What are the actual nursing classes like?

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What are the actual classes for nursing like?

If you want, click this link.. and it will show the classes I would have to take, if you click on the Course Code, it will say what it is about.. but it makes no sense to me, since I haven't a clue what it is REALLY about.

http://www.nhti.edu/academics/academicprograms/degnurscurriculum.html#day

I already have Ethics, English Composition, English Elective, Math Elective, and PC apps done from my previous degree I have obtained. Basically I will have A&P 1&2, Microbiology, Human Growth and Development, and all of the Nursing courses.

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Also, what is being a nurse really like. I have an idea of it, but I honestly don't know what I am getting myself into.... =:)

Thank you!!!!!

jerryh55

109 Posts

I am in a 2 year ADN program and I cant imagine having to do all those classes while doing the nursing program courses. We have to have all the pre-reqs done before we apply. I guess thats why we only go to class one day a week and clinicaL one day a week. I think working 48 hrs and going to my classes is hard enough. Cant even imagine doing that plus worrying about A&P 1 and 2 and micro and all that other stuff. JMO

Be Safe

Jerry

I think it would be so hard to take nursing courses without A&N, Lifespan and all the other classes. It gives you such a good building block. Besides I spend so much time on my actual nursing courses I think I wouldn't be able to keep up the other classes while taking nursing courses. I'm so glad that I listened to my mom and took all the prereq's first.

KatieBell

875 Posts

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Also, what is being a nurse really like. I have an idea of it, but I honestly don't know what I am getting myself into.... =:)

Thank you!!!!!

There are so many different types of nursing, it would be very difficult to answer that question!!!! You might give a call to your local hospital and ask if you can shadow a nurse, or two for a day in two different units. (go to one from 7-11, have a lunch and go to the other from 12-4). I'd pick units that are totally different, perhaps Pediatrics, and Medical...or the ever popular ED, and Surgery. If you have some time, and want to pump up your resume, call and start to volunteer, you'll get a great idea of what it is like.

I can tell you about what it is like to be an ED nurse, and an ICU nurse, but I really don't know anything about being a Med/Surg nurse, or working in Surgery.

Good Luck!

NurCrystal22

302 Posts

What are the actual classes for nursing like?

If you want, click this link.. and it will show the classes I would have to take, if you click on the Course Code, it will say what it is about.. but it makes no sense to me, since I haven't a clue what it is REALLY about.

http://www.nhti.edu/academics/academicprograms/degnurscurriculum.html#day

I already have Ethics, English Composition, English Elective, Math Elective, and PC apps done from my previous degree I have obtained. Basically I will have A&P 1&2, Microbiology, Human Growth and Development, and all of the Nursing courses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, what is being a nurse really like. I have an idea of it, but I honestly don't know what I am getting myself into.... =:)

Thank you!!!!!

Most people think that A/P and Microbiology are tough courses, put if you put in a little effort, you'll get through them.

Nursing courses vary from institution to institution, but they are not easy, basically we had OB/PEDS, MED-SURG, and LTC, for each you learn how to care for those patients, disease processes, treatments, meds, etc and have clinical at a corresponding site maybe 2 days per week. Being organized and being able to manage your time helps you get through nursing school. I would also recommed having your pre-reqs completed before starting nursing courses.

What is being a nurse really like? Well I'm a new grad so for me, I'm still learning... well nursing is a career in which you will have to learn new things almost everyday for the rest of your career, but I work on a med-surg floor, sometimes it's scary, sometimes I don't know what to do, and sometimes I have great days, that's just the way it is until I become comfortable and completely confident with my knowledge and skills. A typical day: receive report, assessments, charting, meds, treatments, break, assessments, charting, meds, IVs, I&Os, assessments, give report. If you love the medical field and helping people nursing is probably a good career choice for you. During school, during clinicals you'll find out if it's not for you. GOOD LUCK with your decision.

~Crystal

MIA-RN1, RN

1,329 Posts

what the heck is the self-care model? that sounds kind of interesting and like health promotion/prevention thru educating the patients.

Also, it said it was partially compensated in some aspects of clinical--good for you if you get paid!

Ours focuses on the nursing processs using basic needs (maslow) and the 'core components of the nursing profession'. Or something like that lol. and lots and lots of ADPIE. ;)

As far as being a nurse...I won't know for a bit yet, I will graduate in May... but I can't wait to find out!

palesarah

583 Posts

I graduated from NHTI's nursing program in 2003. I had previously obtained a Bachelor's degree from UNH in another field and to be honest, going through the nursing program was about 200 times harder! If you have to work or have a family to take care of, it will be just about impossible to take any other classes with the nursing classes- most people get A&P and micro out of the way first. I took Human Growth & Development the summer between the first year and second year (I took it as a distance learning course).

