Published
I'm in a lock-step program. Our first semester, we had one day of 8:30-4 lecture, one day of 9-5 lab, and one day of 7-3 clinicals. Most of us spent the other two days a week in open lab preparing for whatever checkoff we had coming up. That was our first semester only. Our schedules change with every semester.
We were lock-step. The hardest part was that it constantly changed. So, you could never count on which day you had off. For a few weeks, we were either in class or lab every single day. Then we had 1 day off, then it changed to a different day, etc. It was very hard to schedule things that needed to be done outside of school for the first 10 weeks.
Every semester, our schedule changes. We have no control over the time or which days. The people who try to work and go to school have a tough time getting their schedules accommodated, that's for sure.
I just finished my first semester of an ADN program. We had class on Tuesday Theoryn0800-1230, Thursday Lab 0800-1445, and clinical on Friday 0630-1530. Then we had tests once a month on Mondays from 1430-1600. There were a few random extra class or lab sim days in there as well. This coming fall my schedule is Monday theory 0800-1400, Tuesday Lab 0800-1200 with a few Tuesdays that have no class, and Clinical Wednesday 0630-1930. I think there are going to be a few extra sim days periodically but I don't remember if they land on a regular class day or not. Most of the rest of my class has Sunday clinical.
I attend an ADN program where I have lecture on Monday's from 5-9:30pm, then clinicals are Wednesday & Thursday from 5-11:30pm.
At the beginning of the semester you are expected to run on a modified schedule where class is every day from 5-10:30pm and then the following week is the first exam followed by the beginning of clinicals. Before clinicals begins we are expected to pass a med math exam as well as skills appraisal.
Skills lab is only offered in Nursing I & II, by Nursing III it is expected that you have mastered all the skills needed to be proficient.
Our class started with 24, so I'm guessing we were "lock step" (never heard that phrase before, but we didn't have any choice over when our classes were, and we were all in at the same time). We had lecture the first half of the day (I think 8-1) Monday and Wednesday first semester, and clinicals Thursdays and Fridays. Second semester we had lecture Monday thru Wednesday, and clinicals Thurs and Fri. Third semester we had one very LOOOONG day of lecture and Thursday and Friday clinicals. Fourth semester, we had lecture Thursday nights, and a lot online, and we had both our community health clinicals and our preceptorships, so those were all over the place. We only had skills lab basically once at the beginning of each rotation. Most stuff we learned on the floor.
Gottawanna
32 Posts
What is/was your program's nursing school schedule like? Was it lock-step or did you schedule your own classes? If lock-step, were there days off during the week? How many clinical days per week?
Just curious! I know schedules can change a bit per semester, so just wanted a general idea of what it was like.
Thanks!