My 1st Year of Nursing School in Numbers

Today I took my final final–it was a Med-Surg exam. It went smashingly (the only final that did). I am so grateful to have this semester done, even though it feels rather anticlimactic for being the end of my first year of nursing school. My life is sans all the fun and festivities of on-campus end-of-year reality. I am not too disappointed though, because I am not done for good. I start RN school in a couple weeks anyway.

But, now that I have all this free time 😉 on my hands, I decided to tally up my last two semesters by the numbers. While my LPN year also includes the 8 week summer semester of 2019, these numbers do not include it because back then I wasn’t keeping track of my study hours.

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What It’s Like To Be a Nursing Student

• Medical Surgical Nursing Class I&II
  • Hours spent sitting in class and in lab: 156.25 hours
  • Hours spent studying on my own: 365.75 hours
    • (This is equivalent to spending 9 weeks at a regular 8 hr/day, 5 day/week job doing nothing but studying Med-Surg)
• Pediatric Nursing
  • Hours spent in class: 42 hours
  • Hours spent studying on my own: 82.75 hours
• Maternity Nursing
  • Hours spent in class: 24 hours
  • Hours spent studying on my own: 78 hours
• Pharmacology I&II
  • Hours spent in class: 42 hours
  • Hours spent studying on my own: 160 hours
• Kaplan Practice Tests
  • 9 hours+
• Clinical
  • Clinical paperwork and preparation: 17 hours
  • Clinical hours at the hospital: 270 hours
  • Driving to and from clinical sites: 33.5 hours
• Hours driving to and from college: 59 hours
• Minimum amount of coffee consumed throughout these two semesters: 35 gallons
• Total number of hours spent in personal study: 1,425
• Total hours at clinical: 270
• Total hours in class: 264
• Total number of hours of everything [personal study/class/clinical for three letters: 1,959 hours
  • These hours were spent over approximately 32.5 weeks of time
  • 1,959 hours/32.5 weeks = 60.2 hours/week
  • Hours worked at my PRN job during these 32.5 weeks: 175
  • 175 hours/32.5 weeks = 5.4 hours/week
  • 60.2 hr + 5.4 hr = 65.6 hr/week

So on average, I put in 65.6 hours per week as a nursing student.

This does not count driving time to and from school and clinical, packing lunches, ironing scrubs, going to church on Sunday and Wednesday, marrying off my sister and cousins :), etc.

This is was my life this past year. This is why nursing students don’t have time for social activities. I don’t have proof, but I’m pretty sure some nursing students spend waaaaay more time studying and/or working than I did.

Besides all this, there is the constant stress of deadlines after deadline–quizzes, exams, presentations, practice tests, signing up for this, paying for that, clinical paperwork, evaluations; the constant barrage of new things–new skills, new knowledge, new terms, new environments, new expectations; and the nagging thoughts–fear of not being good enough, fears that I could have or should have done better, doubts of “do I have what it takes?”

But by the grace of God and the wonderful friends and mentors He has put in my life, I am here. I am finished with LPN school. I have officially been in school for 2 years. It doesn’t seem that long.

Bring on RN school!

April Friesen, SN

P.S. I applied for my temporary LPN license on Saturday and today I went and got my finger printing done for the criminal background check that the state requires. Because of corona virus, the state of MI is waiving the NCLEX-PN exam and allowing student nurses who have finished their school year successfully to apply for temporary licenses. They are valid for one year. By the end of the year, I will be ready to take my NCLEX-RN anyway. It works out perfect for me.

If you are a nursing student or were one? How many hours a week do you think you spent a week on personal study? I am curious what other students’ lives look like.