Austin community college nursing program: what to expect

I don't have any advice- im still taking my pre-reqs at ACC and the earliest I can get into the program is Spring 2016. UGH! But I would love to follow this topic to see what others have to say about the program.

Good luck with your studies!

I am in level 4 at acc. The program itself is not just 8-5. Clinical times vary for example sometimes 12-14 hour days 6:30am-7:30pm and other times are 2 days a week 8 hour day 6:30-3:30, 12-7:30. I have a 7 year old and am a single mom. The sacrifice is so worth it! She has been a trooper. All though i have missed important things, This is only temporary. She is so proud of me :) she is counting down the days till i graduate in december. I study 6 days a week to keep my gpa up. Clinical hw can be very time consuming as well. You will be an example to your children. Breastfeeding no worries they are very understanding.

What has got me through is i spend every sunday with her. Thats our family day. You have to make a plan and give yourself a day off to breathe and enjoy life

Level 1-2 not to bad. 3 gets a little harder and 4 so far eek i will keep you posted!

I'll also chime in. I'm also graduating in December. In my experience, one thing I would have liked to know is that the calendars are hugely deceptive. Our calendars (especially in level 1) would show that we had class two or three days a week and then clinicals three or four days a week. Just know that you'll do somewhere between 12-16 hours of clinical per week pretty much every semester, and that's always done either on one 12hr day or split up into two six or eight hour days. You'll have classes one or two days a week (usually two) and you might have labs on additional days, especially in levels one and two. Your calendar may show four clinical days each week, but that's because there are many clinical groups. You will NOT have four days of clinical! You can also swap clinical sites with classmates if there's another group that works better with your schedule (as long as somebody from that group is willing to trade with you). Finally, it's all relative. In my opinion, level one was the hardest and it got progressively easier after that. We're busy in level 4 but I certainly don't think it's the hardest. But again, each student is different, and we have three/four separate campuses with different instructors so we all have slightly different experiences. Good luck!