brianwalo

Sorry for taking so long to respond. School is keeping me pretty busy. Yes, I did almost all the pre-reqs before starting the program. The only non-nursing class I have to take is nutrition. I can't imagine having to do other classes like micro or A&P while in the program. It really does monopolize my time, but I'm also married, with two kids, and I work 20 hours a week. So, if you don't have those other things going on it probably wouldn't be as bad to take other classes.

I just finished my first semester (Nur 111 - Fundamentals / Spring 2013) and there are a few things I wish I knew from the start that would have made it a lot easier. They split you into two sections, I was 4302. Our schedule for the first eight weeks was Class from 8-12 Monday and Tuesdays, Lab on Wednesday from 1-5 and clinical on Thursdays that start anywhere from 645am to 8am and lasts until 12. There are many days where they schedule stuff for an hour or so after class or lab so it's really 8-1 or 1:30. They say you have Fridays off for the first eight weeks, but you won't. There is always something to do or a test or practicum to take. If you have kids, you need child care 5 days a week, from 7am to at least 2pm if you're in the 4301 section. It's a little different for the 4302 folks since we had stuff scheduled in the afternoons. The second eight weeks we had class Monday from 8-12, Lab from 1-5 on Tuesdays, Data Collection at the Hospital which is basically digging through the chart on your patient to figure out what you need to do for Thursday and Friday clinicals which run from 6:45 - 12:45. Basically, the class is divided into three separate sections; lecture, lab, and clinical. There is a lot of overlap, and it can be hard to keep up with, but it's manageable if you're focused and willing to dedicate the time. Literally, the single best piece of advice I can give you is to spend as much time reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the assignments. Everything comes out of the reading and supplements. Even if they cover something in class extensively, it's in the reading or any supplemental stuff that's assigned. Most instructors rely on the supplementals for a lot of test questions, Anne Jones-Sutton especially. She is awesome though. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent more time focusing on the objectives for each module, the diseases that are covered in relation to the materials, and the assessments and interventions for each one. For example, read up on any disease that's mentioned as a side effect of medications or any other condition like Cushing syndrome. Cushing syndrome isn't important for what you're learning in fundamentals, but it is important to know because there are a lot of test questions that give you diseases as a choice. So if you know what it is and the signs and symptoms of them you will be way ahead of the curve and you won't pick it because you don't know what it is and it seems right. I made a list of diseases or problems as they came up in the reading so I could could back and figure out what they were later. Also, focus the majority of your study time on trying to figure out what you would do for the patient that presents certain signs and symtpoms. Lecture is heavily focused on information and knowledge, but the tests are almost always focused on what you should do for a patient that has certain signs and symptoms. For example, they will inundate you with a ton of stuff on fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and you really need to know that stuff cold. However, most of the questions you will see on a test are about what you would do with someone who had a serum potassium level It's a relatively new curriculum design and they're still ironing out the kinks with the "concept-based" curriculum model. I think this was a large part of the reason there was a disconnect between the materials taught, and how it was tested. I could go on for a few more hours, so I'll cut it off there, but feel free to ask any questions. We all need a little help to get through this. Brian Walo