Semesters..

Nursing Students General Students

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I know there is a diffrence between 2yr and 4yr programs but I was wondering what is covered in each semseter. I am in a 2 year associates program at a community college. The only info I have is Fundamentals 1, Fundamental 2, up to 4. It doesn't get into details. From what I have heard semester 2 is OB/Phych and Sem 3 is Med/surg..but I have heard nothing about 4th.

I am in an ADN program and a friend is in a BSN program at the same time. Our nursing classes are the same, altough we take them in different orders. In addition to these classes she is taking core classes and management type classes so she has a much fuller load.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

In the 4th semester of my ADN program 30+ years ago, and I doubt it has changed much, we did critical care patients and more advanced med/surg stuff along with more focus on organizing our work and reporting on and off. Since we were getting ready to graduate we were discussion things like being leaders and managing the patient's hospital stay. There was more focus on our teaching role as I remember as well. We were also discussing the state board exam and what to expect on it.

First semester - Fundamentals of Nursing, Nursing Skills (we had to go to a simulation lab with manicans and learn how to perform skills), Health Assessment, and Practicum.

Second semester - Med surg (it had some fancy name) and clinicals

Summer - Pharmacology

third semester - Advanced Med surg (again some fancy name) and clinicals

fourth semester - Psych (fancy name) and OB/Pedi (as we call it baby/mama) and clinicals

Every school is really different I have noticed.

4 year bsn

first: fundamentals and nursing theory

second: med/surg, psych, pharm

third: ob, peds

fourth: med/surg II, leadership/management, nursing research

fifth: community health, conceptual thinking

Note that "4-year" nursing programs provide a bachelor's degree, therefore students spend the first two years (usually) taking nursing prerequisites as well as distribution requirements - English, history, math, foreign language, Western/Non-Western civ, etc. Ask someone at your school how your program is structured if you can't locate the info online. My accelerated BSN program was 4 semesters, and in the fourth we took OB, Peds, Community, and Preceptorship. One of the other schools in town does OB before med surg I. It's different everywhere, and whether you're in an ADN or BSN program doesn't affect the order. Also, BSN programs have more than just management courses - I took one course called "leadership and management" and I have a BSN.

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