Nursing I- we had lecture twice a week, I think, skills lab once a week, and clinical once a week. Clinical started the second week of classes. As we learned things in skills lab, we would be expected to do them in clinical. Vital signs, bed baths, etc were covered first, then medication administration, and then each week something new: IMs, IV fluids/piggypacks/IV pushes, heart & lung sounds at some point early on, Foleys & staight caths (we didn't learn IV starts; you'll learn that on the job after graduation) First semester clinical was med-surg for most people, but my group was on an orthopedic floor. Most of the floors you'll have clinicals on are used to having NHTI students, and most of the nurses like them; in fact when I had clinicals some of the nurses were NHTI grads and loved to have students. Not everyone, but I never expereinced anything as bad as some of the people here on allnurses have :( Anyway, you'll start off just having 1 patient, and by the time you graduate will be expected to take a 4-patient assignment. Some of the clinical instructors are warm and supportive, some less so. As for lectures, I you'll be learning a lot of information in a short period of time. The tests are usually based on lecture material but there will be some things from the readings, and are formatted similarly to the NCLEX. Some people can get by with OK grades without studying- most people needed to devote several hours a week (1-2 hours of study time for each hour of lecture) to really comprehend the information.

Nursing IIA & IIB, I don't remember which is which because when I was enrolled some people would have IIA second semester and some would have IIB. My second semester (whichever course it was) was peds/maternity/geri. Lecture twice a week, clinical twice a week. Clinical is a full 8 hour shift, usually 7-3 if you're in the day program, and 2-10 or 3-11 for evenings. We did 5 weeks on each unit, and studied applicable information in lecture during that time- although not eveyone had the same rotations at the same time, so when we were studying peds in lecture, some people were in peds clinical but others were in maternity or geri. I had my peds rotation at the Elliot, and because they never had a high enough census we would usually just have 1 patient each, plus one person would observe in NICU. I also had a chance to observe in the ED during my peds rotation (because there weren't enough patients to go around). I also had my maternity rotation at Elliott, and since L&D and postpartum are separate there, we spent 1 day in L&D (I was able to observe 2 C-sections and a lady partsl twins delivery) and the rest on postpartum. Lots of teaching for moms: babycare, breastfeeding help, diaper changes. We learned how to do newborn assessments, were expected to do full assesments on mom & vitals on baby each shift, and could occasional get to cuddle in the nursery if a baby was in there. Also did Hep B shots on the babies, if there was an opportunity. My geri rotation was so much fun. I was really nervous going into it, because I find elderly folks a little intimidating. We had our rotation at Heritage Havenwood Heights in Concord, which is a really nice facility. Mostly we were on the skilled nursing floor, and would have the same resident each day. I worked with this awesome gentleman who had done a lot of traveling; he liked to show me his pictures. We showered/bathed the residents if it was their bath day, toileted them, gave meds & treatments, brought them to the dining room and helped those who couldn't feed themselves. We also helped the overworked floor nurses & LNAs answer lights. I spent a day with the nurse in the assisted living wing, and also did a home visit/interview with someone in the independant living condos. That was a fun semester.

The next fall, my third semster, was med surg/pysch- 8 weeks in each, two days a week. I think that was the semester we learned cardiac in lecture too, which was really hard for me. My psych rotation was at NH HOspital in Concord; we spent the entire 8 weeks on one unit and were each assigned to a client who we would sit & talk with each day. All we really did there was work on "therapeutic communication"; we didn't give any meds or do physical assessments. Instead of careplans we did something else that rotation but I don't remember what they were called. That turned out to be a pretty fun rotation, even more fun on the days where we went to the recreation room with groups of patients. Did some crafts and played a lot of foosball. The other 8 weeks were med-surg, with 2-3 patient assignements, depending on how we were doing individually. My med-surg was actually on a cardiac floor, with some amazing nurses who loved to teach. I learned so much there. Our instructor also arranged for us each to follow respiratory therapy one day (really learned those lung sounds!) and observe in the cardiac OR- most people were able to observe CABGs, but I was there on a good day and got in to see an aortic aneurysm repair in the morning and then a CABG later. Awesome learning experiences.

Last semester, was when most of us felt that we "got it". Still 2 lecture days and 2 clinical days. We got to pick where we wanted to have clinical (8 weeks one place, 7 weeks another) but were limited to med-surg, cardiac, ortho & rehab. We knew who would be teaching most of the sections, and honestly I choose my rotations based on instructor. So I had 2 more cardiac rotations. I would have loved to have been able to go to maternity again, or NICU, but they didn't offer those. We also did some community health projects that year; in the fall I did the TB clinic & flu shot clinic (great chance to get comfortable doing IMs!) and in the spring we each spent a day with a school nurse and a home health nurse. I was also supposed to go to the state prison one day to follow their nurse but that opportunity got snowed out (gotta love living in NH!)

