NVCC Fall 2020

Published

For those that are applying to the Fall 2020 Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA/NVCC) Fall nursing program we'd like to invite you to reach out to us with any questions you may have.

Make sure to review the information session and program application requirements on our application portal, www.nvcc.edu/medical/apply and our FAQ on our blog https://blogs.nvcc.edu/mecexchange . If you have advising questions drop our office a line by email at [email protected]. One of our advisors will respond. We recommend that if you have questions about your NOVA account, you contact us via your official NOVA student email address. When doing so include your ID number. that will allow our advisors to look up your account and answer questions in greater detail.

11 minutes ago, gailRN2B said:

The program is already somewhat hybrid. The first semester has 4 classes and one is fully online, 2 of them have no lecture time in person, and one has part of its lecture online. It’s one day of class (which many of the weeks is only one class that day), 1 day with the 2 lab sessions, and 1 day of clinical part of the semester. It worked out for me to be about 20-25 hours a week of reading, homework, listening to lectures and watching videos. We teach ourselves most of the foundational content and then in class apply that knowledge.

The Spring cohort did as much as they could to catch up. I’m guessing we will start in person and then transition to online for class meetings at bare minimum. Labs are the hard part, and clinicals first semester are long term care and that’s a big issue with controlling the spread of Covid-19. I know the Spring cohort will have to make up labs in the fall. Currently the VA Board of Nursing requires half of our clinical hours in person, and the other half can be done virtually or in simulation lab. That’s how we stayed caught up this semester since we couldn’t go back to clinical after the halfway point of the semester.

Thank you so much, that was so insightful. I really appreciate the breakdown.

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29 minutes ago, gailRN2B said:

The program is already somewhat hybrid. The first semester has 4 classes and one is fully online, 2 of them have no lecture time in person, and one has part of its lecture online. It’s one day of class (which many of the weeks is only one class that day), 1 day with the 2 lab sessions, and 1 day of clinical part of the semester. It worked out for me to be about 20-25 hours a week of reading, homework, listening to lectures and watching videos. We teach ourselves most of the foundational content and then in class apply that knowledge.

The Spring cohort did as much as they could to catch up. I’m guessing we will start in person and then transition to online for class meetings at bare minimum. Labs are the hard part, and clinicals first semester are long term care and that’s a big issue with controlling the spread of Covid-19. I know the Spring cohort will have to make up labs in the fall. Currently the VA Board of Nursing requires half of our clinical hours in person, and the other half can be done virtually or in simulation lab. That’s how we stayed caught up this semester since we couldn’t go back to clinical after the halfway point of the semester.

Thanks very much for the info! What do you think of the program so far? Pros/ cons, are you happy with the hybrid format, instructors, etc.?

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Hi! I am planning on applying to the program this fall to start in the Spring semester. Once you all get your letters I would love to see what you all got in the pre-reqs and which co-reqs you took! I completed/am completing BIO 142, PSY, CST (all hopefully with A's, still finishing up some). I got an A in my HUM elective in my first degree. I am retaking BIO 141 this Summer as I got a C first (took the 8 week class while working as a teacher and planning a wedding, not smart of me!!) and will do everything I can to get an A. I just want to see if my application is competitive enough and to see what the applicants that do get accepted look like.

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17 hours ago, SeaShellz said:

Thanks very much for the info! What do you think of the program so far? Pros/ cons, are you happy with the hybrid format, instructors, etc.?

I like the hybrid because I have little kids. I don’t have to be sitting on campus for hours and hour, commuting to campus, etc. You do have to be organized and dedicated. They don’t hold your hand. It helps if you’ve taken online classes before. And they aren’t going to reteach you the A&P really. The biggest issue people often get into is over scheduling. I know people have no choice but to work but if you only take into account the on campus time and don’t take into account the 20-30 hours of home learning then it’s easy to over-schedule with work and family responsibilities. Especially the first semester, it’s the most time intensive so the less you can do (easy dinners, childcare, less hours at work, not take other classes) the better. Second semester was less time intensive.

The program itself is great. They can be pretty disorganized so you have to stay on top of things. They want us to do well, just sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

The majority of the instructors are amazing! They truly want us to succeed. The curriculum is still fairly new and the more hybrid format is new (Mine is the first cohort to do online lectures and video learning, much less the Zooms after the shut down) so there are some growing pains. But we are well known in our clinical sites for coming well prepared compared to other schools, and the students I know who did well that just graduated had no issues getting good jobs on specialty units right out the gate.

