George Brown RPN program Fall 2017

LisaStone · Jun 27, 2017

Hey :) I'm going into my third semester RPN there in September!

Honestly, compared to second semester, first semester is a walk in the park. So if you find yourself struggling this fall, you'll be in big trouble.

Lifespan development is useless, I knew a girl who didn't attend a single class and got an A (because all the tests are online).

Nursing theory is only somewhat difficult because the questions are not always right or wrong, it's about picking the best answer.

Math and Pharmacology is a big joke (you won't learn a single drug), and the math is elementary level. I finished with a 99, but unfortunately your mark isn't counted because it's only a pass/fail class.

PN role is also a big joke, I didn't learn a single thing. The tests are kind of difficult though, especially the exam (35 questions worth 35%) which is ridiculous. I knew some people who were passing the class and then failed because of the final exam.

Lecture/lab is also extremely easy because you're learning the basics, the first class is learning how to wash your hands... literally. And then bathing patients, feeding, changing briefs etc, the only stressful thing about that class is OSCEs, which is a practical exam where you interact with a fake patient, and if you don't get a certain grade you fail the class and have to re do it the following semester. It's completely ridiculous to hold people back for just that, so my advice would be to practice all the scenarios with some friends. If you forget to lower the bed before leaving, you could be held back.

Then there is Anatomy and Physiology, also pretty easy, most people did relatively well in that class, it gets a bit harder in the second semester. It's easy to fall behind in that class so always try to stay on top of it, and make good condensed notes (it will really help for studying). It starts off REALLY easy, and picks up a bit more toward the end.

Then you have English and an elective, obviously easy classes but they take up time.

Hmmm what else for semester one... Get comfortable shoes, do NOT buy the cheap stethoscope they may recommend to you. Just spend the extra money. The only textbooks I remember being useful in semester one were Kozier (you'll need it for every semester), and the anatomy one. Do not waste your money on the PN role or math and pharm textbooks, just rent them from the library if you feel like you need them. Even the anatomy one isn't absolutely necessary. It's obviously up to you though, but I got straight As and barely used any textbooks. I can't think of anything else for Semester one. I remember feeling overwhelmed, but it's nothing compared to semester two.

So for semester two, this is really where people start to drop out, or fail out. Some people don't make it through semester one, and if I'm being honest I don't think they should continue on because semester two will hit them like a brick wall.

Semester two has a lot more studying, and a lot more hours of class (plus a 12 hour clinical day). If you have any specific questions about semester two let me know and I'll be happy to answer. I would recommend over the winter break getting a head start on your drug cards, make a group with some friends and split the work. When you start clinical in semester two you will be expected to have 50 drug cards done within a month. Believe me with all the work you'll be doing in semester two you'll be thankful you had them all done over the break.

The only big advice I have for semester 2 is to stay on top of everything, it's SO easy to fall behind, and once you've fallen behind it's really difficult to catch up. If you think you have no work to do, or nothing to study, you're wrong. There's always something you can be doing

If you want to continue on and become a registered nurse, keep in mind going in that you need to have decent grades (you're not supposed to have anything below a 70.) And try to keep everything in the 80-90 range.

good luck!!! And I'm here if you have any more questions now, or throughout the year.

yellowblueberries · Jun 28, 2017

Hey thanks for all the information and useful tips, I know it's an intense program even compared to other schools and a lot of people don't make it through but it's useful to know the little details I wouldn't have been able to know for the specific semesters like textbooks and how you found certain classes and which ones are more intense than others. I got into the program with my average being 92% in the prerequisites and I'm a dedicated student, I always study ahead if I can and am very organized. I stay on top of all my work 24/7 so I can get the best grades I can because I'm determined to be successful. But I understand what you mean, 9 classes for first semester sounded like a lot but it depends on the difficulty and the volume of content, plus second semester you also have clinical to do. I heard second semester is a lot harder so I already started studying anatomy and physiology and some math practice sheets on nursing math to get a head start if I can. I think it's normal/good to be nervous going in, means I take it seriously but I'm also just really excited to just get started. I read some of your posts from other threads a few months ago Cause I was googling about the program there & it's good to see you're making it through and nice of you to offer advice to others who are starting. Thanks so much!

