Nursing Prerequisites (UMass Boston accelerated BSN)

[diannasawyer]

Hi everyone - happy to be here!

I'm hoping to apply to UMass Boston's accelerated BSN program next year (Dec 2017) - in the meantime, I need to take my prerequisites, as I'm coming from an English degree background.

I'm trying to do a mix of in-person at my local college, and online - does anyone have any recommendations for good places to take prerequisites online? There seem to be so many options, and I want to make sure I'm learning the material!

Has anyone taken labs online? How is the experience?

Here's what I need (I have credit or a plan for the others already):

Anatomy and Physiology I + II (with labs)

Microbiology with lab

Nutrition

Thanks - I'm excited to get started!

[agirlhasnoname]

Hi there!

I am currently taking Anatomy online through Johns Hopkins. They split anatomy and physiology into two separate classes.

Health Prerequisites | School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University

The lab is online, via a pretty nifty dissection tool and detailed photographs from multiple angles. Labs involve a lot of clicking around, writing down labels, and a quiz every week. The material is reading, printed notes on the material, and lecture via power point -- with online learning/review tools, and a weekly quiz. No homework. Three exams total, no cumulative final. There are also discussion board assignments. Quizzes and exams are all open book and open note, which means the questions are harder and often more esoteric.

It is a 10-week session, and the session starts once a semester. I know other online offerings have multiple start times. Doing it all in 10 weeks is pretty intense, especially on some of the more involved units, and while working full time. But I am disciplined about it, and have learned a lot. I supplement the online labs with different anatomy atlases, just to get better spatial perspective of what I'm studying.

I will take physiology through JH in the spring. I took microbiology in person at my local community college, which offered an 8-week session. I can't imagine doing a micro lab online, but I know places like JH offer it. I'm sure people who have taken anatomy in person would say they can't imagine doing it online either! Some options I researched for A&P had a blended class, with minimal labs in person. I would have done that if it had worked with my current work travel schedule.

As far as nutrition goes, I recommend checking if your local community college offers it online, or in a short mini-mester in person. That class is pretty straightforward - no need to drop too much money on it. The Johns Hopkins classes are pricey, but it was worth it for me to be able to take the whole thing online.