Lone star nursing program length

lilag02 · Feb 1, 2011

It's five semesters total. While it's definitely a full-time work load, you are not technically a full-time student. I'm in second semester right now and we're only taking five hours. Last semester was six. Next, I believe is six or nine depending on whether you've taken pharm. I'm not sure of the last two off of the top of my head. Hope that helps and good luck!

ETA: Just realized you didn't specify which campus. I'm at Cyfair, where they like to be different, so the other campuses may be different from what I wrote above. I think the other campuses are four semesters total with summers off, but are still two years in length overall.

iggywench, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2011

The program at North Harris is four regular semesters, plus one short summer course before you begin your first nursing semester. Even though we aren't technically full-time because we don't take 12 hours of classes, it counts as full-time enrollment because of the hours we put into our clinical course.

You do not have to take any classes during the summer between the first and second year, but many students choose to either take the ACLS class offered by the paramedic program at the college, or the MEEP program, which gives you enough clinical hours to sit for your LVN boards and begin working as an LVN.

katybusymom · Jul 21, 2011

I had the same question as sillybilly. When I looked at the curriculum (block) for Cy-Fair it has 72 hours listed, but if you already have all of the pre-requisites done, then you only need 38 hours. How can it take 2 years to complete 38hrs?

iggywench, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

Each of the four regular semesters of nursing gives you credit for 9 or 10 hours. You get one hour for 1172, which was our summer class before starting the full nursing program (vital signs, bedmaking, etc, basically a CNA class), then the regular semesters give you credits for 5 hours of lecture, 1 hour for lab, and 3 hours for clinical. In actuality, we spent five hours per week in lecture, 1.5 hours in the nursing skills lab, and 10.5 in clinical, plus extra hours occasionally doing other things.

You may want to call the nursing advisor for the campus that you are interested in for further explanation. The state has requirements for a certain number of hours that need to be spent on each item while you are in school. I believe it's 96 hours per semester in lecture and 144 hours in clinical, and each school fulfills those requirements in their own way. Our last semester, we didn't have lab, and instead had an online nursing jurisprudence course that prepared us to take the required state exam. I hope this helps...

katybusymom · Jul 21, 2011

@alanaransley Thanks for the info. I'm going to call and see if I can get them to explain it better. I still don't see how it's going to take 2 years to complete 38 hours. I'm a full-time student, ready to commit 40+ hours per week strictly to school, so it seems like they are dragging it out much longer than it needs to be. When I called them previously, I was told that we couldn't move up a semester either to graduate early.

iggywench, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

@katybusymom the way the program is structured is that they build upon your skills each semester, so it wouldn't be beneficial to you to complete it faster. Plus, each class is only offered once a year. There isn't enough faculty to offer them more often.

For instance, in your first semester of clinical, you will basically be doing CNA skills, plus some PO medication administration. Those skills are what you will learn in lab that semester, and you'll focus on patients with the disorders that you will be learning about in lecture at the same time. You'll probably be in a rehab hospital, not an acute-care hospital. Second semester, you'll learn how to do injections, and will be in an acute-care hospital and get to observe in some of the specialty areas. Third semester, you'll be able to do some IV medications, central line dressing changes, catheters, and other more invasive procedures. You'll spend a lot of time in the med/surg area, and when you go to specialty areas, you'll be able to perform some care. By the time you've finished your third semester of lab, you will have learned all of the nursing skills, so you can actually get to do most of them on patients during clinical in your fourth semester. That semester, you will also do team nursing for several weeks, and be able to go to the specialty areas that you are interested in working in. It's also an opportunity to get to do some of the skills that you don't feel as comfortable with while you have the protection of being under someone else's license.

I know Cy-Fair does the block schedule, but North Harris covers a broad range of topics each semester, and goes into each one deeper as you progress through the program. What you are studying in lecture will relate to the lab skills that you are learning at the same time, as well as the patient cases that you will be seeing in clinical. Each clinical instructor can only take 10 students, so that is a factor, as well.

If you're looking to graduate faster than two years, you may want to look at the accelerated program that Kingwood offers that is online, or at UT's accelerated BSN program. I couldn't imagine cramming the sheer volume of information that we learned into less time, though. I spent 12-15 hours each week completing clinical paperwork, 10-15 hours reading and studying lecture material, and probably 2 hours each week preparing for lab. Then, there are extra papers that you have to write, group projects, extra time in the lab to practice, etc. It's equivalent to at least a full-time job, and I promise you will never be bored or wishing you were taking more classes.

If you truly feel like it's not enough, you could work on some of the classes required to transition to a BSN program. Some students chose to do that last summer, but I chose to spend the summer with my children and give my brain a rest.

katybusymom · Jul 21, 2011

@alanaransley Thank you SO much for all of the detailed information. Everything you said makes a lot more sense now. I'm used to taking a heavy courseload, but not with clinicals too. I've actually been working on my BSN pre-requisites, so that presents a different problem for me. Since I have so many of them completed, I'm not sure of what else I can take. I will be core complete after the fall semester. I call Cy-Fair and the lady told me that most students only take RNSG classes while in the program, but if I needed to take something else to meet my financial aid eligibility, I could. If they consider the program full-time, why wouldn't it meet the financial aid requirements? After reading everything you said about how much time the program requires, I'm not worried about it being challenging enough, I'm now worried about being able to afford it. This is crazy.

iggywench, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

Most of the students in my program were on financial aid, without taking any other classes. You should be fine that way. The only problem with that is if you have too many college credits to qualify. I already have a bachelor's degree, so I had too many hours for the government financial aid, and had to get a private loan.

The only other class that some of the students had to take during the program was pharmacology. With the competitiveness to get in, 99% of the students complete all of the non-nursing classes and pharmacology before starting nursing.

You also may want to look into the Texas Workforce Commission's Worksource program. You can look it up online, or go into any of the TWC offices around the city. There is one on campus at North Harris as well. If you meet financial requirements, they will help with tuition, books, uniforms, and possibly childcare. Several students in my program were on Work Source, and it worked well for them. I don't know how someone would have time to work while in nursing school, except if you were single with no kids. People did it, though. Just keeping up with schoolwork was enough for me, and I am used to working full-time with kids. Plan to spend every weekend studying or doing clinical paperwork, and in your free time (Ha!), you need to be studying for the HESI exit exam.