Speaking of snow days- I commuted to school from the seacoast, and see that you will be going from up north. If the weather in Concord is lousy NHTI may call a snow day, cancelling both lecture & clinicals. If your clinical is in Manchester or elsewhere, and NHTI does not call a snowday because the weather is drivable in Concord but your clinical location is unsafe, your instructor may cancel. But if the weather where you live is lousy and classes/clinicals are not cancelled, you're still expected to be there. We were allowed 2 absences from clinical each semester.

Well, I just typed way more than I intended to. Feel free to post any questions you might have (I think there are some current NHTI students on this board too, and I know there's at least one other NHTI alum on here) or you can PM me.

I also want to add, that NHTI completely prepared me for a career as a nurse. I passed the NCLEX on my first try, and came to my first job with a good skills/critical thinking base. I opted for NHTI over UNH because my father & sister had gone through the program while I was at UNH, and I felt NHTI would better prepare me.

I graduated from NHTI's nursing program in 2003. I had previously obtained a Bachelor's degree from UNH in another field and to be honest, going through the nursing program was about 200 times harder! If you have to work or have a family to take care of, it will be just about impossible to take any other classes with the nursing classes- most people get A&P and micro out of the way first. I took Human Growth & Development the summer between the first year and second year (I took it as a distance learning course).

Nursing I- we had lecture twice a week, I think, skills lab once a week, and clinical once a week. Clinical started the second week of classes. As we learned things in skills lab, we would be expected to do them in clinical. Vital signs, bed baths, etc were covered first, then medication administration, and then each week something new: IMs, IV fluids/piggypacks/IV pushes, heart & lung sounds at some point early on, Foleys & staight caths (we didn't learn IV starts; you'll learn that on the job after graduation) First semester clinical was med-surg for most people, but my group was on an orthopedic floor. Most of the floors you'll have clinicals on are used to having NHTI students, and most of the nurses like them; in fact when I had clinicals some of the nurses were NHTI grads and loved to have students. Not everyone, but I never expereinced anything as bad as some of the people here on allnurses have :( Anyway, you'll start off just having 1 patient, and by the time you graduate will be expected to take a 4-patient assignment. Some of the clinical instructors are warm and supportive, some less so. As for lectures, I you'll be learning a lot of information in a short period of time. The tests are usually based on lecture material but there will be some things from the readings, and are formatted similarly to the NCLEX. Some people can get by with OK grades without studying- most people needed to devote several hours a week (1-2 hours of study time for each hour of lecture) to really comprehend the information.

Nursing IIA & IIB, I don't remember which is which because when I was enrolled some people would have IIA second semester and some would have IIB. My second semester (whichever course it was) was peds/maternity/geri. Lecture twice a week, clinical twice a week. Clinical is a full 8 hour shift, usually 7-3 if you're in the day program, and 2-10 or 3-11 for evenings. We did 5 weeks on each unit, and studied applicable information in lecture during that time- although not eveyone had the same rotations at the same time, so when we were studying peds in lecture, some people were in peds clinical but others were in maternity or geri. I had my peds rotation at the Elliot, and because they never had a high enough census we would usually just have 1 patient each, plus one person would observe in NICU. I also had a chance to observe in the ED during my peds rotation (because there weren't enough patients to go around). I also had my maternity rotation at Elliott, and since L&D and postpartum are separate there, we spent 1 day in L&D (I was able to observe 2 C-sections and a lady partsl twins delivery) and the rest on postpartum. Lots of teaching for moms: babycare, breastfeeding help, diaper changes. We learned how to do newborn assessments, were expected to do full assesments on mom & vitals on baby each shift, and could occasional get to cuddle in the nursery if a baby was in there. Also did Hep B shots on the babies, if there was an opportunity. My geri rotation was so much fun. I was really nervous going into it, because I find elderly folks a little intimidating. We had our rotation at Heritage Havenwood Heights in Concord, which is a really nice facility. Mostly we were on the skilled nursing floor, and would have the same resident each day. I worked with this awesome gentleman who had done a lot of traveling; he liked to show me his pictures. We showered/bathed the residents if it was their bath day, toileted them, gave meds & treatments, brought them to the dining room and helped those who couldn't feed themselves. We also helped the overworked floor nurses & LNAs answer lights. I spent a day with the nurse in the assisted living wing, and also did a home visit/interview with someone in the independant living condos. That was a fun semester.