yellowblueberries · Jun 28, 2017

Oh and by the way yes I did my research online about RN programs and I called uofoit a few months ago, the average needed to get in when I apply may go up to about 85 percent so it's just best to have the best grades possible throughout the PN program when you're applying to those programs. My cousin teaches BScN Nursing programs at Western University and is getting her Ph.d, she was a premed student wanting to become a doctor but changed her path. I know all grades need to be above 70 in the PN and bridge programs and the overall average has to be above 75 or 80 for even consideration depending on the program but then it's subject to competition as well so to be safe it's just better to get the highest grades possible, if over 90-95 averages are possible for someone applying to get in, then it's just better to do that. I called the faculty of nursing at GBC and she told me a new option for students this year is fast tracking in all semester and taking third semester with people who started in May of this year and are taking from January to April off and doing the third semester with them so that's my plan, & take fourth semester next sept-Dec. you need to know a lot of the cpnre and you only get three tries and I felt that taking a summer break will make me worried about forgetting stuff and working after the exam is when you'll be applying the knowledge IRL in a job where it matters even more, so if I can just go all the way through, then I will want to do that.â˜ºï¸

LisaStone · Jun 28, 2017

I think of the people who do fail, most of them just do not take the program seriously or spend enough time studying, at least from the people I know who have failed. (Or they work too many hours at a part time job)

You are definitely ahead of 99% of the people who you will be with this fall, I think you will do an amazing job. You are clearly very determined :)

yellowblueberries · Jul 1, 2017

Hey :) I'm going into my third semester RPN there in September!
Honestly, compared to second semester, first semester is a walk in the park. So if you find yourself struggling this fall, you'll be in big trouble.
Lifespan development is useless, I knew a girl who didn't attend a single class and got an A (because all the tests are online).
Nursing theory is only somewhat difficult because the questions are not always right or wrong, it's about picking the best answer.
Math and Pharmacology is a big joke (you won't learn a single drug), and the math is elementary level. I finished with a 99, but unfortunately your mark isn't counted because it's only a pass/fail class.
PN role is also a big joke, I didn't learn a single thing. The tests are kind of difficult though, especially the exam (35 questions worth 35%) which is ridiculous. I knew some people who were passing the class and then failed because of the final exam.
Lecture/lab is also extremely easy because you're learning the basics, the first class is learning how to wash your hands... literally. And then bathing patients, feeding, changing briefs etc, the only stressful thing about that class is OSCEs, which is a practical exam where you interact with a fake patient, and if you don't get a certain grade you fail the class and have to re do it the following semester. It's completely ridiculous to hold people back for just that, so my advice would be to practice all the scenarios with some friends. If you forget to lower the bed before leaving, you could be held back.
Then there is Anatomy and Physiology, also pretty easy, most people did relatively well in that class, it gets a bit harder in the second semester. It's easy to fall behind in that class so always try to stay on top of it, and make good condensed notes (it will really help for studying). It starts off REALLY easy, and picks up a bit more toward the end.
Then you have English and an elective, obviously easy classes but they take up time.
Hmmm what else for semester one... Get comfortable shoes, do NOT buy the cheap stethoscope they may recommend to you. Just spend the extra money. The only textbooks I remember being useful in semester one were Kozier (you'll need it for every semester), and the anatomy one. Do not waste your money on the PN role or math and pharm textbooks, just rent them from the library if you feel like you need them. Even the anatomy one isn't absolutely necessary. It's obviously up to you though, but I got straight As and barely used any textbooks. I can't think of anything else for Semester one. I remember feeling overwhelmed, but it's nothing compared to semester two.
So for semester two, this is really where people start to drop out, or fail out. Some people don't make it through semester one, and if I'm being honest I don't think they should continue on because semester two will hit them like a brick wall.
Semester two has a lot more studying, and a lot more hours of class (plus a 12 hour clinical day). If you have any specific questions about semester two let me know and I'll be happy to answer. I would recommend over the winter break getting a head start on your drug cards, make a group with some friends and split the work. When you start clinical in semester two you will be expected to have 50 drug cards done within a month. Believe me with all the work you'll be doing in semester two you'll be thankful you had them all done over the break.
The only big advice I have for semester 2 is to stay on top of everything, it's SO easy to fall behind, and once you've fallen behind it's really difficult to catch up. If you think you have no work to do, or nothing to study, you're wrong. There's always something you can be doing
If you want to continue on and become a registered nurse, keep in mind going in that you need to have decent grades (you're not supposed to have anything below a 70.) And try to keep everything in the 80-90 range.
good luck!!! And I'm here if you have any more questions now, or throughout the year.

