Nervous system help

[Ned the Red]

We're in the section on anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and here's the situation. We have an instructor we've never seen - all the lectures are on tapes. We have labs twice a week with a guy who doesn't prepare before walking into class and just "wings it" every night. If you ask him about anything to do with the lecture material he says he can't help - hasn't looked at the tapes. And, the way it's presented on the tapes is very poorly organized. So, we've basically had it all dumped on us and we're trying to make sense of it ourselves. Did I mention that the instructor (the guy on the tape) isn't following the textbook that we bought? And, the "Lecture/lab Manual" that he put together consists of a series of black and white pages with copies of diagrams (some partially drawn by hand). It's virtually impossible to figure out what relates to what. Anyone have any good resources that I can use to halp make sense of this? I don't know if this is common but, we're covering the anatomy and physiology of each system at the same time so we're learning not only what things are, and where they are, but what they do and how they do it at the same time.

What a mess.

Thanks,

Ned

[Purple Princess]

Wow; that is horrible! A&P was the nightmare course for most of us at our school. And the nervous system is really complex with all the nerves, brain parts, neurons,and sensory organs. We used a book called Fundamentals of Anatomy and physiology by author Martini. It proved to be a very good book. The only difference was our teacher was there with us, used power point presentations, pointed out diagrams to look at in the book, and correlated what we learned to the clinical setting. We had open discussions and he attempted to answer our questions but he didn't have all the answers. Hey; check out what medical books they have in the library, any videos around, or computer prgrams. We have this Adam interactive anatomy program on our computers. Hope that helps.

[Carolanne]

Oh boy, A&P is not a course that should be a do it yourselfer. I can't believe you have to pay for something half thrown together like that. I agree with the above poster, do some research in your library and on the computer and get hold of some good books w/ practice questions and diagrams that will help you understand things. I just think that's totally wrong that you guys have to struggle through a course that tough with someone who doesn't really know what the course content. I wish you much luck.

[colleen10]

The only advice I can give is to study your buns off from the book and try to figure out based on the tapes, what your instructor feels is the most pertinent information.

The good thing about A&P is that it is really all the same in all the books, just presented differently, ie. the parts of the ear are pretty much always going to have the same name and located in the same place, muscle cells are always going to undergo the same chemical changes in order to move, reproduction is always going to happen the same way.

If you don't allready have one, get yourself a good lab book with diagrams or an 'anatomy coloring book'. Also, try some of the stickied websites in the Student Nurse section. There are a couple A&P sites.

Good luck, A&P is hard enough to learn and memorize without the added pressure of no instructor to help you.

[duckboy20]

Ned the Red- I am not sure exactly how in depth you are wanting to get into this but my book, Textbook of Medical Physiology, goes into very good detail about the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. Also a good book to help you recognize anatomy and piece things together is Atlas of Human Anatomy by Frank Netter MD. I would recommend those but like I said it depends on really how in depth you are wanting to go

[stressgal, RN]

Boy, do I feel for you. I agree this is not a "teach yourself" class, and it really is the backbone for everything yet to come. A page I have found helpful is http://www.gen.umn.edu/faculty_staff/jensen/1135/webanatomy/

There are a lot of sample tests that are great to make flash cards from and test yourself with. You can also try http://wps.aw.com/wps/media/access/Pearson_Default/451/462580/login.html

This link coresponds with the textbook we are using. I also use the anatomy and physiology coloring books and the cliff notes anatomy and physiology book. Now that I think of it, I'm really going to miss this course after this semester, (I'm in human anatomy and physiology 2). It really does take a lot of my time. I would say I study at least two hours a day outside of class.

Good luck and let me know if I can be of any help. I'm here!

[emmy]

I found Human anatomy and physiology by Marieb excellent, it comes with a CD that goes over all the systems and has multiple choice questions etc which I found priceless. :)

[irishrose53]

I can not imagine an A&P class without a teacher. That is the most amazing thing that I have read on this site to date. I thought I'd heard it all and then along comes this post. You have my sincerest sympathies. What school are you enrolled in? Have you paid for this class? You are in my prayers .

[mitchsmom]

I found Human anatomy and physiology by Marieb excellent, it comes with a CD that goes over all the systems and has multiple choice questions etc which I found priceless.

ditto.

Some of you won't believe this, but I had A&P I and II and the labs online. And I learned a LOT! It was probably harder than usual, although the teachers were always available for questions and they taught in real life classes as well. I did well but you have to be very self-directed and motivated. I agree with the above to just learn it from the book, because anatomy is anatomy is anatomy.

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

You can learn A & P on your own.

Where it gets sticky is when it comes to the exams. If you don't know what the prof wishes to stress, you could be in deep trouble. Difficult to score well in this class without having some idea of the extent the material will be addressed in the tests.

[eirthjona]

principles of anatomy & physiology by tortora/ grabowski 10th ed is the one that we have as our text with it comes 9 cd's which give little min lectures with slide show then they give a quick test. Love it going to keep it.