Nursing School Schedule

Nursing school is a full time endeavor. At times it felt like 24/7. In the beginning it was more lecture and skills lab and less clinical hours, then over the course of schooling that slowly changed over to the opposite. In fact, after the first two semesters skills lab turned into simulation lab, working with the high definition mannequins and what have you. As an example, my first semester looked like this:

Monday - lecture 8-3

Tuesday - Skills lab 9-1

Weds - lecture 8-3

Thurs - Clinicals 8-2

Fri - open skills lab

Sat - open skills lab

That doesn't look too bad on paper. The reality is, study time is not figured in here, nor are the group projects and time you need to practice in the skills lab for your skills testing. You also have to go to your clinical site the night before to gather a ton of information on your patient, take it home and create a preliminary care plan in preparation for the next day at clinicals. Then, after clinicals, you have to do a care plan or care map (depending on your school and what semester you are) that is usually due turned in by a certain time the very next day. Lots of lack of sleep with clinicals. We had many group projects we had to do. We also had required volunteerism within the medical realm with reports/papers due for this, every single semester.

It is near impossible (but not actually impossible - many do it) to work during nursing school. If you have kids you will need full time day care as well as backup plans for when the kiddos are sick. Most nursing schools have very strict attendance policies due to the legal requirements for lecture and clinical hours in order to become licensed. It doesn't matter if your kiddo is ill (or you), you have to fulfill those requirements in order to graduate and if you or kiddo or Fido or whoever are so ill you miss more than a few hours you will be booted from the program. It feels harsh but it is what it is. Requirements are requirements and the school can neither change nor fudge on it.

The NMW is an advanced degree. Most programs I believe require you to work for a time in women's services before you can apply for that specialty. Masters level work is a whole different ball game and I can't really speak with any authority on it as yet, but my own MSN program in Leadership and Management is a whooolllllllleeeeee lot of research and papers.

No two schools will be the same but expect to be busy pretty much Monday- Friday plus studying evenings and weekends.