Day in the life of a nursing student?

tech1000 · Nov 24, 2011

I had class for 4 hours on Wednesday and clinical from 6am-4ish on Monday and Friday... That was it. I loved it. However, I spent HOURS a week studying... I usually worked 12 hours a week and studied anywhere from 15-30hours a week. I tried to work out for an hour most evenings of the week. I hardly had time to see friends and although I lived with my ex boyfriend at the time, I rarely spent time with him. Nursing school was really time consuming for me because I'm the type of person that has to study to do well, and I also WANTED to study since you have to really know this stuff when you graduate. But it's all over after that NCLEX and you're DONE!

SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN · Nov 24, 2011

This is a typical week for me right now

Mon-up at 645, take son to school at 745, spend time with my daughter, study till 1245 then get ready for class. Class is 230-430, then off to the clinical site to get patient info, home about 7, spend time with family, kids in bed at 8, spend time with hubby till bed about 10.

Tues school 8-11, home by 12, do drug cards and care plan for patient, get son at 2, spend time with kids, cook dinner, back to school at 5 for 6-9 class. Home by 10 and in bed.

Wed get son to school, hand out with daughter, get ready for clinical and leave at 1130. Clincal from 1245-645, get home about 8, spend a few hours with hubby then bed. Thurs and fri I have no school, so I run errands, hang out with the family, go to play group, study, clean house, all that fun stuff. Saturday is family day. Sunday we have church and if I have a test I study for that pretty much all day. There is studying going on throughout every day when I can fit it in.

GamerGirL337 · Nov 24, 2011

It depends on your school, how they do their classes, if your in semesters/quarters, when you start clinicals...etc...

Every person is going to be different, every school is definitely going to be different and so you will get a ton of different responses, the best advice i can give, from experience of asking about this before i started, was take everything into consideration, what everyone says is going to apply to your situation in some way, i've experienced just about everything i have been warned about in the past 10 weeks...i've had my nervous breakdowns, me wanting to give up, not thinking i'll make it...etc...it happens, its normal just push through...

when it comes to studying, again, take everything everyone says into consideration, I found a list of things i would need for nursing school compiled from everything everyone said, and i bought everything, i've used most of it, and for the other stuff, its their just in case...

also with studying...do NOT try to change your studying style for nursing school!!!! what works for you in your pre-reqs will work with nursing school! i made the mistake of trying to change how i studyed, and it backfired and i almost failed out because of it! If filling out note cards works, then use it, if a study guide works, use it..if reading works...use it...just don't change your study habits!!....you may have to study a thousand times more with nursing, but still...lol...

i've never studyed more in the past 10 weeks then i have in my whole school career, i did not have a life...i worked 3 days a week, class 2 days a week and clinicals 1 day a week, with the time in between...it was completely devoted to studying...

they throw stuff at you so fast you won't know which way to turn...its hard but just devote your time to it and know that you will have a break eventually!

Pneumothorax, BSN, RN · Nov 26, 2011

Ill give you a typical week for me vs a typical day.

Monday: Lecture 830a-1130p [ break ] 1230-330pm/ Get patient assignments for Tuesday clinical & work on paperwork 4pm-10 or 11pm at night depends on the patients. some mondays i have sstudent council meetings that are from 4-530;

Tuesday: Clinical from 645am-330pm, work on post clinical pw until maybe 9pm

Wed: off, but postings are due for online ethics course (doesnt take up much time thank god!)

Thursday: Clinical for community health from 750am-4pm , no pre/post paperwork but a very long day

Friday: OFF! but work 12hrs

Sat:work 12hr

Sun: sleep, recooperate, study

MOn: the viscious cycle starts over.

the key to not going crazy is good time management skills and haveing an agenda/planner to keep every little detail assignment/event etc going on in your life to keep u in check ! :)

NurseNotRatched, ADN, BSN, CNA · Nov 26, 2011

hi everyone. i was hoping some of you could give me an idea of a typical "day in the life" in nursing school including when you study and all that. i am currently taking my pre-reqs and looking for some tips. also, when do you delegate free time? i am trying to prepare myself as much as possible for what's to come and kinda freaking myself out that i can't do it in the process. one more thing (and that's it for the questions! lol) did you all find that your classmates were more friendly in nursing school/wanted to form study groups more willingly?

your study time will probably depend on the actual schedule. i'm in my next to last semester in an adn program and this semester we have 3 hour lectures on tuesdays and wednesdays and a 12 hour clinical fridays or saturdays (the class is split). i'm a mother of two and i also live about 45 minutes away from my school. i find that it's useless trying to study at home...even if my kids are quiet, i know i just can't get studying done. it's best if i hang around campus for a couple of hours to study or go to the library. i admit i don't study that much anymore. in the beginning, i used to study much more, but the structure of our program is concept-based and at this point we have started to repeat some of the information. i mainly go over main points and then practice taking nclex style questions related to the current module. our clinical paperwork is usually due a few days after clinical. clinical paperwork can be extremely time consuming. actually more time is devoted to clinical paperwork than studying for me.

as far as study groups go, in my program there have been cliques. a group of about 4 usually choose to study on their own. another much larger group gets together after lecture sometimes to study. i don't usually participate unless it's before an exam and i don't understand something. i study better by myself.

you just need to find your own groove.