Experience in the ABSN programs?

gumby1411 · Jan 22, 2011

I'm in an ABSN program right now. My school meets the required amount of clinical time (I'm not sure if the number of clinical hours are mandated by the state or nationally). So, yes, the course work is ridiculously demanding, but so is clinical. I spend more than half of my "class" time in clinicals - I have approx 10-12 hours in lecture/week and 16 hours in clinical/week. Lecture requires a lot of reading/studying, but clinicals require care plans, medication lists, presentations, etc. From what I've read on allnurses, my ABSN program compares to traditional BSN programs with clinical time.

pitaya · Jan 22, 2011

Oh, no, we definitely get in all of the required hours! We had 3 clinical days a week during the fall semester. Believe me, they will fit in more than you think is possible!

xInspiredx · Jan 22, 2011

^Thank you for the replies gumby & pitaya!

It does seem like a challenge to maintain good grades (& maintain your sanity as well with all of those hours of school & clinics lol), but I guess that's what we're in for when we sign up for this program. I'm almost debating transferring to a regular BSN program, but they're just so competitive now. Then again, I have been reading that many hospitals don't even care about the GPA that you get while you're in nursing school, since they only care about the "1-3 years of experience" part. I kind of don't understand why the clinicals don't count for the "experience" that hospitals want though.