I totally forgot to ask a few questions I was curious about, how many classes are there a day approximately for first semester? I know there's 9 classes 1st semester total but I wasn't sure how they were spread out because if it's just 2/3 classes a day I was thinking to just have a binder for each individual class & just bring them when I need them. But if it's 4 or more classes a day I might just get a wheelie backpack so I don't break my back. Also how many of each class do they have scheduled each week for semester one? By the way did you find it more useful to use color coded flash cards, print out the PowerPoint & make notes on those, or just write out your notes separately. I have a lot of different study techniques but obviously it depends on the teaching delivery which ones will be more useful. I was also planning on buying a recorder to record my lectures with the teachers permission, and is the littman stethoscope on the GBC site the one I shouldn't buy? Thanks so much again for all your helpful and useful tips, a lot of the things you mentioned i would've had no way of knowing so I'm lucky to know some things in advance! Hope you're having a great summer :)

yellowblueberries · Jul 1, 2017

And I agree with your comment earlier, I mean I haven't started yet so I can't really speak from personal experience but I definitely think working while in nursing school can definitely jeaproadize academic success if people aren't super careful, and getting complacent with 70s makes people less motivated/focused and then when they get a bad grade on one exam because their average wasn't super comfortable/in the safe range beforehand it's a big shock when it puts their status in the program in Jeaproady. Definitely something to be cautious of. Or they have personal things going on at home and didn't think ahead to get in a better environment before the program, or dump that boyfriend who's bad for their mental health. I got out of a relationship this year and it was easy to cut my losses when I realized he would only begin to drag me down academically this fall if I stayed. We all have our strengths and weaknesses but I think that if you're taking care of your life properly so you will be in a healthy mindset to study & prioritize academic success above everything else, there's no reason why any healthy/non learning disabled determined person shouldn't do well or at least be able to get through it safely if they give it their all. Thanks for all your personal insight and encouragement as well, you are very kind and thoughtful :)

LisaStone · Jul 1, 2017

Hi again!

I took an elective when I was in high school, and then I took English during night school before my first semester started, so I had two less classes, but this was my schedule for Sem 1 (I still have it memorized):

Monday: 8:00-10:00 Lifespan Development

Tuesday: 11:00-1:00 Nursing Theory

Wednesday: 10:00-12:00 Math and Pharmacology 2:00-4:00 PN Role

Thursday: 8:00-10:00 Clinical Lecture 12:00-4:00 (I think it was a 4 hour class) Clinical Lab

Friday: 10:00-2:00 Anatomy and Physiology

If I remember correctly, my elective would have been on Monday after lifespan, and my English class would have been on Tuesday after nursing theory. When you pick your schedule, you don't pick each class individually. There are about 7 or so options that you choose from that have the entire schedule. You will be picking your schedule sometime this month (I think you will now the exact date and time July 17th). I recommend being ready right away at the exact time because the better options can fill up fast. I remember some schedules that I personally thought were terrible (6 hour break in between classes). There were no options that had a day off, but maybe it will change this semester.

Everyone studies differently, and when you start you may find yourself trying all new things, but eventually you'll get a system down. Personally I liked to print out the slides (condensed them so it was about 6 slides per page,) and hand wrote any additional notes. From there, I would type my notes out. I'm not a big fan of hand writing because it's larger and a bit messier, and with Microsoft I used a small font, and made tables. If you want to leave your email, I can send you my notes from the first Anatomy class to give you an idea. A lot of people I know used flash cards, and it seemed to really help them. Personally I didn't like doing that but it could be different for you. Some people liked to bring their laptops into class and follow the slides there, that is also allowed. You are allowed to record classes too, I think it could definitely be helpful for some of the classes. Like I said before, semester 1 isn't very heavy, and since you are so prepared I don't think you will be stressed out right away, so you will have time to get a system down.

What I personally did for semester one was have a one inch binder for each class, and would bring them to school with the slides inside, and all of my notes. You won't ever need to have the textbooks with you for class (unless you want to study in the library) So a backpack works just fine. For semester two since it was much heavier, I just had all my notes at home, and only brought to class what I needed for that day (the slides printed out). It made it a lot easier to stay organized.

Also the Littman stethoscope is great, this is the one I use, it works great and it's what most of the students have:

Littmann Classic III Stethoscope | Littmann Stethoscope Canada | Cheap stethoscopes

I got it at the UFT bookstore downtown, but if GBC sells it as well you could get it through them.

