what kind of assignments are given in nursing school?

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Hello all, I am starting nursing school this upcoming fall, and I really don't know what to expect. I always read a lot of posts on this site, and it seems like nursing school will be hell. I know it's a lot of hard work, but what kind of assignments are given? I mean, reading assignments are obvious, but what else? I'd like to say I'm pretty good with managing my time. Can anyone share what kind of assignments they've had? By the way, I will be entering an ADN program. Thanks in advance!!

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For my 101 class, in addition to the readings for lecture and lab (there is A LOT!) and every-other-week clinical preparation (which is beyond A LOT...hours and hours and hours on Monday night!), we have to do:

1 professional article summary

a group drug presentation

3 independent lab hours

3 independent case studies

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Lots of essays, group projects/presentaions, care plans, research projects, reflective journals are the things that come to mind.

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Lots of busy work! We get assigned case studies, drug cards, flash cards, process recordings, various worksheets, and LOTS of care plans. Care plans were probably the most time consuming, out of all the above. More than anything, I think the reading is the most time consuming, though. If you already have your books, start reading up!

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

We don't have an awful lot of busy work. Most of my time is spent reading to prepare for labs, SIM, and lecture, doing clinical paperwork, and a few extra things like case studies.

I'd say the most "busy work" things are the projects. We've had geriatric projects, child development projects, culture projects, communication projects...

They like to keep us busy :).

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I am a first semester ADN right now and in each class we have a large amount of reading which is done on our own time. We also have skills check offs which are considered major grades, assessment assignments, vocab or med term quizzes, participation grades like chapter reviews and discussion posts, as well as dosage calculation homework and quizzes.

I'm sure I'm missing a few things and it seems like a lot to take in buy if you keep organized and in top of your reading.m, it works! I accept I cannot read every single chapter in depth but I can understand concepts and how it all relates.

What helps me is taking It week by week. Every Sunday I plan out what is happening the next week like major assignments, quizzes etc. so far that has been my beat tool...

Best of luck to you! It's a great experience :)

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Client centered guides

Process Recordings

Concept Maps

SBAR

Simulation worksheets

Reading, Reading, Reading

Plus we have to do anecdotes every week after clinicals!

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I just started an ADN program, I'm taking Fundamentals of Nursing this semester.

So far, we've had about 25 chapters to read.

We've just started clinicals, I've only been the nursing home so far but I did an 8 page Physical Assessment for that. Tomorrow I will go to the hospital for the first time in Med/Surg and we have to do a Patient Care Data Sheet (basically all of their assessment data, labs, procedures, etc), another 8 page assessment (very thorough exam we perform and then write the info, including Erikson's implications, Gordon's Health Patterns, nursing hx, etc), and a careplan for the patient after clinical.

Later in the semester we have a surgical paper due when we observe surgery.

We must do online quizzes pretty frequently, usualy over class material. Pop quizzes in class. Medication sheets.

Check offs and returns (same thing really, returns are in school, check offs in clinical).

Dosage Calc tests beginning of each semester.

We also have this big assignment due at Midterm and Finals, it's like an evaluation of every objective covered this semester where we have to make sure we have done each one and written an example and how we met the goal. Not too hard, just time consuming, which is like most of nursing school assignments.

Tests every two weeks, and HESI exam at end of semester.

Oh and I forgot Case studies which are helpful.

Its really, honestly, not that hard if you keep up with the reading and practice your skills. I am assuming it will get a lot harder over the next semesters though since this one is mainly basics.

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I'm in Level I. So far, this what we've done:

3-4 Reflection papers for community clinicals

2 Reflection papers for SIM Lab

3 Skills Checkoffs (graded: full head-to-toe assessment, Foley, IV; pass/fail: trach suction, NG tubes, NG feeding, blood draws, etc.)

3-4 Electronic Medical Record documentation (we have a student system to practice on with fictional patients)

2 Class Presentations (patient teaching & professional nursing association, with APA citations)

Lots of online quizzes

Online discussions

Online, interactive case studies

Watch skills videos to prepare for lab & lecture

READING: Lots of it!

1 Care plan

What we will do once clinical starts:

2-3 Care plans

Health Histories

A full head to toe

Whatever else they feel like assigning us!

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First semester was: papers on specific topics, journal article reviews, simple care plans, simple concept maps. And learning basic skills in lab: bedbath, transfers, basic assessment, simple sterile technique, postmortem care

Second semester was: drug write ups, papers on specific topics, more complex care plans and concept maps. And more advanced skills in lab like: injections, catheters, blood sugar testing, collecting samples, passing oral meds. We were in clinical one day a week at a nursing home where we practiced all the skills we learned and observed others we hadn't done in lab yet

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

We did clinical prep work from second semester (not first because we were in a nursing home and we had the same patient every week) and throughout our med-surg/gero med-surg courses. We had to go in the night before clinical to the hospital, get our patient assignment and look at all of their information - diagnosis(es), past medical history, lab values, allergies, tests/procedures, etc. We had to get a list of all of their medications and we had to do write ups on every single medication, which included the medication name, class, mechanism of action, and common side effects. We also had to create some nursing diagnoses for this patient and formulate a care plan. The clinical prep work was sometimes a VERY tedious process. One of my clinical sites ended up being about 40 minutes away from where I lived, and I remember getting home at around 1800 and working on that prep work until close to 0100, only to have to get up at the crack of dawn and be at clinical on time that morning. :sniff: The patient I had had A LOT of medications that they were on which is what took up most of my time.

Aside from that:

* papers (lots of 'em!)

* process recordings (I remember I had to do one in my Fundamentals class and two for my psych rotation)*

* skills check-offs

* weekly group discussions that included case studies that we had to post online (we used Springboard at my school but Blackboard is similar)

* weekly quizzes

* group projects

* group presentations/single presentations (though honestly everything was mostly group)

* dosage calculation exams

* reflective journals

* TONS of reading!

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On 2/20/2013 at 5:36 PM, NevadaFighter said:

various worksheets,

what do you mean bye "various worksheet" what kind of worksheets?

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