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5 minutes ago, gailRN2B said:

I like the hybrid because I have little kids. I don’t have to be sitting on campus for hours and hour, commuting to campus, etc. You do have to be organized and dedicated. They don’t hold your hand. It helps if you’ve taken online classes before. And they aren’t going to reteach you the A&P really. The biggest issue people often get into is over scheduling. I know people have no choice but to work but if you only take into account the on campus time and don’t take into account the 20-30 hours of home learning then it’s easy to over-schedule with work and family responsibilities. Especially the first semester, it’s the most time intensive so the less you can do (easy dinners, childcare, less hours at work, not take other classes) the better. Second semester was less time intensive.

The program itself is great. They can be pretty disorganized so you have to stay on top of things. They want us to do well, just sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

The majority of the instructors are amazing! They truly want us to succeed. The curriculum is still fairly new and the more hybrid format is new (Mine is the first cohort to do online lectures and video learning, much less the Zooms after the shut down) so there are some growing pains. But we are well known in our clinical sites for coming well prepared compared to other schools, and the students I know who did well that just graduated had no issues getting good jobs on specialty units right out the gate.

That's all really helpful to know! Thank you very much.

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Specializes in Pre nursing.
13 minutes ago, gailRN2B said:

I like the hybrid because I have little kids. I don’t have to be sitting on campus for hours and hour, commuting to campus, etc. You do have to be organized and dedicated. They don’t hold your hand. It helps if you’ve taken online classes before. And they aren’t going to reteach you the A&P really. The biggest issue people often get into is over scheduling. I know people have no choice but to work but if you only take into account the on campus time and don’t take into account the 20-30 hours of home learning then it’s easy to over-schedule with work and family responsibilities. Especially the first semester, it’s the most time intensive so the less you can do (easy dinners, childcare, less hours at work, not take other classes) the better. Second semester was less time intensive.

The program itself is great. They can be pretty disorganized so you have to stay on top of things. They want us to do well, just sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

The majority of the instructors are amazing! They truly want us to succeed. The curriculum is still fairly new and the more hybrid format is new (Mine is the first cohort to do online lectures and video learning, much less the Zooms after the shut down) so there are some growing pains. But we are well known in our clinical sites for coming well prepared compared to other schools, and the students I know who did well that just graduated had no issues getting good jobs on specialty units right out the gate.

Thank you so much for the insight! How many hours of physical class time/clinical/labs are there a week for the first semester? I know you said mostly hybrid and online, but was curious how much time you are actually spending on campus! I’m actually really excited to hear that it’s very self driven!

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3 hours ago, Nursestudentva said:

Thank you so much for the insight! How many hours of physical class time/clinical/labs are there a week for the first semester? I know you said mostly hybrid and online, but was curious how much time you are actually spending on campus! I’m actually really excited to hear that it’s very self driven!

So for me, it was one class a week most weeks for lecture (NSG 100, 3 hours, Tuesday), 1 day with 2 labs (NSG 106 and NSG 200) every week for a total of 6-7 hours with 1 hour break for lunch (W Th or F) , and then on 6 of the weeks we had clinical (NSG 100) one day a week from 630-230. There is another lecture for Tuesday (NSG 200) but it usually doesn’t meet, we just do the reading, listen to the recorded lecture, and go to lab. So my schedule was Tuesday 9-12, 6 Wednesday clinicals, and labs 9-4 on Fridays. NSG 130 is entirely online and a single credit class.

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2 hours ago, gailRN2B said:

So for me, it was one class a week most weeks for lecture (NSG 100, 3 hours, Tuesday), 1 day with 2 labs (NSG 106 and NSG 200) every week for a total of 6-7 hours with 1 hour break for lunch (W Th or F) , and then on 6 of the weeks we had clinical (NSG 100) one day a week from 630-230. There is another lecture for Tuesday (NSG 200) but it usually doesn’t meet, we just do the reading, listen to the recorded lecture, and go to lab. So my schedule was Tuesday 9-12, 6 Wednesday clinicals, and labs 9-4 on Fridays. NSG 130 is entirely online and a single credit class.

I have another question. I noticed the Nursing Curriculum doesn't include the standard stand-alone courses like Pharm, Patho, Med/ Surg 1 & 2, OB, Peds, etc. Are they woven into other courses throughout the program?

