Any students attending IWCC nursing program?

Harley2008 · Oct 6, 2009

I go to IWCC and am a non traditional student also. It seems a lot of Nursing students there have families. There is a lot of homework and it is tough, but if you want it, it is attainable. I do homework or studying almost every night. Clinical is 2 days a week in the LPN program for about 6-6 1/2 hours each day. The program just switched to a 4 day week. I still have 2 kids living at home also, but at that age they are pretty self sufficient. Good Luck in your decision.

lizl123 · Oct 7, 2009

Thank you so much for responding to my question. I'm glad to hear you say that there are others with families in the program. Also you said the program just switched to 4 days - what day do you have off now? I have a sample of the first semester of their classes that I obtained at the nursing night meeting so I have kind of an idea of the schedule. How are clinicals? Are they still starting at 7 am? Thanks again for your help.

Harley2008 · Oct 7, 2009

Which day off you get depends on the semester you are in and the instructor at that time. It varies. The clinical times vary some first two semesters they usually are from around 630 or 700 until 1230 or 100. Again it depends on the instructor. Usuall PN students clinicals are Tue and Wed and ADN students are Thur and Fri. The nice about community colleges is that a lot of the students that are in a defined program are people who are goal oriented. I would say about 2/3 of my class have kids, and they have young ones.

Good Luck getting into the program. When do you hope to start?

lizl123 · Oct 7, 2009

Thanks again for the info. I am finishing A&P I now at Metro and then will take A&P II at IWCC in the spring semester and finish in May. I will then have everything done and can submit my last class for admittance in the fall session. I will try to finish up all my general ed classes in the summer as I heard it is hard enough without having those to squeeze in too. I am not looking forward to 6:30 or 7 am clinicals as I am coming from West Omaha and that will be a very early morning for me. Appreciate your info!

redbull68w · Jan 6, 2010

I just graduated in December from the ADN program at IWCC. The best advice I can give you is to get all your prereq classes done before you apply to the program. It will cut your workload down tremendously!!!!! The PN program (basically the first year) you will find to be the hardest. Expect to read and study min 3 hrs every night; more on the weekends. Definitley make sure that your spouse/significant other is on board with this and is ready to shoulder a little more of the load on the homefront. I have a great wife who really stepped up all through school while I was locked away in the basement studying!! Hopefully you will have a great class who is willing to work together; I had a great group of people who I went to school with. They are going to be the people you see and spend the most time with for the next two years so getting along with them and leaning on them will help you out when things get really tough and you're wondering why the heck you voluntarily decided to put yourself through all of it (believe me, you will think that on more than one occasion).

I found the ADN (second year) phase was the most fun. You really get into the critical thinking part of being a nurse. The thing that really worries everyone is Pharmacology II. It's pretty intense and it's a class that you HAVE to study for!! If you have any more questions, just get ahold of me here! Good luck!!

lizl123 · Jan 7, 2010

Thank you so much for your reply. That helps just knowing what to expect. I will have my prereq classes done so that is good. I may have more questions later as time gets closer but thanks again for commenting. Good luck in your future.

Harley2008 · Jan 7, 2010

Redbull68w-

I am starting the ADN program at IWCC and I agree the PN program gets pretty intense. I was glad all my prereq's were done. I am worried about Pharm, I am taking it early. How much time did you put into that 1 class to figure it out?

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated....

redbull68w · Jan 7, 2010

Harley2008,

I take it that you are in Pharm I this spring. If you are going full time time then you'll have Pharm II during the summer. Well, for Pharm I what my class did (and our instuctors helped a little) was to put together a matrix for each class of drugs we were studying. We would include in the matrix the drug name (Generic & trade), drug class, drug action, uses, and common side effects and contraindications. Some people tried to take notes off of the power point lectures during class however you move pretty fast through these and if you spend all your time writing, you'll miss a lot. That's what makes the matrixes so helpful. don't skip your reading though. I would skim the readings and just try to get the important points and that and filling out the matrix would help me get through the lectures. You'll be familiar with some of these drugs from the drugs cards you fill out for clinicals. You can use those to study as well.

Let me know if this helps and if you need anything else let me know.

redbull68w · Jan 7, 2010

lizl123

Anything I can do to help let me know.

Harley2008 · Jan 7, 2010

Actually, I am done with PNN I am starting Pharm II Monday because we can take that and health assessment before the summer term starts. I really did not like Pharm I and am not looking forward to II. I feel as if I am starting out a little behind because I am studying for my NCLEX which I am taking Thur next week too. I have Matrix's the instructor had posted on SAIL so I hope that helps more than Pharm I. (She also posted the powerpoints, so that might be helpful too)

Any added little tricks you remember would be appreciated..

Thanks for the input.

lizl123 · Jan 7, 2010

It is nice to have two people on here that know the IWCC program. Can you tell me besides the prereqs and Nutrition, Intro to Sociology and Psychology and Micro, are there any other classes that can be taken before nursing program? I know someone mentioned Workplace Empowerment might be a possibility to take this summer before fall starts, but I wasn't sure if that was an option. Since it is such a full load each quarter, I would like to get anything out of the way early if that is possible. I think one of you mentioned that the LPN part of the program is more intense than the RN is there anything that can be prepared for to help that go easier or is it the newness of clinicals and patient care that is the most stressful? Do you feel the clinicals were well supervised and you weren't just thrown in there, as I was in my CNA class that I took? As you can tell I am a little nervous of the work load as I am nontraditional student and have a family load to carry also. Thanks so much for any info you can provide.