What is a day in your life?

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What is your schedule like now that you're in NS? Please specify whether you're FT/PT and how many days/hours of lecture and clinicals you have each week. How many hours outside of class do you spend studying? I am trying to get a feel for what I should expect. I have a 2.5 year old (will be 3.5 by the time I start the program) and a husband, but when I"m not working I'm caring for my daughter so he can work. I am trying to choose between going FT if I can get enough loans (it will be a 2nd degree) and have enough savings to cover it or PT with some loans (how much can I get PT I wonder?) and working to cover the gap between financial aid and actual expenses.

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Specializes in MedSurg, OR, Cardiac step down.

I am in my 3 term BSN program, I go to clinical mon and Fri, And lecture/sim T, W, Th. When I am not at school/clinical/showering/sleeping, I am studying or doing write ups or care plans. I have probably watched 30hrs of tv since last may when I started this.....But I want all A's. My boyfriend does most of the laundry, house work and cooking now too.

I don't work or have kids either.

however there are students in my program that work and have kids.......I don't know how they do it.....

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Specializes in L&D.

Hello there! I am married and I have a 2.5 year old. He will be 3 in a month. You sound busy, like myself. (:

My program is 4 days per week. All of the days are pretty much 3-4 hours long. My last day of the week is 7 hours long, but this is the lab/"clinical" portion. We do not have clinical at a hospital this semester. When we do have clinical next semester, the days will be more like 8-12 hours long one to two days per week (I can't remember if it's one or two days). However, we get a lot of opportunities to take classes online. I am currently not taking any classes online.

Since we don't have long clinicals this semester, it's not too bad.

I am a full-time student.

I spend about 5-8 hours per week outside of class studying.

Edit: I should add that I am in a BSN program. It's my first semester.

I should *also* add that my husband (graduating from an ADN program this May) had zero time his first semester through last semester. He basically spent little time doing anything except doing care plans, studying, and preparing for clinical...like, memorizing medication side effects, what they're used for, etc. He had no time. I feel like the hard part won't start until next semester for me.

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I am a full time ADN student! Our schedule is the same for our first year:

Mondays Tests 12-1 Lecture 1-5. Then we go get our clinical assignments from 5-6. Most of Mondayevening/night is spent working on care plans!

Tuesdays Clinical 5:45am-12. Post clinical conferences 1-3

Wednesdays Lecture 12-5

Thursdays Lab 8-12:30

Fridays Off!

I spend about 2 hours a night on reading/studying. I usually take Fridays off (for my sanity!) and I always go to a study group on Sunday nights for a couple hours to prep for Monday's tests! The reason we have Mon, Wed, Fri mornings off is because many students are also taking science/general ed classes those days! Hope this helps you!

PS- I am also married and have two little boys! It's hard to take so much time away from them but if you have a good support system you can handle it!!! Just remember, it's only temporary!!!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Neurology, Public Health Education.

I have lecture mondays and fridays for 6 hours though there is a break between classes. I have clinical at the hospital on Saturdays for 12 hours from 7 to 7. Im not married and I dont have children.

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I have a 14 month old and a husband that works from home. I'm in the 3rd semester of an evening ADN program, done with my prereqs and my current course is 8 credits. My days go something like this:

wake up when the baby gets up, which is usually around 9 am. Change him and then we sit in the kitchen together and eat breakfast. I drink my coffee and try to use my laptop and hopefully he doesn't demand that we watch elmo on youtube. Then he goes into his playpen or my husband will sit in his room with him and let him play on the floor while he works on his laptop. I have a desk next to the laundry room and I do some laundry and homework for about 2 hours. Then I make lunch for all 3 of us, back to the kitchen to eat with the baby. After lunch I take a shower and get dressed and presentable for school. Then I will spend an hour or so playing with my son, trying to do "educational" activities. After that, I get all my books and papers together for class, hand off the baby to my husband who gives him a bottle and then a nap. He's usually just starting his nap when I leave the house at 3 and start my 40 minute drive to school.

