Published
That's great! Congrats!
I'm 10 weeks into my 18 month long LVN program and I love it. The first 7 weeks ("bootcamp") were VERY busy as we were getting ready for clinicals, which meant tons of tests and skills check-offs, but now that we've been at our sites for four weeks things have definitely calmed down.
My advice is to stay on top of your reading and be prepared to hit the ground running. Things move very fast!
Good luck to you!
Yes! I've been told to be prepared. This one is a 46 week course, 5 days/week. It moves very fast, after 3 months we start clinicals x3 days/wk. I read the letter describing what we are supposed to do before starting and on the first day and I'm finished with most of it (even some of the first day stuff). I purchased nearly all my books from a former student for cut price (I checked editions and they're the right ones), had a lot of the medical supplies I need already at the house, and bought two sets of scrubs that I will wash and rotate.
I am psyching myself out about the class, my previous endeavors included a bout in pre-engineering classes, the Calculus I was able to feel my way through but the physics was a nightmare. Hours of class time plus 40hrs/week homework (because I struggled so horribly). I'm going to equate nursing school with that so I'm not taken by surprise!
It's terrifying, tbh. You HAVE to stay on your game, class is from 7:30-2:10 (will go to 2:25 in Jan 17), and we spend about 3-4 hours after class lets out working on reading the chapters, doing objectives and workbooks, and going over rationales to prepare for the next days tests over the subjects. The good news is the program had a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX-PN this past graduation, so this hustling we're doing now will surely pay off. We've only lost one student so far, but I'm afraid it will be more soon enough because of the time limitations on taking off classes and the grade requirements for each segment. I'm looking forward to starting clinicals in February/March. I find myself on this site more often than not asking the questions I don't want to ask in class about things that seemingly are common knowledge to nurses (why wear compression hose? what is a 'step down' unit? what is it like working at ____ hospital?), lol. Will post more later when I know more.
JackieHouse, LPN, EMT-B
24 Posts
I enjoy reading everyone's topics and debates and thought I'd add my little two cents in. I applied to TWO RN colleges and an LPN college and was accepted to all three! I will be starting as an LPN first (financial reasons, LPN school will essentially be free for me), and working my way to RN transition. They allow students with an active LPN here to enroll in the third semester of the RN program. I am feeling extremely blessed and lucky today and thought I'd share some good vibes!!