I am in LVN school. Our schedule changes every semester. One thing we can count on is that whatever is on our official 'schedule' won't be accurate. Not anyone's fault it's just we are learning a lot of info in a very short time.
I think everyone thinking of applying needs to attend their school's information session if they offer one. It can be very eye opening. I too thought I could come in, register for whatever classes I needed on my schedule, work around my kids school schedule and husbands work....uh not so much.
Bottom line is you go to school and take whatever classes they say when they say. There are not choices to make. They are made for you. Your sole job this year is to pass your classes. EVERYTHING comes behind school. I know, I never thought I would ever say that...I'm a mom too; but bottom line is that you do have to sacrifice to get through school, your kids will sacrifice as will your husband and family...
This is the way it is. If you can't do that. Won't do that. You won't make it.
Best solution is make a good plan for your kids to and from school, child care, back up childcare and back up for the backups... plan for EVERYTHING and anything you can think could happen. So when something does occur you don't stress out you just go into plan B mode.
I realize you don't want your daughter to feel abandoned but she's going to. Period. I won't lie. I have a 10 yr old that is so happy i'm graduating so we can actually watch a movie together again. He misses his time with me so much. Luckily I did have a plan....used it more than once. It saved my butt. I havn't missed a day because my kids got sick, needed to go to the Dr. or anything else. My son actually had something semi serious happen last semester and was in and out of Dr's. Going to the ER and had many follow up appts. I felt bad I couldn't be there...but my plan in place...everything was okay. He was well cared for and I didn't miss school. He knows I would rather have been with him but that I needed to be in school. I'm lucky I had a support system in place. I know what can happen without one.
Your going to have to prepare them for a difficult year. They need to understand as much as possible that your 'job' for the next year or so will be school. If you can't make that commitment don't apply. Wait til you can. It isn't right to take a much coveted spot when you can't give 110%, kids or no kids.
I'm not being mean...just saying that your instuctors will not accept any excuses. Your there for a reason.
I know exactly how you feel. It's tough when you have to work to pay the bills and your schedule is convoluted. There's also those unspoken days such as clinical prep time that you have to account for too. I also cannot wait until I have a completely free schedule so I can start working full time.
We usually don't find ours out until a couple weeks after class starts. But then our clinicals don't start until a month into the semester. We do know the days clinicals will be ahead of time- like tues/wed so I typically just not make myself available to work for the entire day.
To LORELEI- when the time comes, you'll figure it out. And every school is different. You will be busier then you can ever imagine and you will have to make sacrifices, but it's not all that scary once you get going. I still make time for my kids and other half. It's crucial to a persons sanity. For example, friday nights is movie night for SO and me. My school allows two clinical abscences and two deferred quizzes/tests to the testing center (per semester) should you need to miss school time, because people get sick and things happen.
We do have clinicals at 7 am, some groups have started at 6 am. Stinks if your clinical site is out of town and you have quite the drive. We also have evening clinicals.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
My school allows two clinical abscences and two deferred quizzes/tests to the testing center (per semester) should you need to miss school time, because people get sick and things happen.
We do have clinicals at 7 am, some groups have started at 6 am. We also have evening clinicals.
It is awesome they allow you absences. Most schools do not. Ours certainly doesn't. If you miss, for any reason, even if the instructor sends you home for being sick, you get a zero for the day. It sucks but that is just the way it is. You get through it. And evening clinicals don't happen until preceptorship and that is only if your preceptor works in the evening - you work whatever his or her schedule is. I think a lot of people would appreciate evening clinicals - a shame it isn't commonly done.
School has to be the priority. I always recommend the nursing student do things to get the whole family on board with feeling like this is something ALL of them are working for together. It helps the student feel more supported and it helps the family feel more as if they are part of the process rather than something being pushed aside. It also makes graduation day pretty awesome from what I have seen. Whole families celebrating together. It rocks. :redbeathe It is harder with preschool age children than any other age group. School agers may gripe, but in the end most of them do okay. At that age they are old enough to understand the world doesn't revolve around them - or should be.
