere from 3-6 hours), but there is still time for you to have a life outside of school and still do well.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We had to have all of our pre reqs done ahead of time too so you don't overwhelm yourself!!!

First Semester in my nursing program:

Monday: lecture ALL day (Nursing Fundamentals and Pharmacology Theory)

Tuesday: 1/2 day Drug calc. class 1/2 day in nursing lab (learning nursing skills like vitals, assessments, med passing etc)

Wed: Clinical 4.5 hours

Thurs: Clinical 4.5 hours

Friday: OFF (Fridays ARE AWESOME!!)

Clinicals in first semester kind of suck- lots of assessment (borrriinggg) and taking vitals- bed baths- feels like aide work- but if you don't have any experience in healthcare, I think you would enjoy the experience.

I thought 2nd semester (Med/Surg) was kind of rough. But you get out of it what you put in. If you really study hard, you will be fine. You learn a lot more skills (trach suctioning, foley catheters, NG tubes, etc). And we have to do HUGE papers (in every semester) called Care Plans. They get bigger and require more detail as you progress in the nursing program.

Also as you progress, you are in lecture less often and in clinical more- which is nice.

Our tests are NCLEX (state board) format- sometimes there may be more than 1 right answer but it is up to you to chose the BEST answer.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CNA.

I already made my schedule for the fall, although i still have to add in my clinicals, but I don't know when they'll be. I work at the library on Campus so it's very convenient to just go there and study when I get off at 5. When I get off I stay in the library until 9 and study on some days. I go to church usually 2 days out of the week and I'm really involved in my church, I'm a usher so I have to be there early and leave late, but I love it. I can study about 40 hrs a week. On the wk I most likely won't be studying from 9-9 cause i'll be running errands and hanging with friends, but have the time there just in case I'm a little unprepared

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I'm going to give you the short version. A typical week usually requires 2-3 days of actual class time. The other part of the week consist of clinicals and you usually do about 2-3 days of clinicals but this depends on your school and how far you are in the nursing program. Meanwhile you will have to study for tests and do reading assignments. I usually spend about 3 hours a day studying or reading. Also on the long scale of things, most professors assign some type of major project (either a presentation, paper, porfolio, etc) that is normally do towards the end of the year. Also most schools have specific progression tests like ATI that you must also pass AFTER you have passed the lecture class in order to proceed in the program.

So basically you have short-term and long-term assignments. It's quiet a bit. I suggest buying a desk or wall calender and not just a planner because it helps to see multiple days at once so you can see how close an assignment really is. Also make a close group of friends in your nursing class....they will be alot more helpful and understanding than family members or non-nursing friends. You can help each other with assignments, carpool to clinicals, and just keep each other sane and on track.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

My suggestion to you right now is to look at the college you plan on attending for nursing and see what pre-reqs you must have... Anatomy and Physiology there's not much you can do to get those done ahead of time while in high school. However, things like Chemistry and Bio you can (at least for my school) as long as you have a C or better in high school.. so that's one (or two) less things you need to take. It's definitely challenging but you must take it one day at a time. I can't even look at a week's schedule because it overwhelms me with all I have to do. Good luck with your decision and hopefully we didn't scare you off! :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Mardibug- What care plan book would you recommend?

Also, is it just me, or does it take a lot of people 5 years to get their BSN?

It took me 2 years to finish all my pre-req's, partly because some classes weren't offered certain semesters. The nursing portion is three years...an average of 19 hours per semester-which is plenty to worry about without having to throw any pre-req's in the mix!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion