Is my school comparable? Am I being set up for failure?

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I am afraid I'm not getting a good education. Please help me understand how my school's associate nursing program compares to others. I am in a community college associate nursing program and am half way through the program.

I am afraid my classmates and I are being set up for failure. Here's why: throughout the program, we have two classes each semester. That means we have one lecture and one practicum/clinical for each class. They schedule the lectures back to back on the same day, each lecture is 3 hours. The practicum/clinical is also one day a week and it only lasts about 5 hours. I have never worked an 8hr or 12hr shift. We attend practicum/clinical in groups of 10 or more with one instructor and there are usually only 3 nurses on the floor where we have been so far.

My classes last semester were Med-Surg and Maternal/Newborn. In Med-Surg I gave oral meds, did 1 glucose test, gave 1 insulin shot, inserted 1 foley catheter (female), and was only assigned 1 care plan. In Maternal/Newborn I witnessed 2 cesarean births and no lady partsl births, inserted 1 foley (female) and completed no care plans or provided patient education or lactation consultation.

How often do you have lecture? Practicum/Clinical? How long do they last? Do you have a lab where you practice? Is it mandatory to visit the lab? How far along in your program are you? What sort of experiences have you had?

Thanks in advance

-Anne

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Specializes in Electrophysiology, Medical-Surgical ICU.

Hey Anne-

I'm half way though my AND program now ....may 2012 here I come!!! Woot woot

1st semester: 1 class (fundamentals) 6 credits -3 hours of lecture 1x a week and 1, 6 hour clinical once a week.

2nd semester : 2 classes (OB & Psych) 4credits each - 4 hours of lecture and 8 hour clinical each(we never stayed the whole time) each class was 7.5 weeks meaning you did one class the 1st half of semester and other 2nd half. Both classes required 7.5 hours in the lab practicing skills like med admin and caths

3rd semester 1 class(Med Surge 1) 12 credits lecture 6 hours a wee and clinical 10hrs once a week and then another day of the week 2 hours learning new skills so a total of 12 clinical/lab hrs.

4th semester 1 class (med surge 2) 12 credits same clinical requirements as med surge one but at the end of the semester there is a capstone period of 60-65 hours where you go and work with a real nurse for like 5 of there shifts to gain experience I guess Idk...

I'm excited though!!!!

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Do you feel like you are learning anything? Our first semester here is Fundamentals, which is 3 hrs lecture, 3 hrs lab and 6 hrs of clinicals every week, and we also have Pharm, which is 2 hrs every week.

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Specializes in Electrophysiology, Medical-Surgical ICU.

O yeah I forgot about pharm that was 3 hours 1x a week for the 1st half of the 1st semester...I feel lost as to knowing anything about nursing but I know all my skills I should know and I get A's and B's so...I guess I know more than I think...I heard that 2nd year fall semester is when youu learn all the real goodies and start feeling slightly competent

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Don't remember all of mine but I have felt and still feel the same way...

we had Fundamentals, Pharm 1 and Med/Surg 1 with clinicals and careplans administered meds

Then we had, Med/Surg 2, OB and Psych. We had Clinicals, administered meds

then we had Med/Surg 3, Peds, and an NCLEX prep course (which sucks!), had clinicals administered meds.

I never once put in a cath, did a couple of IV's administered PO and IV meds.. don't feel I got much experience.

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Specializes in Infusion.

1/2 way mark. Lectures twice a week x 2-1/2 hours. Clinicals twice a week x 6 hours. Pharm once a week or less x 1 hour for entire year. Countless PO meds given, several insulin, fragmin shots given, 1 day of surgery, 2 days OB, no catheters but one assist. We have skills lab about 6-7 times per term (3 terms/year) and sign up to demonstrate for an instructor. Clinical times will go up.

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Thanks everyone - I feel a little better knowing that others feel just as nervous as I do. I sure hope I get a lot more hands-on experience in the second year!

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If your school is approved by the state BON and graduates are qualified to write the NCLEX, that means it is meeting at least the same minimum requirements as all the other nursing programs in the state in terms of content covered, classroom and clinical hours/experiences, qualifications of faculty, NCLEX pass rate, etc. (However, that doesn't really address the quality of the instruction and the program -- that's something much harder to measure.)

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We do 2 lectures a week each are 3 hours and a piece and one 12 hour clinical day. we take 2 courses a semester. the first week your in school more than that but after the first week its what i wrote above. every school is different. if you are that concerned i would find out your nclex passing rate of your school. Our is 99% and we are in the top ten best nursing schools in florida. actually were number 2

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Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.

Is your school accredited by the NLNAC? If it isn't accredited, if it isn't eligible for accreditation, or if it's lost its accreditation, cut your losses and run. Many employers will not consider applicants who graduated from schools that are not accredited and most RN to BSN (or RN to MSN) programs require that applicants graduate from an accredited school of nursing.

I would be concerned about a program that has only 5 hours of clinical per week. That really isn't enough. In terms of skills, each student needs to be proactive and if he/she hasn't had opportunities to perform certain skills, he/she needs to look for those opportunities.

If there are only 3 nurses on the floor per shift, it's possible that the clinical facility is too small or has too low a census to accommodate 10 nursing students. One semester I taught at a facility that had a very low census and pretty much every patient to whom my students were assigned were there for nausea and vomiting. It was not an optimal experience.

Although care plans are the bane of many students' existence, it seems strange that you only did one care plan in your first Med-Surg clinical and none in OB.

If you truly feel you aren't learning, you may need to look for a different program. It's hard to walk away, especially when you've put so much effort into your program already, but if you aren't getting the quality of education you expected, you may need to reconsider.

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Specializes in Psych, LTC/SNF, Rehab, Corrections.

I just began last Tuesday so bear with me.

First semester (8 weeks):

We have A/P, Medical terminology and Fundamentals.

- A/P. Lecture. 9:00-11:30/12:00p. 3x's a week.

- Med terminology. Lecture. 1:00 to 2:00p. 2x's a week

- Nursing Fundamentals. Lecture/Skill lab. 1:00 to 4:30/5:00. 3x's week.

We talk over the chapter for an hour...then practice the skills at the lab.

We have these interesting dummies. One of them simulates child-birth and screams.

*laugh*

Too funny. I'd prefer REAL pts, though. A little anxious since hearing that we'd be doing our 'sticks' on dummies.

I'd rather gain experience on a human being. Hopefully, I'll get lots of opportunities when I do clinicals.

I *think* we'll hit the clinical sites 7 weeks from now. Our fundamentals instructor gave us these math worksheets. Said it would come in handy with Pharm (which we take next semester).

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