Common nusring school schedule???

tnt714 · Jun 11, 2011

every school is different. My schedule is 3 days a week.. one day theory, one day assessment, and one day clinical ... our clinicals start 5 weeks into the program... the first 5 weeks are in the skills lab .... each section has a some what different schedule.. someone taking the same class but in a different section might only have to go 2 days a week... and i know someone going to a different school whos schedule is 4 days a week 7 hours a day.. did you find out your schedule yet?

SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN · Jun 11, 2011

Like the previous poster, it's different everywhere and every semester. My first semester will be 3 days. Our clinicals start the first week, but the first 3 clinicals are called ACE, where we learn basic things like moving a patient, making a bed, giving shots. Week 4 we go into the actual clinic site.

UVA Grad Nursing · Jun 11, 2011

It will vary greatly by school, and even by program in a particular school.

For example, we have a traditional 4-year BSN program that admits students directly from high school. Nursing didactic (lecture) classes are on Mon/Wed/Fri. General education classes or clinicals would be on Tues/Thurs (Gen Ed in Year 1, clinicals in years 2-4).

We also have a Direct Entry MSN program (for those with an undergraduate degree in something else). In this program didactic (lecture) classes are Thursdays and Fridays, and clinical practica are Saturday - Wednesday.

stella2570 · Jun 11, 2011

No, I haven't gotten a schedule yet. I am actually still waiting on my acceptance letter....it is suppose to arrive next week. Thanks for you response...it helps a lot. I was thinking like 5 days a week clinicals with only weekends to study. Thanks so much!!

stella2570 · Jun 11, 2011

Thanks to all of you for your responses...I feel better about it now!!!!

TC3200 · Jun 11, 2011

If you are in a college program, you can expect to have a block curriculum and lectures and clinicals will happen at consistent days and times, as college courses normally do.

I'm in a hospital's diploma RN program, and it's rigorous. Hospitals can arrange it however they want, and it doesn't have to be convenient for the students nor is it necessarily consistent. This program is 28 months if you start at the beginning with no college, and their first semester is all college coursework. If you start with college coursework completed and just do the nursing, you come in at the second semester, and it's 24 months. The program I'm in is what they call integrated curriculum. Instead of doing, say, a semester of mother-baby or LTC or med-surge, you get exposure to almost all of the different aspects of nursing right from the start. The Nursing I semester started in Jan and lectures were M/W/F. Most of the lectures and exams happened in the first half of the semester. By late Feb, we were doing 2 4-hour clinicals at a LTC skilled nursing facility, and by mid March we were in the med-surge units at the hospital. Since this hospital can make it's own curriculum, the schedule was highly variable. Sim labs could be anytime on M/W/F, and computer training might be at 7AM or might be a different day at 1PM or whatever. I referred to it as "an appointment book based around availability of facilities." The entire class was together for lectures only, which tapered off to nil by end of semester. Sim labs were done by group, and your group was scheduled for whatever appointment that was open. So, one group might be doing the injections sim lab on a Monday at 2 PM, and a different group might not get that training until 8AM three weeks later. Complicated, and very hard to follow where you are supposed to be and when, once the clinicals and computer and sim lab training started.

Nursing II is in summer session, so it's 5 days a week with massive studying every night and then more on the weekends. We started May 23 and had our first N2 exam on June 7 and first math exam of the semester on June 8. This semester is pretty nerve-wracking for me, because we sit in lecture 8A to 11A, then have an hour off for lunch, then back in those seats from 1PM to 3PM or sometimes 4PM. And they expect you to study 3-4 hours daily outside or class, or at least 2 hours. Yeah. 6 hours of chair sitting is my limit. After concentrating intensely for 6 hours, 5 days per week, I don't want any more of it in the evenings.

My neighbor is in Nursing 5, and she's had days of 12 to 13 hour clinicals and then has to look up tons of information for the next day, so she's starting her days at 6 AM, doing a 12 to 13 hour clinical, and is not getting to sleep until after midnight. If I get handed a schedule like that when I get to Nursing 5, I'll be sure to express my amazement that is just RN school, not med school. ;-)

Anne36, LPN · Jun 11, 2011

I am almost done with the first out of three semesters of the LPN program. My schedule right now is Mon/theory, Tue/lab, Wed/off, Thur/clinical, Fri/clinical, and you guessed it, weekends and wendsday is for homework. Its exhausting, I wont lie.

NACovey · Jun 12, 2011

I just got accepted to a BSN program. I don't know definite times for classes, as we do not find out our schedule until Nursing orientation 3 days before the semester starts (kinda weird). But I emailed the assistant director and we will be doing classes/clinicals 5 days a week. :-)