How many years does a bachelor's degree in nursing take? What are the main courses?

Hello! I see you're interested in a Bachelor's in Nursing. Let me tell you about this major to help you understand it better.

Duration: Typically Four Years

In China, a Bachelor's degree in Nursing is almost always a four-year program.

Think of these four years as two main phases:

First ~3 Years: Building Foundational Skills. This phase focuses on coursework, learning theoretical knowledge and fundamental skills.
Final ~1 Year: Clinical Practice. This is the crucial "clinical internship" where you gain hands-on experience in hospitals. It's vital for becoming job-ready after graduation.

Core Curriculum: It's Quite Extensive!

Don't think nursing is just about giving injections and dispensing medication – that's just the tip of the iceberg. The undergraduate nursing curriculum is broad and covers a lot, but it can be grouped into three main areas:

1. Laying the Foundation: Basic Medical Sciences

This part teaches you how the human body works, why people get sick, and how medications act. Without this knowledge, nursing practice is impossible. It's like building a house – the foundation must be solid.

Human Anatomy: Essentially the "map of the human body," showing you where organs like the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys are located and what they look like.
Physiology: Studies how organs function when alive – how the heart beats, how the stomach digests food.
Pathology: Studies the harmful changes that occur inside the body when someone gets sick.
Pharmacology: Studies what different drugs do, how they move through the body, how they work, and their side effects.
Biochemistry, Pathogenic Biology & Immunology: These delve deeper into the microscopic level, exploring the fundamental logic of life and disease.

2. Building the Structure: Core Nursing Courses

This is the heart of the nursing profession, teaching you how to "care" for patients. After mastering the basics, you learn specific nursing approaches for different populations and diseases.

Fundamentals of Nursing: The "essential skills" – learning the basics of all nursing procedures like injections, IVs, bed-making, taking blood pressure, nursing documentation, etc. Extremely important.
Medical Nursing: Learning to care for patients with internal medicine diseases like hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, pneumonia, etc.
Surgical Nursing: Learning to care for patients needing surgery, including pre-operative preparation and post-operative recovery.
Obstetric & Gynecological Nursing: Specialized care for pregnant women, new mothers, newborns, and women with gynecological issues.
Pediatric Nursing: Learning to care for children, from newborns to adolescents. Nursing children is very different from nursing adults.
Critical Care Nursing: As the name suggests, this is for the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). You learn life-saving techniques and how to care for critically ill patients – highly technical.
Psychiatric Nursing: Learning how to communicate with patients with mental health disorders and provide specialized care.

3. The Finishing Touches: Humanities, Social Sciences & Tools

Technical skills alone aren't enough. A good nurse needs strong communication skills and compassion. This part builds your "soft skills."

Nursing Psychology / Interpersonal Communication: Teaches effective communication with patients, families, and healthcare colleagues. Sometimes, a kind word is more powerful than medicine.
Nursing Ethics: Guides you in making ethical and professional choices in complex healthcare situations.
Nursing Management: Useful if you aspire to become a head nurse or nursing manager in the future.
English / Computer Science: Essential tools for accessing the latest international nursing literature and using hospital information systems.

Finally, and Most Importantly: Clinical Internship

As mentioned, the final year is primarily spent in hospitals. Under supervision, you'll rotate through major departments like Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics, etc. In each department, you'll work like a real nurse, applying all the knowledge gained over the previous three years.

This process is demanding, but it's undoubtedly the period of fastest growth. Only through hands-on experience can you truly understand the weight of the word "nursing."

I hope this explanation gives you a clearer picture of the nursing major! Good luck!