Chemistry/Which kind?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Specializes in ER/Emergency Behavioral Health....

I am currently in a community college. I want to take Chemistry next semester. I don't need it for my Associate's degree, but I will eventually when I go for my BSN. I am thinking physiological chemistry, which is an option at my school. I am curious which chemistry others took and what kind of program they are in.

Thank you all :)

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

Check the requirements for the BSN program you will apply to. Many will have a specific one they want you to take. Theres not usually a choice in which one and if there is, the program requirement will be "CHM XXX or higher"

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The watered down chem that most nursing schools require, it's a sampler usually of general, organic and biochem. Usually 100 level

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
The watered down chem that most nursing schools require it's a sampler usually of general, organic and biochem. Usually 100 level[/quote']

I don't know what area you are from but in my area, the 100 level sciences are across the board THE SAME for ALL STUDENTS who need their sciences...even for pre med or bachelors degrees, regardless of community college or university. :blink:

I agree with another poster; look into what universities you plan on transferring to; most university programs may require a set of courses to help you transfer into the program, and will depend on the coursework design of that particular nursing program. If your community college has a list of what transfers over to a particular school, follow up with the school for accuracy and go from there. :yes:

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I took General Chemistry and actually liked it. It has a lot of dimensional analysis and I like Math so I didn't mind it. I would think organic chemistry would be interesting too. Although I haven't taken it, just touched on it a little in Biology:)

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I don't know what area you are from but in my area, the 100 level sciences are across the board THE SAME for ALL STUDENTS who need their sciences...even for pre med or bachelors degrees, regardless of community college or university. :blink:

I agree with another poster; look into what universities you plan on transferring to; most university programs may require a set of courses to help you transfer into the program, and will depend on the coursework design of that particular nursing program. If your community college has a list of what transfers over to a particular school, follow up with the school for accuracy and go from there. :yes:

Wrong. General Chem (generally 2-3 semesters) albeit being 100 level is A LOT harder than the chem required for MOST nursing programs. I think you are confused on the differences on 100 level sciences and the corresponding pre reqs. Tell me your school and I bet I can find the different classes. Pre-med chem is not the same as pre-nursing, period.​ I worked with admissions for several school and can attest to the varying curriclums.

I did both pre-med and nursing and there is a BIG difference. For one nursing only requires one semester...

Example: Go to University of Washington's nursing pre reqs page and it explicitly states the chems required "Principles of Chemistry" are not the same for engineering or pre-med. That is how most schools are. Schools also sometimes want a vague chem requirement for 4 credits but there is usually this default sampler chem offered that most nursing students take. You could take the pre-med chem but that would be dumb...

Nursing: Chem 120, 220, 221

Pre-med engineering: Chem 142, 152, 162

http://nursing.uw.edu/sites/default/files/files/BSN-Prerequisites.pdf

Another example at Montana State

http://www.montana.edu/wwwnu/academic/bsn.htm

As an aside my nursing microbiology wasn't even the same...

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Wrong. General Chem (generally 2-3 semesters) albeit being 100 level is A LOT harder than the chem required for MOST nursing programs. I think you are confused on the differences on 100 level sciences and the corresponding pre reqs. Tell me your school and I bet I can find the different classes. Pre-med chem is not the same as pre-nursing period.​ I worked with admissions for several school and can attest to the varying curriclums. I did both pre-med and nursing and there is a BIG difference. For one nursing only requires one semester... Example: Go to University of Washington's nursing pre reqs page and it explicitly states the chems required "Principles of Chemistry" are not the same for engineering or pre-med. That is how most schools are. Schools also sometimes want a vague chem requirement for 4 credits but there is usually this default sampler chem offered that most nursing students take. You could take the pre-med chem but that would be dumb... Nursing: Chem 120, 220, 221 Pre-med engineering: Chem 142, 152, 162 http://nursing.uw.edu/sites/default/files/files/BSN-Prerequisites.pdf Another example at Montana State http://www.montana.edu/wwwnu/academic/bsn.htm As an aside my nursing microbiology wasn't even the same...

Like I stated before, that may be YOUR area; I'm saying this from experience of having classmates who were applying to pre-med programs and nursing in the same classes at area universities, and agreements with local community colleges. :blink:

I'm not sure your are even in a nursing program or a nurse at all; I've been in it long enough AS A NURSE to know nursing is a different model of schooling, but not as "watered down" as YOU think... I've worked around enough doctors who DESIRE to have their schooling modeled after nursing; so don't think "watered down"; nursing schooling takes a huge curve; and in the trenches an even LARGER ONE.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.

Didn't take chem for my RN...didn't take chem for my BSN....not taking chem for my MSN.

The only time I had chem was in high school...it was a high level chem with a lab but it was still high school. So you may not need it for your BSN.

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I was able to get away with taking the survey course of Inorganic, Organic and Biochem. I really like it thus far.

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Specializes in Former CNA &PCT.

Have you taken any chemistry in high school perhaps? How are your math skills? Could you also elaborate on a course description and if pre-reqs are needed for that 'Physiological Chemistry' course?

