Too much???

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I start my BSN program in a few weeks, and I've been thinking a lot about how badly I want to be a critical care nurse after graduation, or at least in the future. My last semester of NS consists of parent-child nursing, gerontology, a competency course, and community health nursing. It totals 15 credits. We have nursing electives at our school and really want to add critical care nursing (4 credits plus 90 clinical hours) to this schedule. Does it seem possible? I really feel like it'll help me, but I just don't want to overload my brain, especially that close to graduation. I should add that I do have a 7 year old (shared custody so I have him half the week & every other weekend) plus I don't work. Advice?

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I guess you are the only one who knows how much you can handle but it does sound like an awful lot to me. Will you really retain anything you learned? Remember, you will have to recall information when you are actually caring for patients (assuming you recall enough to pass NCLEX)

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Specializes in NICU.

It does sound like a lot. If critical care is what you want to do after graduation though, this could really help you. Community health and OB (parent-child?) at least at my school were less intense than other nursing classes like med-surg or peds, so maybe you could talk to some students ahead of you to see what the workload is like. I had community, OB, critical care, and nursing research in one semester and still worked 2-3 days a week (no kids though). If you are driven enough and want it badly enough, I think you could do it.

I'm surprised critical care is an elective though. I didn't know schools did that; it was part of our core.

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could you take it as a single class over the summer?

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I can't say for sure if that is "too much" as that is for you to decide. I WILL say this: four credit hours in nursing school rarely amounts to "just" 4 credit hours worth of work (or 12 hours if you do the standard three hours of work per credit hour). I took a seven credit hour course that consisted of 12 hours of clinical per week plus a 3.5 hr lecture. That was just the "in-class" portion, but the work outside of it was much more! However, for the easy general education courses, I could juggle 15 credit hours effortlessly...but I don't have any children.

Is there anyway you could take the class during another, less hectic semester? Or perhaps pair the course with a complementary required course? For example, I'm taking a 2 credit hour neonatal course elective, but it is not required. However, I'm taking it concurrently with Peds and OB which will make it easier to digest and learn. Plus, it is course that I know I will love.

You have plenty of time to think it over, but I would strongly encourage you to space out some of those classes if you can or take the elective during another term.

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Thanks for all of your helpful advice! I can't take it over summer because since I start the program in the spring, I go spring and summer and I have fall off. I can't take it in the fall because I'll be working as a nurse assistant at our teaching hospital through our co-op program. I only stated it's a 4 credit hour class because that way you guys can see I'll be taking 19 credits. It's not set in stone yet, but I just wanted to see if anyone else struggled with those other required courses. I might talk to my advisor and see what he thinks. Thanks again!!

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I can't say for sure if that is "too much" as that is for you to decide. I WILL say this: four credit hours in nursing school rarely amounts to "just" 4 credit hours worth of work (or 12 hours if you do the standard three hours of work per credit hour). I took a seven credit hour course that consisted of 12 hours of clinical per week plus a 3.5 hr lecture. That was just the "in-class" portion but the work outside of it was much more! However, for the easy general education courses, I could juggle 15 credit hours effortlessly...but I don't have any children. Is there anyway you could take the class during another, less hectic semester? Or perhaps pair the course with a complementary required course? For example, I'm taking a 2 credit hour neonatal course elective, but it is not required. However, I'm taking it concurrently with Peds and OB which will make it easier to digest and learn. Plus, it is course that I know I will love. You have plenty of time to think it over, but I would strongly encourage you to space out some of those classes if you can or take the elective during another term.[/quote']

I forgot to add, each semester in our program is 15 credits. Being that this critical care class has it's own pre reqs, my last semester is the only time I can take it :(

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Ok so I looked it up...I can also take it my 3rd semester with : adult health 2 (med surg), women's health, and leadership/management in nursing. They both seem like difficult semesters to me

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I just took med-surg 2. I think your critical care class could only help you.

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I just took med-surg 2. I think your critical care class could only help you.

Thank you, I thought so too. I figured, they're not going to give us all these nursing electives if it's not possible to take them! I don't work, so I should be able to handle it. (Said naively)

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