Nursing School Flexibility for Non-Traditional Students
Nov 15, 2014 | 12:00 pm
Nursing has always been an area of study that has attracted non-traditional students. Non-traditional students would be the ones who aren’t only students. This could be re-entry students, working student already in a career, LVN to RNs, retired persons re-entering the work force, or older students who have never been to school before, but are beginning now.
The Modern, Flexible Nursing School
Because of this, there has almost always been certain friendliness to non-traditional students in Nursing School Programs. Many programs have night classes or classes only a couple days a week, so working student and parents can work while going to school to improve or change their work status.
One of the types of programs available for non-traditional students is distance learning. This can be accomplished in a few different ways. Some colleges offer programs that have classes during the weekend, once or twice a month. These programs typically take about three years to complete and the students can travel to the campus site and stay the weekend either in hotels or with acquaintances while they take their courses. Their study placements are then arranged in the community in which they live.
Other campuses accommodate distance learning by offering asynchronous online platform courses to people in outlying areas. This style of educational delivery has been available since the 1990’s, but has gotten easier and better to manage as technology has grown. Nowadays classes can be taken and questions answered as well as one on one meeting with staff through platforms like Skype. Some of these institutions require some travel to meet with instructors a minimum of once a semester and others are doing away with the travel entirely.
Nursing Schools Online
In addition, now there are fully accredited colleges that offer completely online courses of study for nursing student such as University of Phoenix. This type of program enables students to learn around whatever schedule they have no matter what time of day or week they work. Their courses are always available to them. In addition to their online services for those who need classroom attention, the University of Phoenix has satellite offices that function like small campuses. Teachers in the Nursing program also travel to assess any learning placements much like travel nurses do.
While University of Phoenix is a name that is widely recognized, it is far from the only online college campus. For example, BYU-Idaho offers accredited online courses for nursing.
Special supports for non-traditional students may include educational counseling to help you resolve issues such as unfinished degrees you began many years ago, or working out a poor Grade Point Average (G.P.A.) that you graduated with in your undergraduate work. Because most specialized learning centers recognize that as a working or returning student you are going to have different needs, you will find that as a non-traditional nursing student, there will be people available to help you make your dreams of becoming a Nurse come true. It simply takes effort and proof of ability from you, the Nursing student.