what is nursing school like

WittySarcasm, BSN · Feb 19, 2009

Hm I'm not sure if yours is different then mine but I can tell you how mine was.

As for the schedules and what hospitals my clinicals were at- we had no real say. This was because for 1st semster we had 160-ish students and only a few hospitals that would take us. So the school had to put us where they could find a place for us. It may be different in other places, but that was how it was for us. They would give us the schedule online and only severe emergancies could change the schedule.

The way our first semester was (I think these were the right days- it's been 2 years now) with like 2 class lecture days, one of the mornings we would have our skills lab (like one day the day would start at like 8am), and 1 day we would have Pharm after lecture (so like whatever day we didn't have skills we would have Pharm). Math was a day by itself. The clinicals were two days for us- the first day was only a couple hours just to get the info we needed (like from 7am-10am- which was a wasted day for me since my first hospital was about a 45 min drive). And the second day would be from like 7am-3pm.

So it would be like- Monday- lecture; Pharm / Tuesday- Skills; Lecture / Wed- math / Thurs and Fri- clinicals.

However for you it might be different...That was just our school's schedule.

One of my teacher's told me something that always stuck through me for my whole nursing school run. He told us- "There is only one equation that you should always remember during your school period. That is 'C=RN.' No matter how much you want an 'A' just remember that 'C' is good too. There is no grade listed on your license and employers are not going to care about that little letter grade, just if you have a valid license." And believe me that helped a lot when I was studying for tests!

As for the studying part. Yes there is a lot of that. My family would have times (especially during tests) that I was not as visible around them. However it feels awesome when you see everything you can do! But I can give a couple tips that helped me A LOT through nursing school.

1) Find a study group. Even if it isn't your thing to do that (it was never mine) it does help to at least just listen to others talk about what they learned. Because there was many times that I learned a new thing or an easier way to do something. I found even if I could not help out that one time, it always helped me out a lot!

2) READ what they tell you to! Now some may say it does no good, but it will give you a better understanding of it. I also found that answering the questions in the back of the chapters helps a lot. At least the books we had it did, sometimes the tests would have those type of questions and if you studied the end of chapter questions you could answer them better (also any study guides that they sell are great to use for studying too).

3) Record the lectures. I had never done this before and one of my friends told me about how she did that. So I tried and it was amazing how much I missed the first time around because I was taking notes on one thing while the teacher kept talking. Also parts that I didn't understand I could hit rewind and listen to it however many times I needed.

4) If you do care plans one easy thing to do is this- save all your info! When I had to do careplans at the beginning I always ended up deleting my work after it was graded. You will be amazed at how many of the same drugs or nursing interventions can be used on the different patients! Just keep a copy in your computer (if you do it that way) or even just scan a copy if you hand write it. It will save you time later on when you do another one (it can even help you from semester to semester too). And then you can apply it a couple of times, it does save some time from not having to re-look up the same info.

5) Oh and one of the most important ones (that I couldn't believe people would actually not do). Be at EVERY class! Or as much as you can, there are times you just can't go. But believe me you can miss out on so much if you miss a day! At least have someone that you know (and that does good notes) take notes for you if you HAVE to miss. But I remember missing a day or two and amazed at how much there was.

That is all I can think of right now (my mind is a little fried from studying for the NCLEX) but if I think of anything else I'll be sure to post it here. But good luck and congrats for getting close to nursing school! If you have ANY questions at all just ask and I'll try my best to answer!

Sunset87, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN, CNM · Feb 19, 2009

I'm in the second semester of my first year. This is the way my schedule was set up.

First Semester:

Monday: Nursing Fundamentals lecture

Wednesday: Skills lecture and lab all day

Thursday: Clinicals in the morning

Friday: Nursing Fundamentals lecture

I think that was my schedule.

This semester (2nd):

Monday: med-surg lecture

Tuesday: clinical prep 2 hours at the hospital to get pt assignment and do assessment

Wednesday: Clinicals all day

Thursday: med-surg lecture

Friday: med-surg lecture

I got to tell my prof which day I would prefer to go to clinicals on, but ultimately the decision was made around students classes. I took Micro the first semester and psych this semester.

pharmgirl · Feb 19, 2009

I think all schools are set up differently. I am in a bridge program. First year is LPN, second year is RN. I'm in my second semester of LPN. My schedule is this:

Monday: Clinicals at hosptial 7am - ? (usually 1 or 2pm)

Tuesday: Lecture 1130am - 130pm

Wednesday: Clinicals 7am - ?

Thursday: Lecture 10am - 1pm and then lab from 130pm - 330pm

Friday: ATI testing sometimes, conferences sometimes, off sometimes

We had to complete 80 hours of clinicals 1st semester and 160 2nd semester (120 of which are preceptorship)

The preceptroship has kinda messed up our schedules cause we basically work when our preceptor does. I was one of the unlucky ones whose preceptor works 7pm - 7am shifts....so I will be working Thursday - Saturdays 7pm - 7am. There are others in my class who have day shifts, weekends only or whatever. Its all kinda luck of the draw.

As someone else said, the clinicals are a "dont miss, ever" status. If you miss you have to make up those hours which is difficult for everyone involved. There may seem to be gaps in my schedule but those are filled with studying and reading. There is a lot to read in a short amount of time and you learn to get very good at time management (which I believe is the key to success).

Oh and btw, my semesters are not broken into "classes" like pharmacology, med-surg, fundamentals etc. We have lecture same days, same times and thats it. We have 5 Unit tests a semester over various systems and diseases but its not broken down like some others I've read. We're working on Unit 3 right now and its every possible disease and disorder of the Musculoskeletal and Integumentary systems.

Its tough to answer your questions specifically as every school is different. At my school, everything was like a big secret until orientation day. We couldn't get answers from anyone, didn't know what to expect. It was like a secret club that you were privy to until you walked in orientation day. So I understand your stress.

Good Luck to you and as previously stated, its not forever, keep your eye on the prize (graduation) and you can get through it with very hard work and perseverance.