Hello Guys! As Usual Its Nice To Post A Thread And Get Your Feedback. I Am In My Second Semester Of A&p And I Am Just Breezing Through. It Seems Like The Professors Aren't Challenging Enough. I Really Need To Know This Stuff. Should I Just Take Time And Study The Book Over And Over Myself? How Concerned Should I Be Considering That Clinicals Start In The Fall And Graduate School Is Part Of My Future?

Thanks In Advance For You Input!

I'm not a nurse yet but I don't think we'll have to know everything they taught us out of those text books, however, anatomy and physiology is interesting to me, so I enjoyed studying it. If you've got the time and want to learn more then go for it. If you enjoy learning, yeah, go for it!

Miss TCM,

I finished my AP II class last semester, and I have the same worries. I loved my instructor, did well on the tests, but it seemed more like just an "overview" of A & P. Several times he would say that what he covered in a two hour lecture could be taught in detail for an entire semester. I hope I got enough detail. I'm also worried about my retention. It seemed like as soon as the test was done, I would forget many of the details. I wonder how many muscles I could name right now!

I am in my 3rd semester of Nursing (ADN) and can tell you that in my program, we've had to know A LOT of A&P. I've had some future students ask what advice I would give them based on my experience and I told them that the more they study A&P, the easier nursing fundamentals and Med Surg nursing will be for them as well as pharmacology. There were a couple of students that took A& P online and said they never had to study and they got to use their books for tests and they really struggled. One didn't make it through.

Just my opinion...

Tracey

I think if you have a good basic understanding of the bodies function, you'll be fine. You don't need to memorize your A&P book.

lots of A&P, specially cardiac,renal and endocrine

Know your physiology of your body systems- how they work inside and out.

Your A&P textbook is one that you don't want to get rid of. You will need it for reference in nursing classes. No one expects you to remember everything. However, you will be expected to know where to go to re-visit this information. As you see different medical illnesses your knowledge of A&P will be constantly reinforced over time. In nursing you will always want to review the normal working of an organ in order to understand what is going wrong in a specific disease as well as to understand the rationale and aims of the medical treatment.

I am in my second quarter of my RN program. We are starting to learn about Fluids and Electrolytes in Fundamentals and Diabetes in Med/Surg 1. Knowing the Endocrine system is extremely important. I started reading my med/surg and fundamentals book and my head started hurting..lol. Once I got through the basics onto how it relates to what I am learning it all made sense. I did extremely well in A&P and if I hadn't study so hard I don't think the material would have come back to me so easily. Some of the concepts that I learned in A&P I understood but not so much that I could see it working as in depth. I had an ah hah moment today whiled studing fluids and electrolytes. Definitely study hard and understand the material.

Study on your own too. It will come back and haunt you later. This is the basics that everything falls back on. I am now going into my second semester of grad. school/NP program, and wouldn't you know, its a deeper review of A&P and basic physical assessment. Through out the years I thought "Was I even paying attention in undergrad?" . So get a good baseline and it will make it much easier in your future.

I think it's important to learn as much as you can, but do know a lot of it is reviewed to some extent in NS. Then again, they'll throw something at you like "remember when you learned the effects of this on that" and I'll sit there wracking my brain as the terminology is familiar, but heaven forbid I should actually remember the concept, lol!!

Pay attention in class and keep your book handy as Daytonite recommends. I have referred to mine often while in my first semester of NS and imagine it'll get more use as I move through the remaining three semesters!! I wouldn't expect you'll remember things word-for-word, but I think it's the exposure that's most important.

Good luck!!

I can't emphasize enough how critical it is to learn the major systems and their normal physiology. Respiratory, cardiac, endocrine, renal and GI are the ones I think are the most important. If you know the normal physiology, all you have to remember when it comes to studying these systems in your Med/Surg classes is what is interrupting/changing the normal pathophysiology. From there you can work out how it will affect other body systems. You won't have to memorize it because you'll be able to think it through.

A good foundation in A&P is critical in understanding nursing concepts. While you will not need to be able to quote the text word for word, you need a working knowledge of the functions of the body systems. My A&P classes were adequate to say the least, and I felt much like how you describe. I frequently had to go back and review systems as they were covered in class. Keep your book as a reference. Any decent Med-surg book will also review the A&P as it pertains to the system and disease processes you are covering.

If you don't feel that you are getting enough from the instructor's requirements then focus on mastering the objectives presented in the textbook. Usually, the objectives will be stated at the beginning of the chapter, and towards the end of the chapter there may be a summary of key concepts and even questions that help you assess if you have grasped the material. The important thing is not to memorize the material, but to understand it well enough to apply it in a nursing concept, and remember where to reference it.