Is graduating LVN program possible w/o prior medical exp. or no schooling in years

bigboy18 · Mar 17, 2010

Were you expecting nursing school to be easy?...

You really should have done more research and understand what you got yourself into before getting paying 30k. It's your fault for not getting all the info you needed before paying..so I wouldn't put all the blame on the school. (Most private colleges that offer the 1 year LVN program don't care about you, they just want your $$) I'm 19 years old and I have no prior medical experience or work experience for that matter. I went into the program when I was 18 right out of high school. Math is not my best subject, in fact I needed a tutor just to understand basic arithmetic which cost me $300. My tuition was $22k and I did the 1 year program as well.

With that said, there are plenty of students in my class who struggled; me being one of them. But, if you put 20k or 30k into something you've been wanting to do, than you do whatever it takes to pass. I studied my butt off and so did the rest of my classmates. All but 2 out of 30 failed within the first semester. The rest of us passed and I am now in my last practicum/preceptorship. (I graduate in 2 months)

If you are struggling in the first semester, I suggest you talk with your instructors or school advisers and see if you can work something out. Do not give up. I know a handful of classmates of mine that have been out of school for many years, have a family and some even have jobs and they all made it.

So to answer your question, it IS possible to graduate from the LVN program without prior medical experience or no schooling in years. And no, coming straight out of high school hasn't helped me in this program. Your instructor will be your best friend in this program. They are there to guide you if you are struggling in understanding something. USE THEM!

Best of luck :)

AZMOMO2 · Mar 17, 2010

Hit the book store ( you dont have to buy the books ) but look through the Made Incredibly Easy titles. Plus do NCLEX questions for the chapters you are working with. Saunders worked great and use the online resources with your textbooks. They usually have a tutorial section.

Buy an A&P coloring book it really does help! I am sure you know more than you think you do.

It is very common for half of a class to be failing = nursing style questions and information take a lot of practice to get. We lost 6 out of 30 the first block ( all had medical experience and most had even taken all of their RN pre/co reqs), we ended up with about 20 total who passed the program.

So use the resources you can, ask for help from the instructors and remember, even the minimum score to pass is still a pass... you are spending good money for this.... work it as hard as you can!

You CAN do it!:hug:

benrock · Mar 18, 2010

Thank you both for such great advice. I want to say for bigboy18 your right I am responsible for my own education and should have asked more questions and been better prepared, ignorance is not an excuse. That totally opened my eyes and got me out of my little pity party I was having.... nursing school sucks the life out of you and I’m so tired and frustrated that I tend to get down on myself for not doing good. I will definitely check out the coloring books and have been trying to use additional resources. Bottom line is I need to really study more and try to comprehend everything I can and quick! Thankfully the instructor is staying after class for those who need further assistance and trust me I have been there everyday. All I can do is my best, I will never give up, they will have to pull me out of there kicking and screaming. They might just have to if I don’t get these grades up, but no time to worry about that now.

sgordon1 · Mar 18, 2010

I have revently started the LVN program several weeks ago and I have barely scraped by on the math and other subjects, I am seeing that now entering Anatomy & Physiology the only students that are even barely making it (only a few are making a-b average) are the ones who have just graduated from college, have recently dropped out of RN school or have taking all the pre reqs but couldnt get into RN bc of the wating list.
For someone like me who hasn't been in school for over 16 years with only a high school education and no previous medical expierance what so ever I am finding it not only difficult but ultimatley immpossible to pass. We go over two chapters a day and are tested on them the next morning. Not including our other class we have to study for and be tested on as well. This is all new to me so learning it in a couple of hours is not possible. I am in the year program and chose this bc it would be the only length of time that I would be able to afford to go to school. They did tell me the program was difficult and accelerated but what they didnt tell me is that I should at least have had some recent refresher courses to survive. I am now in a 30K debt for this program and am worried I will flunk out and be left with a portion of this loan to pay. I cant believe that they would allow someone to do this to themselves without letting them know the clear overall picture of what the program entails. I didnt receive all my program info until my financial aid was in porcess and that wasnt until 2 weeks before I started school. Almost half the class is failing and not bc we are not smart but learning so much info at once is too much!! And so discouraging, I had planned to further my education once I started working as an LVN to be an RN but this expierance has really made me sour on going to school.
I am wondering if anyone has had the similar expierance or what they did to catch up? How many students dropped/flunked out in your class, did you find that these students were the ones who had current schooling or medical expierance?

I know the feeling yes you are so right. When our class first started we had 30 students by midterm so many had flunked on the tests that they just gave up. We were shown skills one time and the next day we had to go into the lab and demonstrate it for a grade. Some of us had never seen or heard of these procedures before but we had to master them. The students that did master them were previous students that flunked out in a diffrent college. Our clinicals were the worst we were taken on the floor given the clients chart and then told to go to our clients room and take care of them. We were scared out of our pants and we got a grade for it so you know what our first clinical grade was. We had at least 6 chapters to go through and we were tested on them three days later every week. We also had drug calculation class and we had to be graded on skills right along with our nursing fundamentals skills so you are not alone. Today was our last day out of the 30 students we had only 14 left. Get this some of us may not even get to take Med Surg 1 because we are afraid of our drug cal grades. The two students that are doing good are the ones that don't really have a routine of studying they have seen it done so many times they tend to get frustrated with us when we leave out simple steps. I have been out of school for 15 years also and i find it very difficult also. What the few of us did was we got study groups together we all found out what areas we were having the most problems with and we only focused on that. We called each other to compare answers and if we found out any new source that was helpful we let each other know. The way we got on top of our skills were by watching YouTube demos. That is very helpful , some of the skills had one or two diffrent steps but it helped us master them. Today we had finals in all three classes back to back and all the test had 100 or more questions on them. I feel that LPN's have a lot of responsibilities and we have to know alot. We did not know what we were getting ourselves into until we got into the classes and we had to spend over $400 in uniforms and nursing equiptment. I wish you all the luck and please don't give up............ :uhoh3:

lillor · Mar 22, 2010

It is very possible to finish. I'm going to be 49 years old next week and just finished the LVN program in January and take my boards tomorrow. I have been out of school since I was 21. I worked in the mortgage industry for 15 years and have no medical experience at all. This is just something that interests me so much. Thank God because I had to study approx. 5 hours per night including the weekends. It's tough and you pretty much have to put your life on hold but you can do it. Hang in there!