Ask a nursing student at Northern Kentucky University, and they will tell you the same thing: this program is no joke. With a long list of pre-requisite classes, hands-on simulations and real-world clinical experience, NKU’s nursing program pushes students past their limits and prepares them for one of the most needed careers out there.

Whether they are caring for patients during their clinicals or practicing their physical skills in the state-of-the-art simulation lab, these students are learning what it truly means to serve.

NKU’s nursing program is extremely hard, with 124 credits: 69 for nursing courses, 24 for prerequisite courses, 24 for remaining FOK (foundation of knowledge) courses, and 7 for additional requirements. For context, an average NKU student needs 120 credits to graduate.

“Our program is rigorous, but it is for a reason, because they have people’s lives in their hands. So, we prepare them well, not only for the NCLEX, but also for life outside of school,” Professor Beth Hickey said.

But in the end, “The tears and the stress are worth it,” Hickey said, with NKU having a 100% passing rate on the NCLEX, a test nursing students take after graduating to get their nursing license.

Some students entering already have classes completed from high school, which helps them.

“And some have even started the program earlier,” said School of Nursing, Undergraduate Co-Director Erin Robinson.

The first two semesters are the prerequisites, but once the student begins their first semester of nursing classes, they start with the fundamental nursing concepts.

“We kind of ease them in. We don’t just send them in with patients. So they actually start here [simulation lab] and we do some simulation work,” Robinson said.

By their second semester, nursing students go into the medical-surgical experience, and they do pharmacology. They also start doing clinicals one day a week instead of one half day a week.

“So they’re starting to really get their skills underneath them and get their theory-based to be able to practice,” Robinson said.

In their third and fourth semester, students are going into their specialty courses like Obstetrics Nursing, Labor and Delivery, Psych, etc, as well as another med-surg class. By the fifth semester, students move on to Pediatrics, so they complete their clinicals at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“Then finally their big culminating experience is an advanced med surge, clinical and role transition, where they work one-on-one with a nurse, and they work that person’s schedule prior to graduation,” Robinson said.

One of the best parts of NKU’s Nursing Program is being able to work in their simulation centers. Undergraduate students mainly work in the inpatient lab, and graduate students work in the outpatient lab.

In the inpatient lab, students are put through real-life settings such as an emergency department situation, a medical-surgical scenario, and an obstetrics-like labor and delivery situation. There is also a pediatric simulator with a child mannequin. The inpatient lab is where many students are for on-campus clinical days.

The outpatient lab is used for community health, such as an apartment with a kitchen, living area, bedroom, and bathroom and is used for Psych Health, where you can do home visits for mental health.

There are over 20 mannequins for students to work on, with both males and females, complete with names.

“So we have Jack Hammer, we have Candy Bar, we have Marsha Mellow. We have a Mississippi Missy Sippy. So we put fun names on our mannequins, but they all have birth dates. They have beds that they’re assigned to. And the students are able to perform lots of different skills on our mannequins,” Hickey said.

There are doctor’s order sheets and medication records for each mannequin that are specific to that patient, so everything is just like when they are in a hospital.

There are a number of ways the mannequins can help nursing students. Wounds can be dressed, and central lines can be used for students to practice giving medications and doing dressing changes. They have bladders, so they can be catheterized, so yellow water comes out that looks like urine. Students are able to perform many skills, like giving injections.

The labs are set up like real hospital rooms with oxygen suction, hospital beds that have the side rails go up and down, and tables that go over the hospital bed. Some curtains can wrap around to provide privacy, so students are immersed in a real health care environment.

Students don’t have to worry about making mistakes in the labs because no one dies. Students and professors can work out what they did wrong and where they’re struggling. There is a room that the professor is in that looks into the SIM lab room through a window, but students cannot see them.

“We will help you whether you gave the wrong med, whether you calculated it wrong, or whether you did the wrong procedure. Our mannequins don’t care. We reboot them. It’s not a big deal, but in the hospital environment, it is. So we want to make sure that they are given every opportunity to learn it in a safe environment where it’s okay to make mistakes, so that they learn from it and they don’t make a mistake later,” Hickey said.

The SIM center has especially helped fourth-semester undergraduate nursing student Hayley Schoulties.

“The SIM center gives students an opportunity to be a nurse and practice and not have the fear of hurting somebody or really messing up. But it gives them the space and just opportunity to become a real nurse,” Schoulties said.

After hearing about how the nursing program is at NKU, some high school students may be interested. Well, NKU has a camp in the summer for four days for any high school students interested in nursing or any other health profession.

Days one and two are spent experiencing life as a college student while exploring different healthcare careers with current NKU students and faculty. Days three and four are spent shadowing healthcare professionals such as nursing, radiology and respiratory care and observing many of the hospital units at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, such as the Emergency Room, Labor and Delivery and Intensive Care.

Students also get to participate in real-life scenarios to provide “patient care” in NKU’s Simulation Center, become familiar with the human body through virtual reality, and visit the cadaver lab in the NKU Science Center. Students will also spend one night in the NKU dorms,, enjoy the Campus Rec and get acquainted with the College of Health and Human Services.

“It’s a very unique place to be, and it’s just growing a lot. Northern Kentucky is growing so much. Obviously, the campus is beautiful, but if you look at our program specifically and look at the statistics, it’s up there. So I’m proud to be here,” Schoulties said.