[Yayamaya]

I have completed Anatomy and Physiology 1 & 2 which covered a great deal in much detail. I would like to know from you students who are further along in the ADN or BSN, what aspects from the Biology curriculum are important to retain, know, memorize, have under one's belt for success later on? How much detail is needed, should I just continue to review specific systems, general or specific concepts, etc?

Thanks

[TallGirlAni]

Memorization is pretty much what I mostly did in A & P. It is really advantageous to not as much memorize (we quickly forget those things that we memorize), but rather to try to learn the overview of the systems, especially the heart, digestive tract, airway, skin. These are beneficial when learning how drugs work, when teaching patients and their families, and just to have as your strong solid foundation to be able to put things together while critically thinking. It is impossible to memorize everything. As a recent grad RN, I am constantly asking other nurses questions and looking things up in my textbooks. Nursing is ever evolving and a lot of what is learned is learned as we are working day to day as a nurse. If you know enough to to be safe, the rest can be referenced. Don't sell back any of your textbooks if it is possible, they will be useful to you in the future. And, be careful about loaning them out to friends and not remembering who has them. I have lost a few already because people have failed to return them and I could't remember who I had loaned them to.
Good luck in your learning and approach your learning in the manner of the following:

It is impossible to memorize every detail, but what is truly within your power is discovering the best ways to craft your tools that will enable you to work through your critical thinking and get you to the best result.

[ms mimi]

we didn't use much A & P in my 1st semester (ADN), but going into second semester they told us to review the systems (so pretty much the physiology part). we are going to really focus on the heart and its disorders, plus the endocrine system and its disorders (diabetes mellitus). plus i heard that 4th semster goes over physiology again. but as far as my first semester we didn't really use it, there was a lot of nursing theory, ethics, some disease process, but not much. i guess disease process and physiology go hand in hand.

[Daytonite]

While it's good for you to review things that you've learned from time to time, I would recommend that you keep all your textbooks and notes at easy access. What will happen is that as you start to study the nursing care of specific medical diseases you will review the anatomy and pathophysiology of the disease process that is going on. Sometimes going back to basic biology or anatomy helps you to understand a nursing concept or why a doctor orders certain medications or treatments. If you haven't already had a class in pathophysiology I think you would be wise to keep an eye out for a good pathophysiology textbook that you like that you can use for reference. Over the years I have found a pathophysiology book to be more useful to me than anatomy/physiology/chemistry/microbiology textbooks combined.