Lansing Community College 2016 role call

Thank you SO much for all the info! I had NO IDEA their program was as rigorous as it sounds to be. I think from taking Pharmacology it gave me a little bit of a taste of the Nursing Critical thinking that they expect in the program. Thats AMAZING that you were able to 4.0 all of your classes, I think your decision to not work while in the program was a great idea. Luckily, I nanny for a really great family where I mostly spend time at their house and do laundry with no kids there so I think my job still may work for me while in the program. I am already stressed just thinking about starting the program now that I have an idea what it will be like!! Do you remember what time the classes typically were or did you get to pick?

No, unfortunately, you never get to pick which time your classes start. NUR 150 always starts at 0800. When your class splits for level 2 (one group does Med-Surg, the other does Maternity), the administration does the class split, so you really have no control over which group you get placed in. Clinicals are different now. They used to do morning or afternoon clinicals. I believe they are now doing a full 12 hour shift, which means you start at 0700 and get out at 1900. But it's only one day per week now instead of 2.

That's great you have a flexible job. You should be able to work and not worry about getting in study time. Lucky :)

If you get in the program, I highly recommend attending the NUR 119 workshops (if they still offer them) and go to supplemental instruction (taught by Ben). Supplemental instruction sessions really help solidify the information and Ben has a way to presenting it from a different point of view that helps it "click".

Thank you so much! Sorry I still have a few questions, so what would you say your average weekly schedule during the program looked like? Monday-Thursday 0800 until? I'm just trying to get somewhat of an idea of what I'm in for exactly.

Yes-I am so thankful to have the job I do right now and I am hopeful my boss can help me work around whatever my school schedule might be or else I may need to find something else part time if possible.

I will definitely be looking into the SI sessions if I get in, I will definitely be needing all the help I can get.

Do you have any more study tips/helpful suggestions as to succeeding and doing well?

It depends on which class you're taking, schedule-wise. When I had NUR 150, I had class 0800-1200, then a 3 hour break until Skills Lab from 1500-1800. So on Mondays and Wednesdays, I was in school from 8 AM until 6 pm. I used the time from 1200-1500 to study. On Tuesdays, lecture was 0800-1100 and then Physical Assessment 1130-1300. PA was only the first 6 weeks. However, clinicals start up after week 6, so your time gets re-distributed to clinicals based on your placement. Basically, I was in school (or clinicals) all day, every day, Monday through Thursday for the first six weeks. It gets better once you're in clinicals and don't have to do Skills Lab & PA lab all the time.

As far as studying tips: take an assessment that determines your learning style: are you an auditory learner? Visual? Kinesthetic? It's important to understand how you learn best. Then find other people who have similar learning styles and make a study group. We did this in NUR 119 study skills workshop and it was the most helpful of all the workshops. I found I'm an auditory learner, so I bought a voice recorder to record lectures and listen to them, as well as read. I retain info better if I can talk about it out loud. So, my study group, we'd take turns "teaching" the material to each other. It really helped solidify things.

Do the NCLEX-style practice questions that come from the textbook publisher. Usually, they're available on a CD that comes with the book or you can go right to the publisher's website. This will help you get used to answering nursing school questions. It's a completely different way to "think".

If your text comes with a study guide, get it! I found this especially helpful for the Med-Surg text. You will use the Med-Surg text throughout the program. The practice questions in the study guide were excellent preparation for the exams & quizzes.

I color-coded my planner so I could keep up with everything. I filled in each exam date and coded it pink. Then quizzes in orange. Next, papers due in yellow. PA assignments in green, Skills lab assignments in blue. In the spaces in between, I scheduled my study time in purple. I'm telling you, that first 6 weeks is a killer, but once you get past it, you have some breathing room.

My other piece of advice is don't be afraid of Med math. I know it's scary to hear you must get 95% or better or you fail the class. However, if you follow a consistent approach to solving the problems, you'll sail through it. There's a great book by Karen Champion called "Math Attack: Strategies for Winning the Pharmacology Math Battle". It's terrific. She covers 4 different ways to approach med math. You find the approach that makes the most sense for you.

Hope this helps :)

OMG those first 6 weeks seem brutal! But I'm glad it starts out so difficult so you can learn to balance everything quickly. I really appreciate your thought out responses to all of my questions it helps me understand the process much easier!

I agree that talking out the material also helps me learn, I find that to help the information stick in my head. This previous semester when I had physio and pharmacology I found it very helpful to highlight and color code everything on a giant calandar I put in my bedroom������ I also definitely need to get some good study buddies that won't have social time with me and that will work together well to accompish what we need to go over. Again Kris, I really appreciate all of your feedback and knowledge on the program because I really wasn't sure what to expect at all but now I feel a lot better!!

For anyone else going for the 2016 program- I finally got an email back from LCC with my point calculations. Everything came out correctly and I'm glad they finally got back to us.

You are very welcome! Just let me know if you have any more questions. I always appreciated the people who took the time to help us when we were nursing students, so I am happy to pay it forward :)

Good to hear you got your points calculation. June will be here pretty soon. Hopefully, with good news