Last semester, and I receive an email saying that we won't have a CLUE about our preceptorship assignment until the day we show up to orientation. At least they gave you two days to figure it out I am very lucky that my work is flexible and my coworkers are wonderful in that they will work around me. Nursing school, it's a love/hate relationship.
as a nursing student in a traditional nursing school, brick and mortar, it is expected that you will be a full time student and work very little or around school. clinical's starts at 0700 are likely, but more likely you will need to be their 15-30 minutes early to get your assignment and be at the right nurses station for report. classes starting at 0800 are also common and don't expect to be out of school until at least 1500 or later. make sure to have a good support system if you get into nursing school and have a reliably babysitter and back up, just in case.
good luck in your pre-requisites.
our clinicals begin at 6 am and are anywhere from 1-2 hours away. our classes are also 2 hours away from where i live, even longer for some of my classmates depending on where they live.
I chose to apply to my school because of the location. We are part of a community college system so when we apply we have to rank one to 3 where we would 'prefer' to attend. For me, driving an hour and a half is out of the question, I just wouldn't be able to do it so I only listed my number one preference. It is literally 15 min from my house on a bad day. 7 minutes on a good one. I got lucky. I got picked. But I know many people who are driving across town because they didn't get in their top pick. I rolled the dice and got lucky.
I did not get lucky. We got our clinical schedule today. Our school merges with another in the second year. Clearly, preference has been given to the other school. Most of us from my school are going to be left driving 2 hours each way three days a week. I am very upset about this!
I did not get lucky. We got our clinical schedule today. Our school merges with another in the second year. Clearly, preference has been given to the other school. Most of us from my school are going to be left driving 2 hours each way three days a week. I am very upset about this!
I'm sorry you didn't get what you wanted. This sucks. There are so many nursing students but so limited clinical sites and times.
It does suck, but you can do anything for 15 weeks. Just put your head down and get through it. Time will fly.
Yep, that's all I can do. My initial concern is that I literally cannot afford gas money for that amount of traveling. Fortunately, I think I will be able to work out something with a carpool with my classmates.
I am very lucky that my work is flexible and my coworkers are wonderful in that they will work around me. Nursing school, it's a love/hate relationship..thumb.gif.557c5203bd6f06724ecab47703960500.gif){kind=small}
Lifeofanurse
198 Posts
I am in LVN school. Our schedule changes every semester. One thing we can count on is that whatever is on our official 'schedule' won't be accurate. Not anyone's fault it's just we are learning a lot of info in a very short time.
I think everyone thinking of applying needs to attend their school's information session if they offer one. It can be very eye opening. I too thought I could come in, register for whatever classes I needed on my schedule, work around my kids school schedule and husbands work....uh not so much.
Bottom line is you go to school and take whatever classes they say when they say. There are not choices to make. They are made for you. Your sole job this year is to pass your classes. EVERYTHING comes behind school. I know, I never thought I would ever say that...I'm a mom too; but bottom line is that you do have to sacrifice to get through school, your kids will sacrifice as will your husband and family...
This is the way it is. If you can't do that. Won't do that. You won't make it.
Best solution is make a good plan for your kids to and from school, child care, back up childcare and back up for the backups... plan for EVERYTHING and anything you can think could happen. So when something does occur you don't stress out you just go into plan B mode.
I realize you don't want your daughter to feel abandoned but she's going to. Period. I won't lie. I have a 10 yr old that is so happy i'm graduating so we can actually watch a movie together again. He misses his time with me so much. Luckily I did have a plan....used it more than once. It saved my butt. I havn't missed a day because my kids got sick, needed to go to the Dr. or anything else. My son actually had something semi serious happen last semester and was in and out of Dr's. Going to the ER and had many follow up appts. I felt bad I couldn't be there...but my plan in place...everything was okay. He was well cared for and I didn't miss school. He knows I would rather have been with him but that I needed to be in school. I'm lucky I had a support system in place. I know what can happen without one.
Your going to have to prepare them for a difficult year. They need to understand as much as possible that your 'job' for the next year or so will be school. If you can't make that commitment don't apply. Wait til you can. It isn't right to take a much coveted spot when you can't give 110%, kids or no kids.
I'm not being mean...just saying that your instuctors will not accept any excuses. Your there for a reason.