I do applaud your initiative into wanting to take a chemistry course. Knowledge is power! :)

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Like I stated before, that may be YOUR area; I'm saying this from experience of having classmates who were applying to pre-med programs and nursing in the same classes at area universities, and agreements with local community colleges. :blink:

I'm not sure your are even in a nursing program or a nurse at all; I've been in it long enough AS A NURSE to know nursing is a different model of schooling, but not as "watered down" as YOU think... I've worked around enough doctors who DESIRE to have their schooling modeled after nursing; so don't think "watered down"; nursing schooling takes a huge curve; and in the trenches an even LARGER ONE.

As a matter of fact those schools aren't even in my area, but considering I looked at schools from all over the country when I was considering nursing school and their classes were totally different than nursing (Remember pre med is 2 sem Gen chem, 2 sem Org chem, 2 sem physics, 1 sem calc and 2 sem Gen Bio not A/P plus some other gen eds) and in my first day of class, the prof stated this was a nursing specific chem class and anyone looking for pre-med credit was in the wrong area. This is not isolated and in 5 more minutes of searching every nursing school I looked at online from Univ of Texas to Univ of Maine had the same thing as my school. Maybe your school is isolated in that respect I couldn't tell unless you unless I saw the curriculum. The poster above me. Chelsea13 is taking the same class I took as with the majority of nursing students....

To your dismay probably, I am an RN (and BSN if that means anything) but I have the unique experience of doing both pre-nursing, nursing and pre-med and can tell you that while nursing has more practical approaches to leaning about physiology and the disease process it is lacking in the hard SCIENCE background which puts the nose to the grindstone. It's watered to down to make sense without delving to greatly into inter-molecular, biochemical and evolutionary process that would make nursing school....forever. Now while you defend nursing, you can't really claim it's not watered down if you haven't even done the classes I am talking about. By defending against my claims of being watered down you really don't have a point to back it up besides a couple docs who desire their school to be modeled after ours, whatever that means. I really don't want a doc who takes the level of BS/fluff classes I had to take in nursing school. Med school is perfectly fine in it's current state with maybe some alterations to the 4th year curric. Besides patho, adult/peds or pharm the rest of nursing school was going through the motions fluff and I am not the only one who thinks that.

Nursing school and pre-nursing (A/P was probably the easiest science class of my life) is relatively easy and watered down in my opinion, didn't have to study much and it was really just multiple choice exams. HOWEVER, I will agree with you that the trenches of nursing isn't easy because of the shift work and the amount of BS you deal with.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
As a matter of fact those schools aren't even in my area but considering I looked at schools from all over the country when I was considering nursing school and their classes were totally different than nursing (Remember pre med is 2 sem Gen chem, 2 sem Org chem, 2 sem physics, 1 sem calc and 2 sem Gen Bio not A/P plus some other gen eds) and in my first day of class, the prof stated this was a nursing specific chem class and anyone looking for pre-med credit was in the wrong area. This is not isolated and in 5 more minutes of searching every nursing school I looked at online from Univ of Texas to Univ of Maine had the same thing as my school. Maybe your school is isolated in that respect I couldn't tell unless you unless I saw the curriculum. The poster above me. Chelsea13 is taking the same class I took as with the majority of nursing students.... To your dismay probably, I am an RN (and BSN if that means anything) but I have the unique experience of doing both pre-nursing, nursing and pre-med and can tell you that while nursing has more practical approaches to leaning about physiology and the disease process it is lacking in the hard SCIENCE background which puts the nose to the grindstone. It's watered to down to make sense without delving to greatly into inter-molecular, biochemical and evolutionary process that would make nursing school....forever. Now while you defend nursing, you can't really claim it's not watered down if you haven't even done the classes I am talking about. By defending against my claims of being watered down you really don't have a point to back it up besides a couple docs who desire their school to be modeled after ours, whatever that means. I really don't want a doc who takes the level of BS/fluff classes I had to take in nursing school. Med school is perfectly fine in it's current state with maybe some alterations to the 4th year curric. Besides patho, adult/peds or pharm the rest of nursing school was going through the motions fluff and I am not the only one who thinks that. Nursing school and pre-nursing (A/P was probably the easiest science class of my life) is relatively easy and watered down in my opinion, didn't have to study much and it was really just multiple choice exams. HOWEVER, I will agree with you that the trenches of nursing isn't easy because of the shift work and the amount of BS you deal with.[/quote']

We will have to agree to disagree; like I stated and will say again; I speak from my viewpoint, MY EBP....nursing is nursing, most of what I've done in my 8 years of nursing NEVER amounted to BS...but that's relative to how you view nursing, regardless of RN, BSN, matter of fact LPN (was one for 7 years. :yes: ) :whistling:

I've stated before, I've worked around physicians of all specialties that would prefer our model of schooling; they would prefer our "fluff" vs their "fluff"...that's relative. *shrugs*

At this point, I rather the thread go back to what it's really about, required Chemistry...I realized I didn't answer the OP's question. :yes:

OP, some schools require no Chemistry, 2 Chemistries, etc... The schools I was looking into required Chemistry, which included Inorganic and Biochem in addition to A&P I&II because they were prerequisites for Pathophysiology I &II, which was required as a part of their Nursing curriculum; others wanted less.

The program that I ultimately completed required 2 Chemistries; the required coursework transcended into my program, so it made sense to have two Chemistries; it didn't hurt. :)

Again, find out which programs that your are interested in and what is required; personally, I would not want to take anything but the required courses that will transfer. :yes:

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