What to expect in a two-year Nursing Program

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Hey I recently got accepted into a 2-year Nursing Program! I am very excited but also very nervous at the same time. Is there anybody that is going through a 2-year Nursing Program and has any advice on what to expect? I am a straight A student in High School but will this all change? Is it difficult to get A's? Will I have any time for my boyfriend and family? Will I gain weight due to stress? And does it come easier after the first semester? Pros and Cons? Any advice will be helpful!

A few weeks before your classes start go find your instructor and ask what the assigned reading is for the first week of class. Our first test was the third week, and covered 16 chapters of material. The only way I was able to cover that much was because I had already read 9 chapters before class started. If you get behind on your reading, you're screwed. There is no such thing as free time. If you plan on catching up on the weekends, you'll be pleasantly surprised with the massive amount of assignments they give you to do, on top of the normal reading and studying you are supposed to be doing.

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A few weeks before your classes start go find your instructor and ask what the assigned reading is for the first week of class. Our first test was the third week, and covered 16 chapters of material. The only way I was able to cover that much was because I had already read 9 chapters before class started. If you get behind on your reading, you're screwed. There is no such thing as free time. If you plan on catching up on the weekends, you'll be pleasantly surprised with the massive amount of assignments they give you to do, on top of the normal reading and studying you are supposed to be doing.

LOL - I wonder if you go to my school:D But seriously, pretty much that's how I find things to be as well. They assigned 6 chapters due to be read before our very first class. And yeah, it's very hard to catch up if you do fall behind. A few weeks in, you start you first clinical rounds and it gets that much harder because they add 'homework' too - every week, we have 5 drug cards due, a self evaluation form that's based on our clinical performance as how it pertains to our understanding of the functional health patterns, a different disease/condition every week where we have to answer 6 questions using only Tabors as a resourse, a clinical data form and two other things that I'm drawing a blank on - we also have a paper due for clinical as well. So needless to say, our work load went up quite a bit recently as we have completed two weeks of clinicals and haven't even really gotten to the thick of it yet :eek:

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LOL - I wonder if you go to my school:D But seriously, pretty much that's how I find things to be as well. They assigned 6 chapters due to be read before our very first class. And yeah, it's very hard to catch up if you do fall behind. A few weeks in, you start you first clinical rounds and it gets that much harder because they add 'homework' too - every week, we have 5 drug cards due, a self evaluation form that's based on our clinical performance as how it pertains to our understanding of the functional health patterns, a different disease/condition every week where we have to answer 6 questions using only Tabors as a resourse, a clinical data form and two other things that I'm drawing a blank on - we also have a paper due for clinical as well. So needless to say, our work load went up quite a bit recently as we have completed two weeks of clinicals and haven't even really gotten to the thick of it yet :eek:

This sounds like my program, too. I should have never believed the second semester students who said it gets easier once you start clinical rotations. :rolleyes:

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This sounds like my program, too. I should have never believed the second semester students who said it gets easier once you start clinical rotations. :rolleyes:

The only possible way I could see 'easier' as a viable describer is that as far as text studies, we only have three chapters by our next exam - Nutrition, medication administration (including the basics of how to compare a doctor's order to an MAR up to how to actually administer meds through the different routes) plus whatever the next chapter is that we haven't got into yet (too hard looking ahead at this point - LOL). All of our labs of the past few weeks have pretty much mirrored the med admin chapter in lecture - so it's like double reinforcement.

But here's what we have - a med calc exam this next tuesday, lecture exam the following tuesday and lab testing on med admin thursday of that same week...all with three nights out of the house (lecture, clinical and lab - plus I usually take a fourth night out and attend open lab) - so for the original poster, that's what you're juggling your studies around (plus I work full time:yawn::D)

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PS - diabetes is also on our next exam:)

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passive-aggressive behavior and expect to feel that you may wish you had a lawyer at times....

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WOW. Is all that work just for Nursing? Cuz like I said in my earlier post, starting my first semester, it will consist of Nursing 1 with the co-req Pharmocology, and A + P 1. How hard is Pharmocology and A and P 1? I just want an idea of how much work I will be doing because if all that is just for Nursing, I wonder how much time I will have to be working on my other classes! lol Sounds SOOO stressful. Well, I guess I can look foward to having no life in the next 2 years lol

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I already have a Bachelors in Psychology but from what I'm hearing, these next two years will be more challenging then any of that ever was.

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