When you are in NS do you do anything during the summer?

Published

For those that are in a regular nursing program where you have winter break and summer off (as the longest breaks) do your schools usually require anything during that time to keep things fresh in your head? I start nursing school in August and I was just curious if I should plan on having summers off (obviously I will find out for sure soon enough from my specific school) can I expect that to be my time and family time, or do schools usually require stuff during that time.

Being the type of person I am I would prep for the Fall classes I would be taking, I will be doing that this summer since I have a lot of travel planned which will consist of me riding in the passenger seat on cross country car rides, but just curious what the norm is.

Thanks!

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
My program has no summer requirements, but many of the required courses (Psych, Soc, English) and some of the electives are offered then. I took advantage of that so I only had the core nursing requirements to worry about during regular sessions. That may not be the ideal for many people (because it seems like you're in school ALL the time), but it worked for me.

That is exactly how I have done it, except I didn't do it in summer, I have done it before. One our Nursing Schedule we have Nutrition and Pathophysiology put into different semesters, and elective in the last semester needed to graduate. But you can do those before hand, all of mine are done. Just took my Nutrition Final tonight and have my Pathophysiology Final tomorrow, already took care of my Elective requirements and all my other classes, so when I start in August I will have only the nursing core classes to take and we have to follow the schedule for them.

I have a 2 year ADN program with 2 Fall and 2 Spring Semesters. We can't take any of the core classes in the summer.

I guess I will just do what I planned and prepare for the Fall semester over the summer to help ease the load, unless I find out we have to do something else that is.

It seems bitter sweet to me though, on one hand it's nice to get a nice break after all the hard work. At the same time though to have like 3.5 months off can sort of get you out of your stride you had going on.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Nothing required of us, though we have an informal "reading group" formed; we plan to read most (or all) of our med/surg stuff, and possibly some of the OB/peds text, so we'll be somewhat prepared for the fall. I'm in the Denver area.

You're my neighbor :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Summer? Whats that? We got a whole six days off and are now back in school. I heard a rumor that something called summer vacay is available, but for my program it's non-existent. Waaa! I want a vacation.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Even though I'm really burnt out from this semester and I need a break, I don't think I need a 3-month break. Call me crazy, but I have always enjoyed school and I hate my summers because there is NOTHING to do, and even with friends - no one comes home anymore and all of my friends are at school so I basically don't do anything during the summer.

This summer I'm taking pharmacology (6/22-7/25) - I'll have a ~7-week break before class and then ~5 weeks after. I had my last final on Tuesday and I'm already excited for pharm lol :D

Aside from that, my goal is to try to get a nurse tech job. The Cleveland Clinic has A LOT of openings for nurse techs/patient care assistants, but so far I haven't had any luck...no one wants to hire me! :o I haven't worked in close to 3 years so that might be why, but I don't know...I have a letter of recommendation from my CI so hopefully that will help me. I need something related to nursing to do over the summer (besides class)...and it's also kind of sad that I'm missing clinicals, too! :chuckle

Up Vote Up Vote ×

At my school we have a 2-month break for Summer. I can't imagine going through the program without any break. I'd insane for sure!! So, for my Summer, I'm going overseas. I just want to relax and get away from the stress of nursing school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

Today was my last final and tomorrow is the last day for spring session at my school and school resumes August 24th. So I think that is close to 3 months or more than 3 months. I would have to actually look at a calendar LOL

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We have a summer practicum its two weeks and 40 hours each week. Our class is split into two groups one at the beginning of the summer one at the end. We also take a midcurricular exam and anything that we don't score high enough on we have to do remediation work, so we don't really get that much time off.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

I won't have summer vacation really...

My last nursing course for my LPN ends in July and in August I'll be heading back to school to work on my BSN.

So know break, but I was never the type to like breaks anyway. They are nice, however I like to keep pushing forward. I almost lost it when we were on a 7 week winter break, I just couldn't wind down.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We don't get the summer off. We do get off when the college is closed though. [=

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We had summers off. But they gave us our study guides and reading assignments. Also the lab was open once a month for us to keep our skills fresh. They were STRONGLY encouraged.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
We had summers off. But they gave us our study guides and reading assignments. Also the lab was open once a month for us to keep our skills fresh. They were STRONGLY encouraged.

Oh good, I hope my school will do this.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ED.

try getting a job as a tech or Nursing assistant, at least you will get your foot in the door and be the first to get hired as a new grad.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion