Kind of feel discouraged

RLtinker, LPN · Feb 2, 2011

I kind of know what you mean. We started with the digestive system and some times it seems like the amount of detail we need to know is a bit of an over kill. One thing we have to do is identify all the tissues and their particular cells under a microscope.Not sure when I why might have to identify goblet cell in the future but who knows. :confused: But you may not really know what you will need latter on. Some things are more understandable then others since symptoms will be linked to the illness and give you a hint of the cause.

Elevated potassium levels could indicate kidney issues. Or if a patient has had gastric by pass and since they won't have intrinsic factor they will have to take B12 or they could suffer from anemia. Nurses are a lot of things and science is a big part of what we do; we are educators, we must be able to do an assessment, we must be able to interpret lab results, and we must actually administer the treatment on top of all the other stuff we have to do.

sandi1743 · Feb 2, 2011

IMHE A&PII was more physio - than I was and once you get into PathoPharm it will be much more understandable, esp when it comes to medications and how they work. Chin up - it will be fine!

OBplease · Feb 2, 2011

Thanks for the replies. I am having a good time with all the homeostatic imbalances we are learning as part of each chapter. I can usually link it all together with what hormone, vitamin, defect, disease, etc. I can even remember different cells, what category they fall in and what they look like, etc. The problem I'm have seems to be identifying arteries, veins, etc. that do not to me seem to be very distinguishable...or parts of a vein, aorta, etc. We are using a CD with cadavers to learn them and we are only supposed to identify maybe about half of each of the ones in each quiz but there is no way to just work on the ones we need to learn. It gives you all of them. So I pick up things I don't need and don't pick up others I do. I could go through and type in each part name and look at it but it takes a lot longer and the self quizzes seem to be an easier way to do it because you can do it faster. Another reason I think I'm having an issue is because they all look a shade of beige on a cadaver, it all blends. I also am having issues with certain other minuscule things like action potentials, etc. I have gotten very good grades on my work but I couldn't tell you every step of an action potential. I could tell you for the most part what ions efflux and which influx and in what order but every tiny step, no. So I feel guilty that I'm not getting every detail and it's creeping into my thinking about whether I will have enough information when I need it. I can tell you about the cardiac conduction cycle, how hypertension occurs, etc. I just hope it's enough.

sandi1743 · Feb 4, 2011

veins and arteries i learned as a "tree method"

say Start at the aorta and then how it branches off in the different areas down to the smallest thing that i have to know. I then start with the smallest vein that i have to know and work back to the largest vein that we have to know.

morningland · Feb 4, 2011

Blood, from the left ventricle travels:

Up through the aorta

through the arteries

into the arterioles

into the cappiliaries (sp) where oxygen is exchanged

back into the venules

into the viens

into the inferior or superior vena cava

back to the right atrium of the heart then the right ventricle

into the pulmonic ARTERY

into the lungs where the alveoli exchange O2

back to the left atrium and into the left ventricle

Arteries carry oxygenated blood AWAY from the heart TO the body

Veins carry deoxygenated blood TOWARDS the heart

In the heart, the pulmonic artery carries deoxygenated blood to the lungs and the pulmonic vein carries O2 rich blood back to the heart.

It is important to know patho of the heart in nursing because certain conditions will affect certain sides of the heart and thus lead to specific symptoms. For example, right sided heart failure will lead to edema but left sided HF can lead to pulmonary complications.

OBplease · Feb 4, 2011

Thanks for the info. I had my first exam and got an 85. Wished it would have been higher. I did really well on most sections but the couple of sections I didn't know, I really didn't know them. It was the stages of a WBC and RBC and also the order of clotting factors. Over all I did really good with blood cell types, their purpose, cardiac cycle information, pressures, flow, resistance, vessel types and layers, etc. I get a couple of more weeks to study for vessels labeling. I figured out it was easier for me to just look at the book and learn them there and then go back to the CD, so I hope I will be ok when it comes to test time.