Re: Any tips on what to study BEFORE entering A&P1?
It's been a while since A&P I for me so I don't remember exactly what we covered in A&P I versus A&P II.
My suggestion. Do you know what book you will be using in school? Go to your college library and look at a copy of an A&P textbook. Also go to your local retail bookstore and look at any books they have on A&P. You might find the Made Easy books or others to be helpful like "Anatomy and Physiology Made Incredibly Easy". Look at the different books at the store and see which one you like and if you want to purchase it see if you can get it used online.
To order used online I always check:
www.fetchbook.info
1. Does it have a CD and is it included? (You definitely want the CD's)
2. Is it in good condition or does it have a lot of highlighting?
3. How much is the shipping?
When I took A&P at a community college we had one instructor who was a geneticist and one who had a science degree. They really were unsure what a nurse needed to know about anatomy. A lot of students from my class in hindsite felt they were so focused on studying to pass the tests that when they got into their nursing classes they had not retained enough of what the nurse needs to know of anatomy.
Anyway my short answer. Look at books that may help you break it down in to more understandable terms. And when you are taking anatomy and physiology try to ask yourself how would this pertain to what a nurse does.
Like the names of where to check pulses.
Heart sounds, lung sounds, bowel sounds what are you hearing, where do you listen, for how long etc.
Location and names of muscles where the nurse gives injections.
The coronary arteries of the heart because they are important when you learn in nursing school about CAD - Coronary Artery Disease, or MI - Myocardial Infarction (Heart attack).
Obviously you need to learn everything your instructor gives notes or lectures on. For my class it would have been easier to retain if someone could have explained the "why" to us. Or how it would be important to the nurse.
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