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17 hours ago, SeaShellz said:

I have another question. I noticed the Nursing Curriculum doesn't include the standard stand-alone courses like Pharm, Patho, Med/ Surg 1 & 2, OB, Peds, etc. Are they woven into other courses throughout the program?

All the VA Community Colleges had a mandated transition to a concept based curriculum. That means for our core classes (NSG 100, 170, 210, 211, 252 I think and 270) we do concepts like Perfusion, Gas Exchange, Mobility and learn everything that goes into that. I like it, it seems more holistic to me. And it builds, we repeat concepts with new exemplars (specific illnesses). So for NSG 170 in the 2nd semester which has a med/surg concentration we do Perfusion with the exemplars Hypertension and Peripheral Artery Disease. We learn the pathology, pharm, etc that goes into that. Then in the 3rd semester in 210 which is half med surg we do Perfusion again but focus on Heart Failure, Coronary Artery Disease, etc.

I did take Pharm to fill some space in my schedule before but it wasn’t too helpful. I barely remember any of it. I like this way because I learn about the relevant drugs when I’m learning what the disease process is like, how the patho phys is affected.

Third semester is 2 classes, both of which cover Med/Surg and then one has the psych content as well and the other has OB (which match the 3 clinical rotations that semester). We don’t do a specific pediatric rotation in the hospital for a variety of really good reasons. So peds is scattered throughout the whole program and our Peds clinical is in school/preschool settings where we get a lot more hands on time and opportunities to do more than watch.

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13 minutes ago, gailRN2B said:

All the VA Community Colleges had a mandated transition to a concept based curriculum. That means for our core classes (NSG 100, 170, 210, 211, 252 I think and 270) we do concepts like Perfusion, Gas Exchange, Mobility and learn everything that goes into that. I like it, it seems more holistic to me. And it builds, we repeat concepts with new exemplars (specific illnesses). So for NSG 170 in the 2nd semester which has a med/surg concentration we do Perfusion with the exemplars Hypertension and Peripheral Artery Disease. We learn the pathology, pharm, etc that goes into that. Then in the 3rd semester in 210 which is half med surg we do Perfusion again but focus on Heart Failure, Coronary Artery Disease, etc.

I did take Pharm to fill some space in my schedule before but it wasn’t too helpful. I barely remember any of it. I like this way because I learn about the relevant drugs when I’m learning what the disease process is like, how the patho phys is affected.

Third semester is 2 classes, both of which cover Med/Surg and then one has the psych content as well and the other has OB (which match the 3 clinical rotations that semester). We don’t do a specific pediatric rotation in the hospital for a variety of really good reasons. So peds is scattered throughout the whole program and our Peds clinical is in school/preschool settings where we get a lot more hands on time and opportunities to do more than watch.

Ah, that's really helpful to know. Thank you very much for sharing your in-depth insights. Much appreciated.

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15 minutes ago, gailRN2B said:

All the VA Community Colleges had a mandated transition to a concept based curriculum. That means for our core classes (NSG 100, 170, 210, 211, 252 I think and 270) we do concepts like Perfusion, Gas Exchange, Mobility and learn everything that goes into that. I like it, it seems more holistic to me. And it builds, we repeat concepts with new exemplars (specific illnesses). So for NSG 170 in the 2nd semester which has a med/surg concentration we do Perfusion with the exemplars Hypertension and Peripheral Artery Disease. We learn the pathology, pharm, etc that goes into that. Then in the 3rd semester in 210 which is half med surg we do Perfusion again but focus on Heart Failure, Coronary Artery Disease, etc.

I did take Pharm to fill some space in my schedule before but it wasn’t too helpful. I barely remember any of it. I like this way because I learn about the relevant drugs when I’m learning what the disease process is like, how the patho phys is affected.

Third semester is 2 classes, both of which cover Med/Surg and then one has the psych content as well and the other has OB (which match the 3 clinical rotations that semester). We don’t do a specific pediatric rotation in the hospital for a variety of really good reasons. So peds is scattered throughout the whole program and our Peds clinical is in school/preschool settings where we get a lot more hands on time and opportunities to do more than watch.

Since it's concept-based does the program use one set of books throughout?

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32 minutes ago, SeaShellz said:

Since it's concept-based does the program use one set of books throughout?

Pretty much! We use a couple of giant textbooks for all 4 semesters and 2 supplemental textbooks. It is a big expense up front but then we don’t have to buy anymore after that point.

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