Class Load

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

Hello,

Could anyone share with me what your class load is as full-time faculty? I am salaried and get paid for 40 hours/week (have always put in way more hours than that). We used to take one nursing course (MS I, critical care, fundamentals, pharm, etc.) and one clinical a quarter which was full time ( an did the lab hours as well and other seminars throughout the quarter). Even this schedule was tough because it is a fairly new ADN program and we have been required to write our lessons as the class is being taught and we have also had to engage in quite a lot of curriculum revision. We recently hired a new director and have just been informed that carrying four classes is now considered full-time. Is this honestly what is expected by your schools? This means I should carry say: MS I, Critical Care, Pahtophysiology, and leadership all in one 12 week quarter. This seems impossibly ridiculous to me, and I needed an idea of what other ADN schools require.

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

Does your workload include both didactic and clinical instruction? In other words, do you have 4 classroom subjects to teach plus conduct clinicals? If so, this is very excessive. My personal workload assignment for the upcoming fall semester in a BSN program is as follows: one nursing foundations lab (with ~ 16 students), two clinicals (with anywhere from 8 to 10 students each), and one 2 hr face-to-face class on gerontological nursing with about 125 students.

Dorimar, I am so sorry you and your colleagues are experiencing such unreasonable and oppressive faculty workload demands. This is the reason I left an associate degree nursing program to teach in a prelicensure BSN program. I could not keep up the pace in the ADN program. I tried to wait it out for four long years, but the stressors just kept intensifying until I became exhausted and burnt out. My experience in the BSN program has been a much more positive one. The faculty workloads are reasonable and the organizational culture much more supportive. I wish you the best. If you would ever like to talk in more detail or just need a sympathetic ear, please send me a private message.

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

Thanks Vicki,

You have already been a big help to me in the past and are part of the reason I am still in education. No, I think they expect 4 foundation classes or three with a clinical. But some of the foundation classes have 20 hours of lab in addition to the clinical for which I think we will be responsible. The problem is that I think me and my friend do more than is expected of us. But I have a problem with doing less.

I went into education because I saw bad practice kreeping into my profession. I wanted to teach prevention & good practice. I struggled very much with the standardized testing thing. It almost drove me out of nursing education, because I still feel it has little to do with real practice. However, I overcame that and learned how to do both (teach them how to pass the necessary standardized test AND provide good practice & prevent bad stuff from happening to patients.

I just don't think I can do what they are asking now. There are those who can and will, they just won't do it well and don't care.

[txnrse1]

I teach in an ADN Program--1 lecture course (Fund.) and I take students to the hospital two days a week. One day a week is in office day--and the other day is "work from home" day (though sometimes we are expected on campus that day).

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

Is that considered full time or part time?

[txnrse1]

This is considered full time. Our part timers (adjunct) have one clinical course--two days a week with students.

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

My schedule starting next quarter is to teach MS II theory, Pathophysiology Theory, and do MS II clinical 2 days /week. Problem is that I have never taught patho before & will be writing it from scratch. I was also going to be responsible for 20 MS lab hours within that 12 week period, but when I balked, they turned my lab hours over to my friend who already has 2 classes and is part-time, and she is already ready to quit....

[txnrse1]

Wow, it seems like a lot to me. What does your contract say? How many hours are you supposed to be carrying? You can also go to the school library and request the college's budget---it will tell you pretty much how much each instructor is earning, and how many hours they are responsible for. We are short one full time person and I might take on her online LVN to RN transition course, but the college would be paying me for overload--which I've heard is a pretty decent amount.

Who is your patho book publisher? You should have access to their online teacher resources, which normally includes study guides, ready made power point slides and a test generator. I use a test generator, but I change the questions up a bit.

As others have pointed out, once you are done teaching your first semester, you will have the course done and then all you have to do the next quarter is present the material. Im going to be working on that for the next two weeks so that when our semester begins I will have the entire course done and ready.

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

Thanks Tx,

We don't have a contract... We are salaried and don't get paid for overload. You are not the first person from whom I have heard that concept though...

Our Patho book is Heuther & McCance. I do have access to all the resources you mentioned but have not yet reviewed them to evaluate the quality. I found with the Iggy MS book that the PowerPoints were useless & I had to do do a great deal of writing for MS I & MS II in my past classes. I also use some of the test bank questions for MS I, MS II, and Critical Care, however I find I need to do a lot of editing to the test bank questions and I often write my own questions too. As you have stated, once the course is written it will not be as time consuming. I do have most of MS II written as I have taught it before (although it is revised based on the last MS I class).

The Patho class is scaring me the most (having never taught it and it not being written yet). There is a new science teacher (not new to teaching, just new to my school) that will be co-teaching it with me, but I am the lead instructor. I have been informed that she will cover the science stuff & I will cover the nursing aspects.... This actually stressed me more, because I don't really know what to expect from her, and I don't know what she expects from me... But, maybe it won't be too bad, since I will also be teaching them MS II at the same time. I have been working on my syllabi all weekend and think I have aligned the classes together nicely.

I want to get a leg-up on lesson preparation as you mentioned, but it is difficult while teaching critical care theory, critical care lab (20 hours this quarter), and 2 days/week of critical care clinical...

I know it will all work out. I'm just venting and wining while I learn to adapt...

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

One other question...

Are you all required to sit on committees? This is also expected of us, as is one-on-one tutoring time to students who need it or desire it.