working full time while doing part time accelerated bsn program

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am i crazy for doing this?

I am thinking to start an accelerated BSN at Kent State that is offered part time in the sense that classes are only Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. It takes longer than the regular accelerated nursing.

I have a M-F 8-4 job so I plan on keeping that for now and see how i do with nursing. I graduated with a 3.95 GPA with a biology degree previosly. i plan on getting now before i start(still 1 year) the exact books that we use in class and take notes of the chapters and easen my job a little bit for later.

What do you think?

Thanks

Andreea

I am in the Kent UH program that has class/clinicals on fri, sat, sun. While it isn't easy working full time and doing an accelerated nursing program, the majority of my class finds a way to make it work. If you're smart, and judging from your GPA it seems you are, you can juggle both.

On the other hand, it is incredibly difficult to get a handle on the amount of info they throw at you. We had a few people not make it first semester because of it. 100 slide powerpoints are given in one lecture and you are tested on it the next week. This is the pace of the program.

I wouldn't advise taking notes ahead of time from the book. We skip a lot of chapters and the majority of the questions come from the powerpoint- not the book. If you want to study something, study normal lab values, common conditions that you find a lot of in hospitals (diabetes for example), common medications ( especially all the insulin types and their onset/peak/duration).

Good luck!

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Thank you so much for answering. The uh program is exactly the one I want to start on fall 2015.

so are you from cleveland? I work at the cleveland clinic in the laboratory as a medical technologist. I am so excited to apply to this program.

where did you take your blue prerequisites? I am referring to the ones that they allow us to take before starting . I was thinking to take them at tri-c from now til next fall.

so how hard is the program? You don't work while in school? What is the most time consuming? Studying or papers? Or combination of both.

are you in class basically all weeks. And Friday afternoon?

do you have exams every week?

i have so many questions:)

thanks so much

andreea

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No, I'm not from Cleveland. I live near kent and I carpool with a another girl in our cohort on the weekends.

I took all my pre-reqs at Kent. I took all the classes ahead of time and it has saved my sanity a little. I would take them wherever is cheap and easy for ya- there's no preference where you take them.

The program is hard, but mostly because the amount of info and how fast they feed you the material. Hence, accelerated ☺️. There aren't too many papers. Once clinicals start you'll do care plans, but your time will be spent studying mostly. Exams are either weekly or bi-weekly, and these are what you concentrate on.

I work 3 days a week and I have a 4 and 5 year old. I'm not saying it's easy, but people who get into these programs already know how to study, take exams, etc. I didn't find it was as hard as what I had read about (knock on wood). What helps me is that when I study, I don't think about the test. I study what I think I'll need when I'm on the job.

We are in class friday for four hours, 12 hour clinical on Saturday, and depending on the semester Sunday for a few hours. After about the second semester Sundays drop off so that's nice. For one of the clinicals they dropped the Friday and had you do work online. Here and there you get a weekend off. For example, spring break, christmas break, etc. you get time off like other traditional students.

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Thank you so much. I will definitely work on getting my prereqs at a community college and that would save my sanity a little too. I know what studying is , and I am not scared of it. There are no shortcuts , I just have to put the time, effort and mind to it!i just got scared because if you read on this forum people totally freak out about how hard it is.

so all the classes give you power points and that's what you study for the exam? You don't really study the books? I just purchased the Fundamentals of nursing book thinking I will start outlining chapters in that book but if You say that it will not help than I will not waste my time.there are no really chapters I can read in that book? Fundamentals of nursing.

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Working through nursing school isn't crazy and just because you work full time doesn't mean you will have to repeat a semester. I work 40+ hours a week and have maintained great grades throughout the program. For me, working actually helps me stay organized and more on top of my tasks and assignments. I know I have a very limited amount of time to get them done or they won't get done at all.

Did you even read my response? It's a "crazy" schedule, but I said some people CAN do it. I did not mean to imply ALL will have to repeat a semester. My advice was to decide for oneself. Like I already stated, I worked through nursing school. I was told repeatedly not to and that I would not make it through nursing school. I knew I could, and I did. And again, if I had listened to those naysayers, I would have missed out the tremendous opportunities that I gained. I'm sorry you took the "crazy" so literally.

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I'm so confused by the last post. I didn't see anything about having to do a semester over. I feel like I'm missing something there.

Anyway, reading the book will never be a waste of time. You'll learn it all sooner or later anyways. Read away. :0)

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javaRx, I am confused about repeating a semester too. I never said that and is not my post. :) I will read I figured because like you said I will need to know it anyways right? Did you guys use that book Craven fundamentals of nursing?

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For the craven book, I had the seventh edition. I looked at my syllabus for that class and here are the chapters you need: 5, 40, 11, 16. Then 10 through 15, then chapter 6, 7, 4, ,42, 8, 2, 3, 41, 38 (and in that order too). Do you see how they jump around and skip chapters altogether? That's what I meant about reading being a waste of time... But now that you know the chapters it won't be :0).

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Wow that's it from the whole book only those chapters?

you are the best. I really appreciate your help. My husband is an environmental engineer and travels a ton. Now I have what to do productive in the afternoon after work.

I will start with those chapters. It is amazing to me how they skip out so many chapters. Also did you use that book in the first semester or second semester or both? I tried doing a search for the books at the library in kent state and looks like this book is used in two different classes:). Thanks so much! I owe you!!!

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We used it in fundamentals and possibly interventions. After that they use black and hawk med surg book, and a craven and hirnle med surg book. To be honest though- you can save money on books by just contacting the people in the cohort ahead of you. Tell me what you're thinking of buying when you start and I'll see if I can find you what you need cheaper. Hey- send me an e-mail at [email protected] and I'll send you something you can study for your first class that will help.

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