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So who has an idea of the clinical hours that may be involved in a BSN/RN program? I don't know a lot about this program other than it's new at my alma mater. I'll be returning starting this fall. I literally made a phone call last week, and within a couple of hours I was in the program. That said, I know next to nothing about what nurses actually do IN class. I went through paramedic school several years ago to have a weekend hobby and part-time job (I like having something to do), and it seems like in 12 months we did 600 clinical hours.
How many clinical hours do you think may be required? 200-250 for each class maybe? More? Less? All the prereqs I've long since had from my original B.S.
The courses are Foundations, Acute Care, Mental Health, Community Health, Complex Care, and OB/Peds. I'm not sure if the Geriatrics course has a clinical component, plus there are ancillary courses like assessment, pharm, patho, leadership, informatics, and research.
I am dredging this thread back up :) Actually I found it because I was curious how many hours would be in a BSN program. I'm not sure if any of the programs I've looked have stated their clinical hours. I did find a CNL program that stated they had 1000 clinical hours in the program. So I was trying to figure the comparison between that an a BSN. It doesn't sound like that number is too far off from most BSN programs?
Breakdown from my BSN program:
First semester intro clinical: 40
Pediatrics: 120
Obstetrics: 120
Med-Surg: 240
Senior partnership: 160
Mental health: 120
Community health: 120
Total: 920
This varies from program to program and while there are not any national standards, you'll find that some state BONs have standards for license (must have so many hours in each area). So if you're not going to school in the state you will be working, it's good to check that out.
I thought I would expand a bit more on my previous post since I have learned a bit more now that I have started the program. My program is an ADN program, but clinical hours shouldn't vary too much from a BSN since we all end up a RN in the end, I would think.
Our quarters are 10 weeks long, except for my 7th quarter is actually a 15 week semester.
1st quarter (Long Term Care): 40 hours
2nd quarter (OB): 70 hours
3rd quarter (Med/Surg I): 100 hours
4th quarter (Pediatrics): 100 hours
5th quarter (Med/Surg II): 100 hours
6th quarter (Psych): 100 hours
7th quarter (Elective): 240 hours
Total: 750 clinical hours
Hey
I just calculated mine (graduating from MSMU in may) and it will total 975 hours!
that's about 162 hours a semester on average with some semesters being more heavy than others of course.
In California the BSN clinical hours requirements are pretty low but the NCBSN actually has a document of clinical hours required by state for different RN/LPN licensure programs!
I am in my second semester, and I hate clinical , waste of time, money and effort, I would learn so much more by reading book for 6 hours.
I wish for clinical to be optional, we do not learn there anything any way. And yes we are not being on honest on our paperwork.
If it would be less clinical hours requirments we might enjoy clinical and learn some thing, other wise nursing student is FREE help who is working as CNA, and we have to do all dirty work in hospital
ImThatGuy, BSN, RN
2,139 Posts
Well, it looks like the numbers won't be much different than my experiences back in paramedic school. That wasn't too bad although I bet nurse clinicals involve more paper work. With medic school it was more like you walk in the door, look for a patient to practice on (stick, tube, whatever you wanted), knock off for lunch, go back and B.S. for an hour, lol.