The next fall, my third semster, was med surg/pysch- 8 weeks in each, two days a week. I think that was the semester we learned cardiac in lecture too, which was really hard for me. My psych rotation was at NH HOspital in Concord; we spent the entire 8 weeks on one unit and were each assigned to a client who we would sit & talk with each day. All we really did there was work on "therapeutic communication"; we didn't give any meds or do physical assessments. Instead of careplans we did something else that rotation but I don't remember what they were called. That turned out to be a pretty fun rotation, even more fun on the days where we went to the recreation room with groups of patients. Did some crafts and played a lot of foosball. The other 8 weeks were med-surg, with 2-3 patient assignements, depending on how we were doing individually. My med-surg was actually on a cardiac floor, with some amazing nurses who loved to teach. I learned so much there. Our instructor also arranged for us each to follow respiratory therapy one day (really learned those lung sounds!) and observe in the cardiac OR- most people were able to observe CABGs, but I was there on a good day and got in to see an aortic aneurysm repair in the morning and then a CABG later. Awesome learning experiences.

Last semester, was when most of us felt that we "got it". Still 2 lecture days and 2 clinical days. We got to pick where we wanted to have clinical (8 weeks one place, 7 weeks another) but were limited to med-surg, cardiac, ortho & rehab. We knew who would be teaching most of the sections, and honestly I choose my rotations based on instructor. So I had 2 more cardiac rotations. I would have loved to have been able to go to maternity again, or NICU, but they didn't offer those. We also did some community health projects that year; in the fall I did the TB clinic & flu shot clinic (great chance to get comfortable doing IMs!) and in the spring we each spent a day with a school nurse and a home health nurse. I was also supposed to go to the state prison one day to follow their nurse but that opportunity got snowed out (gotta love living in NH!)

Speaking of snow days- I commuted to school from the seacoast, and see that you will be going from up north. If the weather in Concord is lousy NHTI may call a snow day, cancelling both lecture & clinicals. If your clinical is in Manchester or elsewhere, and NHTI does not call a snowday because the weather is drivable in Concord but your clinical location is unsafe, your instructor may cancel. But if the weather where you live is lousy and classes/clinicals are not cancelled, you're still expected to be there. We were allowed 2 absences from clinical each semester.

Well, I just typed way more than I intended to. Feel free to post any questions you might have (I think there are some current NHTI students on this board too, and I know there's at least one other NHTI alum on here) or you can PM me.

I also want to add, that NHTI completely prepared me for a career as a nurse. I passed the NCLEX on my first try, and came to my first job with a good skills/critical thinking base. I opted for NHTI over UNH because my father & sister had gone through the program while I was at UNH, and I felt NHTI would better prepare me.

What a great post.... I am not the OP, but the information was so helpful. Thanks!!!! :flowersfo

What a great post.... I am not the OP, but the information was so helpful. Thanks!!!! :flowersfo

I agree! I'm also not the OP, but all that info. just made me even MORE excited to start the nursing program (doing pre-req's now)!!! THANK YOU, Sarah, for taking the time to type all that out and sharing it!!!! :bow:

Angel

SFCardiacRN

762 Posts

Be careful in opting for A&P 1&2. These combined courses are NOT accepted by many if any RN schools. They are designed more for para-nursing profesionals like techs & EMTs. I had to retake Anatomy and then Physiology as seperate 1 semester courses before being accepted into RN school. As long as it takes 2 semesters anyway...

Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.

hard :lol2:

Seriously....

I took A&P I & II, Micro, and Human Growth along with my nursing courses and did well, but i would recommend that you do NOT do that. It is extremely difficult, I spent many long sleepless nights studying, stressing, and working on careplans, etc. I managed to do well, but let me add that I do not work or have a family to care for (my hubby is deployed).

The first semester will either make or break you so be prepared. Many students took other classes (for min. credit requirements) like golf, palates, or aerobics. Nursing classes are unlike anything you have ever had. You are required to think and perform on many different levels. Critical thinking is huge! Your test questions will not be facts and values but application questions like:

If a pt comes in with this, this, and this sign/symptom and the doctor orders this treatment, what is the FIRST thing you do? Then you are given four correct answers but only one is the BEST answer....it really trips people up. We started with 70 students, and ended with 30 just after the first semester. We picked up 15 or so repeaters coming into second semester.

Your focus will be on nursing (or at least it should), and sometimes your other classes and activities suffer. Don't take on more than you can handle. At least see how well you do in the first semester.

Invest in a PDA if you are computer literate. It will save you loads of money in books and time doing careplans and clinical paperwork.

Get you a nice clipboard to hold papers, pens, and forms during clinical. The ones with a calculator are great.

Careplanning books and nclex books really help you on your tests. Don't underestimate that...they are worth the money, and most can be bought for the PDA.

Just some general advice. Let me know if you have any questions :specs:

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