Mondays and Tuesdays I have lecture from 4-6. Previous semesters I also had a lab after the Tuesday lecture, so this semester is a nice break from that. Many times I have to stay for an hour after class for group projects or something like that. When I get home on lecture nights, I call my husband when I'm leaving and he heats up dinner, which I've usually prepared on the weekend. Casseroles, soups, stews, etc. Eat dinner around 8, give the baby a bath, clean up. Around 9:30 we retire to the sofa, where my husband and son watch tv and I'm on my laptop, going over & retyping my notes from class. Then I'll watch an hour or so of tv before bed. We're up until 12 or 1 am usually.

Wednesdays and Thursdays I have clinical from 4 to 10:30, so I still leave at 3. I don't get home until 11ish so my husband is in charge of feeding himself and the baby and the bath. Usually the baby is asleep when I get home. I watch some tv and go to sleep. I'm too worn out to do any studying or homework after clinical.

Every 3 or 4 weeks we have a test on Fridays, in the afternoon. At least one day a week (wish I could do more) I will sacrifice my morning study time to go to the gym. And if my son or I have a doctor's appointment, it comes out of that 2 hours I have in the mornings to study. On Saturdays, my mom takes the baby for the day and I clean the house and/or do homework and my husband does the grocery shopping. Weeks that I have a careplan or paper due, my house is very messy. Sundays I get some homework done in the morning, cook some meals for the week that can be heated up, and try to spend time with my family. Sometimes family time needs to be sacrificed for schoolwork.

I have no idea how some of my classmates have children AND work full time while in nursing school.

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I'm in my last semester of nursing school in an ADN program. Currently I am taking two nursing classes. I have clinicals on Mon-Tue for 6 hours, clinicals Wed for 8 hours, class Thursday from 8AM-3PM, and class Friday from 8-12. I normally try to study about 2 hours a day, give or take :). My paperwork for my first two days of clinical are due on Fridays and I try to get them done as soon as I get home from clinical so I won't procrastinate. That usually takes me about an hour each day. My paperwork for my med/surg clinicals is due on Sunday at midnight. That paperwork includes my careplan, pathos, labs, meds. It usually takes me between 6-10 hours so I try to split it up between Thursday nights and the weekend. Its alot, but I know it will all be worth it soon enough! Hope this helps!

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thanks, this is a big help everyone!

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Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.

Class 9-6 Monday, clinicals Tues/Wed./Thurs for 6 hours each, then 1 short class Thurs and Fri.

I use Fri/Sat to recover and Sunday to prepare (wash and iron uniforms, get my reading done

for the week, get everything in order etc.).

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I am in my first semester of a full time ADN program. It is front-loaded, so they cram a full semester worth of nursing skills/lab into the first 8 weeks, and then we do clinical in its place for the second 8 weeks. Currently, I have a 5.5 year old, a 2 year old, a husband, and I'm pregnant with baby #3 (due in June).

First 8 weeks of the semester:

Mondays - Off/Don't study this day... just review and organize.

Tuesday - Pharmacology followed by Fundamentals of Nursing - 8:30 - 12:30. I stay at school until 3:45 to study, and then have the rest of the night off.

Wednesday - Nursing Skills - 8:30 - 12:30. I stay at school for as long as I need this day. I usually also have to fit in my skills check off on this day.

Thursday - Nursing Skills - 8:30 - 12:30. I stay at school until 3:45 and usually don't need to study later.

Friday - Nursing Skills - 8:30 - 12:30. I try to study a lot this day so my weekend isn't so full, but a lot of times I'm so tired, I skip it until the weekend.

The second 8 weeks of the semester, we swap out the nursing skills for our clinical rotation, and that is on Thursday and Friday from 7-12. Wednesday is a prep day with a meeting from 12-1pm. I'm looking forward to a little slower paced "second 8 week" portion of the semester. So far, I've passed all my skills check offs, and got high 80's- low 90's on my exams. Good luck! You can do it!

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To the OP: Thanks for asking this question! I am hopefully starting NS this coming fall and was wondering the same thing. I would really like to see people who work also answer this question. I will, unfortunatley, have to work fulltime while in school so I am especially interested in how that goes for people who do the same.

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I'm a last semester senior and this semester has been the easiest so far (as far as hours go).

Monday-Class 9-12

Tuesday Class 8-11

Wednesday Clinical-7a-7pm

Thursday Clinical 7a-7pm

Friday off

Saturday off

Sunday off

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