And thank you! I hope you're having a great summer as well :)

yellowblueberries · Jul 4, 2017

LisaStone said:
Hi again!
I took an elective when I was in high school, and then I took English during night school before my first semester started, so I had two less classes, but this was my schedule for Sem 1 (I still have it memorized):
Monday: 8:00-10:00 Lifespan Development
Tuesday: 11:00-1:00 Nursing Theory
Wednesday: 10:00-12:00 Math and Pharmacology 2:00-4:00 PN Role
Thursday: 8:00-10:00 Clinical Lecture 12:00-4:00 (I think it was a 4 hour class) Clinical Lab
Friday: 10:00-2:00 Anatomy and Physiology
If I remember correctly, my elective would have been on Monday after lifespan, and my English class would have been on Tuesday after nursing theory. When you pick your schedule, you don't pick each class individually. There are about 7 or so options that you choose from that have the entire schedule. You will be picking your schedule sometime this month (I think you will now the exact date and time July 17th). I recommend being ready right away at the exact time because the better options can fill up fast. I remember some schedules that I personally thought were terrible (6 hour break in between classes). There were no options that had a day off, but maybe it will change this semester.
Everyone studies differently, and when you start you may find yourself trying all new things, but eventually you'll get a system down. Personally I liked to print out the slides (condensed them so it was about 6 slides per page,) and hand wrote any additional notes. From there, I would type my notes out. I'm not a big fan of hand writing because it's larger and a bit messier, and with Microsoft I used a small font, and made tables. If you want to leave your email, I can send you my notes from the first Anatomy class to give you an idea. A lot of people I know used flash cards, and it seemed to really help them. Personally I didn't like doing that but it could be different for you. Some people liked to bring their laptops into class and follow the slides there, that is also allowed. You are allowed to record classes too, I think it could definitely be helpful for some of the classes. Like I said before, semester 1 isn't very heavy, and since you are so prepared I don't think you will be stressed out right away, so you will have time to get a system down.
What I personally did for semester one was have a one inch binder for each class, and would bring them to school with the slides inside, and all of my notes. You won't ever need to have the textbooks with you for class (unless you want to study in the library) So a backpack works just fine. For semester two since it was much heavier, I just had all my notes at home, and only brought to class what I needed for that day (the slides printed out). It made it a lot easier to stay organized.
Also the Littman stethoscope is great, this is the one I use, it works great and it's what most of the students have:
Littman Classic III Stethoscope | Littman Stethoscope Canada | Cheap stethoscopes
I got it at the UFT bookstore downtown, but if GBC sells it as well you could get it through them.
And thank you! I hope you're having a great Summer as well ?

WOW!, that was a LOT of very interesting and useful information. It was so smart of you to take English & an elective course before school started, I wish I had thought of that, haha! And that's awesome, if two classes per day is still an option 1st semester then I'll be psyched to get

on that the second registration opens. And yes I read that registration is July 17th but when I look at stuview before I log in and it has that link to "registration times staggered for fall 2017" it says practical nursing semester one's registration starts July 24th but for the whole college the first programs to let people start registration will have theirs open on the 17th. I'll put the link so you can see what I mean:

But yeah, two classes a day would be wonderful, means I can use a 2 inch binder with lots of space for each class if I want! And I agree I wouldn't like 6 hours between classes either, I mean then you could study during that time but that basically means that each day you don't want to at that exact time means that the time is wasted and you could've spent those hours studying at home or at a library at flexible times for you in the day that you'd get to choose yourself instead of feeling forced to work around/within a less favourable class schedule. I'm planning on having the 24th free just so I can get it over with right when it opens and not stress. Thank you so much for mentioning that! And I agree, everyone has a different style of learning, I believe I'm kinesthetic mainly with a bit of everything else but I read and saw videos on Youtube of med students who also printed the power points and made notes on those. I like writing too, I feel like it makes me absorb information especially when the notes are multicoloured, but like yourself I also don't think that it's always possible to make good notes on what the teacher says in lecture fast enough either, so I think I'll start with bringing my laptop as well for when I need it. There's so many different techniques and you normally can't know anyway what will work best for a particular class for you until you start. But you're right, it'll be a bit of time to get it down before second semester anyways ? and awesome, that's the stethoscope is the one at the online bookstore as well. It's great to know textbooks aren't always necessary to lug around...I'm moving into an apartment downtown (not on campus) but it's still a walk to school, from ryerson. Did you live on gb's residence during the year? If so how did you like it? And WOW!, that's so kind of you to offer me to see/send me your notes as an example, thank you so much! I would love to. Have a great week!

Katiewalf · Jan 10, 2018

Hello, sorry I know this was literally soo long ago that you posted this, but I was just looking through the site and came across it. I was just wondering how you were able to take the English in night school? Like what you did it through/where you did it, if you don't mind me asking. Thank you so much!

yellowblueberries · Jan 22, 2018

Hi, sorry I did post this but I wasnt the one who took english before classes started honestly maybe it was done through a dual credit course, like CALC learning center, or at a college before classes started. 9 classes was a lot first semester though, and I had to drop elective because it was too much. If you can get those out of the way before your semester starts you might find it less stressful!

yellowblueberries · Jan 24, 2018

Hey, how did your third semester go? :)