BSN program- and I reading the sample schedule correctly?

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Hi,

I'm entering the prelicensure BSN program at TJU in the fall. The program is 2 years long, September-May. All of my prereqs are done.

I don't have my schedule yet, I just have the example they sent me.

It seems like the fall schedule (after the first month) is:

Monday- 8 hours of classes

Tuesday- 8 hours of classes

W/Th/F/S/S (3 days)- 16 hours of clinical practice and 24 hours of clinicals

2 days off

That's 56 hours a week. Does this sound right? The sample schedule isn't completely clear.

I'm trying to figure out what my schedule is going to be like because I'm deciding if I want to live on campus or commute. I tried calling and emailing people at the school, but they haven't gotten back to me yet.

Thanks for any help.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Could you copy/paste the exact schedule? 56 hours in a week doesn't seem likely. My program wouldn't even let us work over 40 hours a week in our last semester when we were doing our 220-hour preceptorship.

http://www.jefferson.edu/nursing/education/curriculum/bsncurrft.cfm

Is this what you're looking for? I googled TJU nursing and it brought me to this site, where I located the BSN curriculum. Looks like you'll have 19 credit hours your first semester, which is a full schedule, but it still should not be 56 hours a week total. You probably do a total of 16 lab hours and 24 clinical hours, if I had to guess.

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No that's not it, it's a paper I got in the mail.

The following chart depicts a sample fall sememster schedule for the traditional pre-licensure program. Please note that hospital clinical experiences begin week 4, as scheduled 24 hours per week. The selection of clinical education sites is based on the availability which includes day, evening, and weekend assignments. Clinicals are assigned by the course faculty coordinator. Student is responsible for their own transportation, day shift starts at 6:45am.

Course (credits)-------------day---------------time frame-----------------------weeks

Med calculations (1)-------as assigned-----1 hour-------------------------------(1-4)

Intro to pro nursing (3)----Mon-------------(2-4:50pm)-------------------------(1-14)

Pathophysiology (2--------Mon-------------(8-10:30am)------------------------(5-14)

Pharmacology I (1)-------- Mon-------------(10:40-11:50pm)------------------(4-14)

Nursing Management (3)---Tues-------------(8:30-12:30pm)--------------------(5-14)

Clinical practicum I (2.5)---W/Th/F---------(8-4:30pm as assigned)---------------(1-4)

Clinical practicum II (2.5)--W/Th/F/S/S----(16hrs/per week as assigned)----------(5-14)

Computers (4)---------------Tues---------(1:30-4:30pm, possibly online)---------(2-14)

~~~~~~~~~

I'm not really worried about the first 4 weeks.

Maybe clinical practicum II is 16 hours total?

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Maybe when it say W/T/F it means ONE of those days. How long is your program? I'm starting an accelerated 12 month BSN and our fall schedule is 10 hr lectures, 9 hr clinical, 4 hr lab, plus one online class. It's 18 credits total. Hopefully you can speak to someone Monday and find out for sure.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Hmmm, they look to be the same aside from having clinical practicum separated into two 2.5 hour courses instead of one 5 hour course. I say this because I would use the website as a resource now and in the future. It can answer a lot of questions.

Seems to be that the numbers in parenthesis (i.e. 1-4 in Med Calculations) correspond to the weeks that you will have the particular course. So you will be finished with your lab and med calculations courses by the end of the fourth week and will not include that in your weekly schedule. I think it is also likely that "as assigned" means that you will have a specific beginning and end time within those timeframes, not that they will last for the entire session. So you will probably have one 4 hour lab course each week for the first 4 weeks, and then have two 8 hour clinicals each week for the rest of the semester. I seriously doubt they will have you doing 16 hours in one clinical day, so it's going to be either 2 clinical days at 8 hours each per week, or you will do 16 hours total to be spread out over weeks 5-14.

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The program is 2 years, September-May, so 18 months total.

The clinical practicums are listed as 5 credits total, the credit cells on my paper are merged, I broke them into 2.5 when I typed it because I wasn't sure how to type it.

The numbers like (1-4) are weeks.

In your possible explanation, I'm not sure how the hospital clinicals would fit in, if I did 2 8 hour days of practice clinicals, I'd only have 1 day for hospital clinicals. So it seems like 16 hours overall for part II is more likely.

Thanks for your help, both of you.

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Specializes in Oncology.
The program is 2 years, September-May, so 18 months total.

The clinical practicums are listed as 5 credits total, the credit cells on my paper are merged, I broke them into 2.5 when I typed it because I wasn't sure how to type it.

The numbers like (1-4) are weeks.

In your possible explanation, I'm not sure how the hospital clinicals would fit in, if I did 2 8 hour days of practice clinicals, I'd only have 1 day for hospital clinicals. So it seems like 16 hours overall for part II is more likely.

Thanks for your help, both of you.

I think your lab is your practice clinicals and is considered Clinical Practicum I. I don't think you will be doing practice clinicals and hospital clinicals co-currently. I think that hospital clinicals = Clinical Practicum II, unless I am misunderstanding something. It seems pretty unclear on whether they are saying you will do 24 hours of clinicals each week or 16 hours, but if it's 24, then you may have only one 8-hour day of the practice or 1 day of the real clinicals, with the other 16 hours in the other category. They typically include any type of real world clinicals on your schedule and you will receive credit hours for it, even if it's in the form of a Pass/Fail course. I know that every school is different, though.

I'm curious to know what the real story is on it - it's certainly confusing!

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I scanned and uploaded the actual paper, but I don't know if it's going to help.

Hopefully someone from the school will get back to me soon...

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I'm also going to TJU and from my understanding the first 4 weeks are W,Th,F clinical one, which is like a practice lab clinical. Then (after clinical one) the rest of the semester we will have (2) 8 hours days assigned on either W,Th,F Sat, or Sun.

Hope that helps!

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

I don't think it's 16 hours of clinical practice and 24 clinical. I think it's 8 hours of practice during those first 4 weeks (or you won't know how to do anything when you get into tue hospital!) and then that goes away and you have 16 hours a week in a hospital.

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Specializes in Pedi.

The way I'm reading this, during weeks 1-4 of the semester you will have an 8 hour lab on either Wed, Thurs or Fri. During weeks 5-14 of the semester you will have your actual clinical placements in the hospital- a total of 16 hrs/week on either Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat or Sun. I imagine you'd have 2 8 hr days as it's pretty much unheard of to have students working 16 hr shifts.

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Thanks everyone. Hopefully someone from the school will get back to me on Monday.

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