Ginny1

My nursing program was an hour commute and I often had clinicals where I would commute 1-2 hours 2-3x a week and do a 12 hour shift at any hospital in the state they wanted to stick me at. If you stay at the local school for your ADN you might end up commuting a lot anyways for your clinical rotations. Commuting is very doable and becomes very routine, you will just need to rally support and have a plan of attack for those days where you need a sitter last minute. If you do the ADN program it will be difficult to find a job competing with the BSN's (especially since there is a school in your area), and you may end up having to commute to a job AND try to do online classes to get your BSN. Personally I would suck it up and commute. You probably won't be going 5 days a week, I did an accelerated program and typically was at school 1-3x a week and 2 days of clinicals (but only 3 weeks out of every 8 week period). It may be worth asking the admissions at the school how many times a week you would typically be in class and if they would work with you to get your clinical placements closer to home. Good luck to you! Fingers crossed you get into the BSN program close to home. My sister and I write a blog about our journey as nurses and try to offer a lot of advice to students, if you're curious you can read it here: Calling the shots, sisters in nursing blog

One thing I struggled with was having visitors. I couldn't guarantee mom/dad/sister/brother/3rd cousin could come stay with us for a week or two in because I might have clinicals or be busy with school and couldn't handle the distractions. In my program you could get notified of a clinical shift the night before if things changed! Lo-and-behold, I stood my ground and flat out refused to let my boyfriend's brother and his new girlfriend come visit for 4 days even though they asked a few months in advance. It turned out the days they wanted to visit I was doing Fri/Sat/Sun night clinicals an hour away from home. How fun would that have been? However, they were super ****** and took it personally. This was back in January and they still haven't gotten over it and think I'm a total jerk. Non-nursing folks just don't get it. If we had talked about not having visitors before nursing school started I believe my boyfriend, family, and friends would have been more understanding. Part of me being in nursing school also meant I contributed no money so in return for free rent (and cutting off our social lives for a year) I kept the house up, made dinner on non-clinical days, did laundry, did the dishes, etc. It really doesn't take that long. I would do 15 minutes here and there when I took breaks from studying. If you're interested in tips and tricks for nursing school check out my blog that I write with my sister! I'm a new grad and she's a seasoned nurse who transitioned into management. We write about our journeys and give tips to help people on their own :) Calling the shots, sisters in nursing blog

You've come this far! Don't let your guard down and get lazy, I think that is the mistake a lot of students make. At this point you feel confident in your understanding of how the classes go and how the tests are and you make the fatal mistake of slacking in your studies. Stay vigilant and remember that the end is in sight now! If you need some reading for your downtime my sister and I have a blog where we share our stories about nursing school and our careers along with tips and tricks for students and nurses: Calling the shots, sisters in nursing blog

Typically your first day of clinical they will not expect too much of you besides a positive attitude and minding your P's and Q's. I remember doing a lot of CNA work and helping feed patients. Do you know what unit you will be on or is this in a nursing home? That would help with specific material. I think the most important area to brush up on would be your assessment skills. Know how to assess cranial nerve functioning, know what to assess for in a stroke patient/post-op patient/seizure risk patient. I would also look up some of the common jargon and lab values you will hear during report like PERRLA, PT/PTT times, K levels, Na levels. Mostly, I would make sure to go in with a positive attitude be willing to help with anything and everything, be sure to know the rules your school has as well as the rules of the facility and develop a positive relationship with the nurses and your instructor. They understand that this is new to you and are here to support you! My sister and I are both nurses and we have a blog with tips and tricks for nursing students along with career advice and interviewing advice etc., if you are interested it is: Calling the shots, sisters in nursing blog