Course Work?

sbostonRN · Oct 21, 2008

It really depends on your program. In my program there are no papers. I do about 200 pages of reading a week, and have 8-12 hours of lecture a week. Since there's no papers for the theory component, we just have a lot of exams (4, plus a midterm and a final). I spend about 15 hours a week doing reading for classes.

Clinical is every other weekend for 18 hours (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and there's a variety of paperwork I have to do for that - 2 page Research writeup on my patient, analysis of Abnormal lab work, care plan, documentation of communication, a 19-page assessment packet, medication sheets for any meds we're giving, and a self-evaluation tool on our clinical skills (about 20 pages long). I spend about 12 hours on clinical paperwork every other weekend.

But I also work full-time and I'm able to handle it so far (going a bit nutty right now!). Take what you read with a grain of salt - I was really nervous reading horror stories from this site before I started school. But my program is unique, and yours will be too. Good Luck!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2008

it would be most helpful for you to talk with students at the nursing school you will be attending. try to talk to students who are finishing up the first nursing classes that you will be entering. ask them what their workload has been like, ask the questions you have asked in your post. ask if you could see what their syllabus looks like. these students will be milling around the nursing department during their breaks from class. check the current class schedule to find out when and where those are.

bradons · Oct 21, 2008

Being in third year I would say its not too bad. Our program is a 4 year BNRN program. The worst year was last year as we had clinical, 7 projects, and tons of papers. This year hasnt been as bad. just 144 hours of clinical which im almost 1/2 done and the reading is a lot easier. Not shorter but easier. Tons more reading but it makes way more sense.

SDChargersGirl#31 · Oct 22, 2008

It really depends on your program. In my program there are no papers. I do about 200 pages of reading a week, and have 8-12 hours of lecture a week. Since there's no papers for the theory component, we just have a lot of exams (4, plus a midterm and a final). I spend about 15 hours a week doing reading for classes.
Clinical is every other weekend for 18 hours (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and there's a variety of paperwork I have to do for that - 2 page Research writeup on my patient, analysis of Abnormal lab work, care plan, documentation of communication, a 19-page assessment packet, medication sheets for any meds we're giving, and a self-evaluation tool on our clinical skills (about 20 pages long). I spend about 12 hours on clinical paperwork every other weekend.
But I also work full-time and I'm able to handle it so far (going a bit nutty right now!). Take what you read with a grain of salt - I was really nervous reading horror stories from this site before I started school. But my program is unique, and yours will be too. Good Luck!

Thank you for your post. It was SO VERY helpful. Thank you.

I too will have to work and have a family, so that is why I have a bit of anxiety about it all. The more of an idea of what is generally expected, will give me an educated guess as to what my work availabitity will be when classes start. I also have to take daycare into consideration with that. It's a bit complicated to all spell out, but I will be able to make it work.

I thought about asking a student (which I see every morning on my way to class), but wanted to see what I could find out here first. Thanks for the heads up about asking to see a syllabus Daytonight. Hadn't thought about that. My first thought was that students would be sorta territorial and guard that sorta info. I guess students change when they actually get INTO the program. Right now when I converse with students about the program it's so competitive that it kinda feels like every man for himself. Heh heh.

So one more question I guess, if you will.

Generally, are clinical days always the same? I suppose I could also ask a student sometime this week, but for now, anyone out there know if (for your program) clinical days and times always stay the same? If they don't, then how do they change? Again, trying to get a feel for future daycare plans. Thanks.

bradons · Oct 22, 2008

Thank you for your post. It was SO VERY helpful. Thank you.
I too will have to work and have a family, so that is why I have a bit of anxiety about it all. The more of an idea of what is generally expected, will give me an educated guess as to what my work availabitity will be when classes start. I also have to take daycare into consideration with that. It's a bit complicated to all spell out, but I will be able to make it work.
I thought about asking a student (which I see every morning on my way to class), but wanted to see what I could find out here first. Thanks for the heads up about asking to see a syllabus Daytonight. Hadn't thought about that. My first thought was that students would be sorta territorial and guard that sorta info. I guess students change when they actually get INTO the program. Right now when I converse with students about the program it's so competitive that it kinda feels like every man for himself. Heh heh.
So one more question I guess, if you will.
Generally, are clinical days always the same? I suppose I could also ask a student sometime this week, but for now, anyone out there know if (for your program) clinical days and times always stay the same? If they don't, then how do they change? Again, trying to get a feel for future daycare plans. Thanks.

my clinical days for this term are wed, thurs, fri. usually is 7-3 but i talked my prof to let our group do wed, thurs 7-7 so we get friday off. we need 72 hours in 3 weeks and i hated the 8 hour shifts. i start my 12 tomorrow and i cant wait cause it will be so much better.

smartin13 · Oct 22, 2008

We really don't have any papers. We have two presentations, one with our clinical group and one by ourselves. We don't read chapters very often in my program its usually parts of many different chapters from many different books. This week we have 135 pages in lecture and 37 in clinical. That is less then normal, usually we make it to at least 200 pages. We also have two assessments to write (I dont' consider these "papers") we had a test this week (one every other week) and two quizes. Good Luck!

sbostonRN · Oct 22, 2008

My clinical days are always the same this semester. I am in an Evening/Weekend program so my clinicals are Friday 5:30-9:00, Saturday 7:00-3:30 and Sunday 7:00-3:00. They will change a bit next semester (no Fridays, Saturday/Sunday 7:00-4:30), but they are the same each week for now.

missjennmb · Oct 22, 2008

In my program, we have Anatomy & Physiology 3 hrs a night 2 nights a week, and thats a bit of a beast just for the memorization. I spend about 10 hrs a week on that.

For the actual nursing classes, we have 1 class at a time, but its only 9 wks in length. First 9 wks, it looked like this:

class: Tues/Thurs 9am-11am

Lab: Mon/Tues/Wed 1pm-5pm

For classes, we had generally 3 chapters per class to go over, sometimes 2 and sometimes 4, and a test every 3rd class or so. We also had quizzes pretty much every other class, and always on information we did not go over yet (i.e. we would learn about it in class that day) This was their way of making sure we did our reading ahead of time. We had no writing assignments, and no real homework assignments, but the quizzes generally came from our workbook questions/end of the chapter so it was in our best interest to do them obvious. Many times the questions would come from some obscure comment in a random table or addt'l note the book throws into those "FYI" type boxes. So for us, class was not about too much WORK but just sooo much to read. Now that we have clinicals this quarter, we have a lot of paperwork related to that, to do.

For our labs, we did not do any real patient care at all, just labs. We had dummies in the classroom and we needed to know how to do various skills, why we had to do them, variations to look for, etc. We were given 1 lab to practice, and then were tested the next lab. If we did not know anything in particular, we were told to try it again the next day, and sent to study. Two tries and you would need special permission to try a third time. If you didnt get that permission or STILL could not do it, you're out of the program. Nobody failed lab but it was VERY nerve wracking at first.

We needed an 80 to pass, and although I did not have trouble, many students did.

My advice to you, and any student at my school that asks... is if there are any co-requisites/gen ed classes you need to take, and you can take them ahead of time DO IT. I would be flying through this effortlessly if I did not have Anatomy to deal with simultaneously.