Hybrid Nursing School?

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Hello everyone,

I am really just looking for others experiences with this question...

I attend one of the "top nursing schools" in my area, and I am kind of thrown as to why it is considered to be that way.

When I enrolled, our schedule was M-F, basically 8-4 everyday, with the exception of clinical days, which were longer. I thought that schedule was great. Although time consuming, I thought I would have an ample amount of time with instructors and in lab to learn the skills I needed to be a competent nurse.

One day, about a month after enrolling in classes, I looked at my schedule and to my surprise it was totally rearranged! Our schedule had become hybrid, and no students knew a thing about it.

Now, coming to the end of my first semester I am on the fence about my school. I am doing very well (high A's in every class and an A on every exam thus far) however, I don't know if I am memorizing the information for the test or if I am actually LEARNING it. I want to learn and KNOW the information, because that it so critical to the safety of my patients and to the care I am capable of providing.

During the first semester, we spent only 4 hours in lecture and about 10 hrs in lab and 6 in clinical per week. The vast majority of information is on powerpoints and honestly, the in class time seems pointless. The instructors just read us the powerpoints, which we are already expected to know when we come to class....

I have been told that many nursing schools are going to this format of learning these days, but I find that hard to believe. What are your experiences? Does anyone else go to a "hybrid" school? If anyone has graduated from one, do you feel competent? I'm sure part of my feelings of incompetence come from still being so new at this, but I just fear that this style of learning will not really benefit me in the end.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

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bump:)

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

What exactly about your school makes it a hybrid school? Having both a lecture and clinical/lab portion of the same class is pretty much how nursing school has been done for at least the last decade (when I started, and probably long before that too)- we had 3 hours lecture and 8 hours of clinical, lab, or combination of the two each week.

Unfortunately, you will come across good teachers and bad throughout your academic career, no matter what school you attend. You will need to take the initiative to read the book and know the info. One thing to keep in mind is that no lecture time will be sufficient to cover all the information that you will need to know to be a practicing nurse, and lecture is mainly to highlight the "really important" stuff.

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That's not actually a hybrid school. A true hybrid school is half online, half on campus. Your school sounds... typical. What's the complaint? I'm not sure I understand. Too many hours in lab and not enough in class? I'm a bit confused.

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Many of my classes at my school are hybrid. My first semester 2 classes are online and 2 are hybrid (patho and health assessment). I believe ours are offered this way due to the limited number of instructors at our school. We are a college of health sciences run by a local network of hospitals, and our school has about 400-500 students for about 5 programs I think. It really depends on the school. The above posters are right though, the class has to be half and half.

Also, our school is rumored to turn out the best nurses in the area.

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I'm not upset at all about the half class/ half lab time. It's completely the opposite actually. The complaint is that I don't feel we have ENOUGH time in lab and class to competently learn skills we need to know. We have 24 students in a lab and have 1 hour to get all twenty four signed off on lab skills, and that is only once every other week. I am well aware I have to take the initiative to learn the material and I do. I finished this semester with high A's in all 6 of my classes. I am just asking if others have had this experience and felt competent after graduation.

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So do you have 10 hours of lab (practice) and just 1 hour to be signed off every other week or do you only get 1 hour every other week to practice and be signed off by your instructor?

If it is the second one then I agree... that's nothing and it's not safe cause they're not actually teaching you anything, but if it is the 1st one then I don't see anything wrong with that.

My first semester I had 1 hybrid class (intro to nursing) + an online class (ethics). For health assessment we spent like 3 hours in the lab, lecturing for the first hour and the rest of the time practicing with our peers. For skills we got 6 hours of lab, and the instructor "lectured" while teaching the skills. From the 2nd to 5th semester we don't get to spend anytime in the lab, our lectures last for 4 hours just once a week and then we just go to clinicals, and learn our skills there with real patients LOL.

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Sorry, I made a typo in the original post. We have one hour in lab every other week. The weeks we are not in lab, we are in clinical. I just don't feel that I get enough hands on time in either atmosphere. I'm hoping my second semester is different.

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Well in that case I understand your concern, but I think that even if you get to spend several hours in lab every week, you still feel insecure every time you go to the hospital and try to do those skills on your pt. I'm in my 3rd semester and I still get nervous every time I have to do a skill, so far I only feel confident giving medications, but it definitely gets better each semester. I doubt I will feel prepared and a "real nurse" by the time I graduate, but that's a very common feeling among students.

but for the money you guys spend in tuition and books, I definitely think you deserve way more than just 1 hour of lab every other week!

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Sweet-wild-rose, what makes my school hybrid is that the class time they took away from us has been replaced by online learning. We do much more online learning than in class learning. Maybe I wasn't clear. Sorry.

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