Timetable RPN at George Brown

Fiona59 · Oct 8, 2014

I'm going to tell you what my nursing instructors told my class on the first day.

Children and childcare are your responsibility.

Most of my class had children, were over 21 and many had spouses on military deployments.

You are expected to have childcare and backup childcare in hand before you start the programme.

Our classes were preset for us and no adjusting of schedules.

You have to treat nursing school as a job and large hospitals will not adjust their start times to accommodate childcare

jennifer5290 · Oct 9, 2014

Oh I see...that is quite disappointing for me. I really wanted to take the George Brown program, but I guest I have to take it part time in another school! It will take twice as long for me and I am 40 years old. Sigh

But thanks for your help.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Oct 9, 2014

It never would have occurred to me to expect my nursing school to flex their schedule around my family. I would have thought that notion to be completely absurd. My children were 9, 11 and 13 when I began my program and were at 3 different schools. One of my children is severely handicapped as well. When my husband and I made the decision for me to back to school, we knew this would be our biggest hurdle and had all of our arrangements in place well before my classes began. His employer was willing to allow him to flex his hours a little, as long as his work was done at the end of the day. I won't say it was completely without problems but deciding to become a nurse isn't a decision to be made lightly. Childcare is something the majority of us have had to cope with but it's not ever going to be seen by an employer as anything they're going to concern themselves with. They are your children, it's your issue and it's up to you to figure it out.

jennifer5290 · Oct 9, 2014

NotReady4PrimeTime ,

I like to address that I know they are my children and it is my responsibility. I never said they were not! I simply asked if a certain colleges have courses that are flexible. This is a forum to ask questions relating to nursing isn't it? ( And YES some colleges do have flex timetables, but they are too far away for me.) You are quite right also that it is my issue to "figure it out" which is what I am trying to do.

The second thing is that I also never said that I told nursing lightly, do you know me? No you don't.

The last thing is that my employer was actually quite understanding and was willing to change my schedule.

So please do not project your experiences on to me because you has it hard.

Your undertone is quite offensive and the assumptions that you convey is quite disturbing.

Have a great life

xokw, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2014

NotReady4PrimeTime ,

I like to address that I know they are my children and it is my responsibility. I never said they were not! I simply asked if a certain colleges have courses that are flexible. This is a forum to ask questions relating to nursing isn't it? ( And YES some colleges do have flex timetables, but they are too far away for me.) You are quite right also that it is my issue to "figure it out" which is what I am trying to do.
The second thing is that I also never said that I told nursing lightly, do you know me? No you don't.
The last thing is that my employer was actually quite understanding and was willing to change my schedule.
So please do not project your experiences on to me because you has it hard.
Your undertone is quite offensive and the assumptions that you convey is quite disturbing.
Have a great life

I'll be pretty honest with you in saying that is pretty similar to the answer you could receive from your professors. They can be quite blunt and for those a little more on the sensitive side (myself included, when I started that is hehe) it can be a rude awakening. Nursing school thickens your skin.

theRPN2b · Oct 24, 2014

I know that Cenntennial college has an RPN "flex" program. I don't know a lot about it since I am in a different RPN program at a different school. But what I heard is that this program at centennial, the academic year is 3 semesters instead of 2, so you have a lighter course load per semester. I'm pretty sure they choose your class times for you though but you'd have less classes to go to per week