I was just accepted into and ADN program, beginning in fall 2012 (woo-hoo!), and taking Biology the second half of summer and microbiology this fall. I've taken anatomy and physiology I&II - only I took them over 3 years ago. While I aced both classes, I am concerned how much I retained!

Does anyone have advice on a.) if I should study up before Nursing school begins, or b.) will it just 'come back' to me as I progress through the required classes? I certainly do not remember things like the names of all the muscles, ligaments, bones etc!! What was your experience like?

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/what-should-you-716042.html

I have seen many posts like yours, this is one I could find that I personally responded too.

Check this one out and see if it answers any of your questions :)

For the most part, you aren't going to need to know details from your anatomy class (e.g. all those muscles and bones!) The major ones should come back to you as go along, and if you don't know something, you just look it up. Plus, your nursing text should include a brief review of relevant A&P for each topic. The only system I found I needed to go back and brush up on was cardio-pulmonary. A thorough understanding of cardiac, vascular & lung function is ESSENTIAL for nursing. Of course, you get better with this the more you have to think about it... at the beginning of my nursing program, I sometimes had to pause to mentally follow the path of circulation (e.g. left-sided heart failure. the left ventricle can't pump effectively, so blood backs up where? Left Ventricle > Left atrium > pulmonary vein > lungs!), but now I could recite it in my sleep.

The way I see it, you have 2 choices:

1) start reviewing now, and end up wasting time on extraneous information

2) review as necessary while you go through your nursing courses. your review will be more focused, but you might wish you could use the time to study new material.

Incidentally, it was 3 years between A&P and nursing courses for me, and I chose option 2. Honestly, if you aced A&P, you should be fine in nursing school. Congrats on your acceptance, & good luck!