A&P not really helpful in nursing school!

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I struggled through A&P 1 with an A and now I am stuggling through A&P 2 with a B. After all of this, a classmate tells me that when she was in LVN school there was no point in the program where she needed all this A&P info and she hasn't needed it in the last 5 years she has worked as an LVN. She said that she thinks these A&P classes we have to take are BS because the LVN/ADN nurse doesn't utulize this info. She says the basics make starting out as a nurse easier but that nursing in pracitce doesn't involve you needing to know most of this stuff. Like all the different types of tissue. If your a burn nurse yes you will need to know this, but they will teach you all you need to know when your in training.

Now I feel like I am wasting my time in A&P even though I have to have it.

Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

I am a LVN and use what I learned all the time. ....ALL THE TIME. You can give injections or chart with out it. Your classmate just isnt thinkning about all the things she has to do as a nurse and what all of that entails. I know I just do my job because it is second nature but when I break it down it is the A&P and med-surg that gives me the basis for all I know about nursing. She isnt realizing just how much she uses A&P.. How does she give injections without knowledge of the sites (muscular system)? How about charting wound locations ,size ,appearance etc..(derm system). I could go on all day. YOU ARE NOT WASTING YOUR TIME!!!! Dont lsiten to that non-sense anymore. You keep going and finish your class. I will promise you , you use it more than you think.

quote=ganeese]I struggled through A&P 1 with an A and now I am stuggling through A&P 2 with a B. After all of this, a classmate tells me that when she was in LVN school there was no point in the program where she needed all this A&P info and she hasn't needed it in the last 5 years she has worked as an LVN. She said that she thinks these A&P classes we have to take are BS because the LVN/ADN nurse doesn't utulize this info. She says the basics make starting out as a nurse easier but that nursing in pracitce doesn't involve you needing to know most of this stuff. Like all the different types of tissue. If your a burn nurse yes you will need to know this, but they will teach you all you need to know when your in training.

Now I feel like I am wasting my time in A&P even though I have to have it.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

I will say that I dont use everything I learned in A&P. Maybe she is talking about identifing the tissues under the microscope or something. I have used everything I learned in A&P at one point or another. Whether it be getting X-ray reports and having to figure out just what bone or depression they are talking about or getting a BX result and jumping up and down because I remember what the heck a Simple Squamous epithilium layer is..whoooo hoo. I even use the information I learned when I dissected the cat. I will never NEVER forget where the latisimus Dorsi ( not spelled right) muscle is... OH my your classmate is just wrong.

I struggled through A&P 1 with an A and now I am stuggling through A&P 2 with a B. After all of this, a classmate tells me that when she was in LVN school there was no point in the program where she needed all this A&P info and she hasn't needed it in the last 5 years she has worked as an LVN. She said that she thinks these A&P classes we have to take are BS because the LVN/ADN nurse doesn't utulize this info. She says the basics make starting out as a nurse easier but that nursing in pracitce doesn't involve you needing to know most of this stuff. Like all the different types of tissue. If your a burn nurse yes you will need to know this, but they will teach you all you need to know when your in training.

Now I feel like I am wasting my time in A&P even though I have to have it.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

I don't seem to understand why your friend would suggest A&P wasn't helpful?

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Specializes in Case Management.

When I worked nights on tele I worked with an LPN whom I really respected. One night we had a patient who developed incresing dyspnea to the point where it sounded like she was drowning in fluid inside her lungs. My LPN said, "she sounds like she is going into pulmonary edema". I never had heard pulmonary edema, but dang if she wasn't right. We transferred the patient to CCU very quickly and she was placed on a vent. I learned from an LPN that night what pulmonary edema sounded like. I have much respect for her to this day. You bet your life and your patients life, you need to know your A&P!

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I struggled through A&P 1 with an A and now I am stuggling through A&P 2 with a B. After all of this, a classmate tells me that when she was in LVN school there was no point in the program where she needed all this A&P info and she hasn't needed it in the last 5 years she has worked as an LVN. She said that she thinks these A&P classes we have to take are BS because the LVN/ADN nurse doesn't utulize this info. She says the basics make starting out as a nurse easier but that nursing in pracitce doesn't involve you needing to know most of this stuff. Like all the different types of tissue. If your a burn nurse yes you will need to know this, but they will teach you all you need to know when your in training.

Now I feel like I am wasting my time in A&P even though I have to have it.

I don't believe that A&P is a waste.....even though I am also currently struggling in it with a very difficult professor....I have never known many things about the human body until these last 13 weeks!!!! Never even heard of "antecubital vein" or that too much alcohol may paralyze the phrenic nerve in the thoracic diaphragm and will cause a person to stop breathing and die ( I am sure that there will be plenty of intoxicated people arriving in the ER which are close to dying) you got to know what is "left" and "right" on the PATIENT and some of my fellow students couldn't seem to get that concept :uhoh3: I have learned so much in such a short time and just gave a few examples.......some stuff might be not as important as other stuff but I strongly believe that a good foundation is necessary unless you will only change bedpans and do nothing else as a nurse? Deciphering the docs writtenmumbojumbo will be a challenge in itself, you've got to know what they are talking about. :)

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You're not wasting your time. Trust me. In fact, keep your A&P book because you will be using it as a reference when you're in nursing school. It is by far the one pre-nursing text I have reached for on a regular basis in the last year and a half of nursing school. A&P teaches you normal anatomy and physiology, nursing delves into what goes wrong when you have a disease process. How would you ever be able to understand any of that if you didn't have A&P as a foundation? You need it.

Thanks for the tip to keep the book, I am also keeping my Biochem book :)

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Sounds like everyone is on the same page with regards to the A& P classes. You will need them as you futher your education..

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.

I wonder if your friend was talking about maybe Microbiology or something. The thing is that I just had my nursing program orientation and my program manager told us that A&P was not going to be reviewed. You MUST know the stuff BEFORE you can understand anything. She told us it was a guarantee that we will be using the book. She told us NOT to sell it back, otherwise we would be lost in the program. I'm not sure what your friend was talking about, but my friend, who is in the last year of her program, says that it is IMPERATIVE that you know the anatomy and physiology of the body. I'm sorry, but she's wrong. You're not wasting your time. Stick to what you're doing. You won't regret it. Good luck!:p

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

Must agree with all the above.. A & P is the very FOUNDATION of everything you will utilize in nursing !!! It's an absolute MUST HAVE.

Wow.:stone

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Must agree with all the above.. A & P is the very FOUNDATION of everything you will utilize in nursing !!! It's an absolute MUST HAVE.

Wow.:stone

And our ALL KNOWING supertough professor who expects us to KNOW IT ALL said that there is now one college in our city which requires A&P for Sociology majors.......you've got to know the human body before you can deal with it :p

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
Must agree with all the above.. A & P is the very FOUNDATION of everything you will utilize in nursing !!! It's an absolute MUST HAVE.

Wow.:stone

Yeah that.

It's the backbone of nursing education imo.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

I couldn't even imagine anyone saying this!

Even in medical assisting school we had to have knowledge of basic A&P.

In nursing school, being more in depth, how could you survive with out knowing A&P in depth?

I'd hate to get a gluteal IM from that LVN. If you didn't know A&P, you wouldn't know where to give a gluteal shot, and you may hit the sciatic nerve! That is just muscular, and only one example!

Just as others have said, there's the renal, respiratory, cardiovascular, integumentary.......wow, I'm glad I had to take A&P 1 and 2!

BTW, You better believe I kept my A&P book!

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