Maricopa community colleges-Full time job-what should I do?

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Hi everyone,

I am currently a fire fighter in Arizona and am looking to get my RN in one of the Maricopa Community Colleges, but I am trying to figure out which program will be best for me. I work 24 hours on and 48 off, so for example my Schedule one week is Tuesday and Friday 8a-8a, next week, Sun, Wed, Sat and so on. Now I have a lot of vacation leave and can have people switch shifts with me easily, so i could work tues instead of wed etc. But i can't do it last minute, so my question, which program or college would be best for me? I am doing my pre-requites stuff now part time and on line and it seems it's gonna be easy with work, but once i am in the blocks i am worried about how many days or hours a week class will be. I have no problem with independent study, and really no problem getting a decent amount of time off, but i need to know in advance what days i need off. How does the programs work with clinicals and labs etc? Thanks to anyone that can help!

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Im in the full time traditional program and our schedule on paper is Monday through Thursday. Off paper, its more like Sunday through Friday. We have to do our clinical prep on Sunday which can take all day. Then sometimes tests etc are scheduled on Friday. So far Saturday seems to be the only day I haven't had a RN school requirement.

I know GCC has a weekend program, but I don't know what that is like at all. I know it is every weekend for 2 years but I don't know if they have to go in a day prior to clinical (I imagine they might) to prepare care plans etc.

Call the nursing advisors. They can kind of give you an idea of what the programs requirements are and roughly what the hours are. They never promise you those hours though.

Lynn/BW

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Specializes in labor & delivery.

Hello

I agree with Lynn about checking with the advisors. I'm in an accelerated program and there is no way I could work your schedule and survive. Rio Salado has classes on-line. Maybe that would be a good option since you said you are an independent learner. Good luck!!!

Kim

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Thanks for the replies, sounds pretty intense, but I'm confident i can do it. GCC and Gateway both have programs that arent as intense but the semesters run longer than traditional college semesters. Scrappin how far in advance do you know your schedule? i might very well be able to do a sun-fri program, but if i find out thursday i need to be in friday it makes things complicated. I'm already looking at NCLEX stuff and have over 150 college credits, so the learning part doesn't scare me as much as the making the attendance and clinicals do. Again thanks to both of you for replying.

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It depends on the semester, but we knew our schedule before the semester starts in all three cases so far. This last round of semester schedules, we knew roughly before Christmas. I know before 2nd and 3rd blocks we had to rank our choices in priority and then they signed us up. We had four options to choose from so it wasn't to hard to figure out schedules.

Lynn/BW

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I live in Arizona (East Valley), too! Have you looked into Gateway Community College for possible alternative class schedules? Phoenix College might also have some various schedules. I go to school during the week and during the day, Monday - Friday. A schedule like that probably wouldn't work for you, unless you can do your shifts on the weekends.

I do my clinicals on the weekdays. Some schools may have alternate clinical times, but I think weekdays are pretty standard.

Have you talked to your superiors about your desire to go to nursing school? Maybe they would be willing to work with your class schedules. However it works out, I wish you the best of luck! :)

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Hey everyone, thanks for the replies, spoke to Advisors at almost all the MCC's finally (holidays kept them away) Gateway's part time option, Glendale's weekend option, and Rio salado would all totally work for me, probably best in the order i just listed. One more pre-req, and two co-req's to go. Thanks again!

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