A&P... is it really this bad??

Lemon Bars · Sep 30, 2016

A&P is not a nursing course. It's a science course that will give you some background knowledge so that you won't be completely lost when your nursing instructors start talking about medical problems affecting certain parts of the body, and how drugs work in the body. Science courses in general are much harder than social studies courses, and you will likely need to step up your game if you are not used to putting in many many hours of hard studying. I hated my anatomy course, but I liked my physiology course. I think you're lucky to take A&P together in one course because memorizing anatomy without learning the physiology was just painful for me. My anatomy teacher was a lunatic who taught us like we were all in a PhD program. Two thirds of the students in my class dropped. I think there are a lot of problems with education in general. You will suffer a lot training for any professional job, so I recommend shadowing nurses to make sure you can get really excited about the profession. Engineering or computer science or any of the disciplines that lead to good paying jobs are tough. It's a long road to travel before that first big paycheck.

NICUismylife, ADN, BSN, RN · Sep 30, 2016

Is A&P really a class to weed people out who aren't interested?

It's not to weed out people who aren't interested. Like someone else says, it gives you the foundational knowledge you will need to understand disease processes. It never goes away. It will be a part of everything you learn in nursing school. I know that A&P was fascinating for me, and really helped develop a passion for the human body. It may not be like that for everyone, but I know for most of the nursing students that I am in school with, they said they enjoyed learning A&P. So, in that way, it might give you an idea if nursing is the route you want to go or not.

Is actually being a nurse better than A&P class?

I'm not really sure how to answer this. As a nurse, you will apply your A&P knowledge on a daily basis. But being a nurse is very different than attending a class on a daily basis.

Is any of this ever going to make sense?

Yes! keep going. Work hard, really try to understand how each system works. Don't just attempt memorization, though that is certainly a part of it.

Are all nursing classes going to be like this?

Right now you are learning "normal" In nursing school, you will learn all about "abnormal" and how different disease processes affect normal functioning. Nursing school builds on A&P. This is not a subject you can learn and then forget after the test. You will use this knowledge for the rest of your career. Learn it to retain it.

And A&P in general is much easier than nursing school. I spend approximately 60 hours a week on nursing school between classes, clinicals, clinical paperwork, and studying.

Good luck!

bookgirl667 · Oct 1, 2016

IMO, Chem 2 was more of a weeder class than A&P, which gives you legit knowledge you will use all the time in nursing school. It is true that a lot of people drop or do poorly in A&P, though, and end up having a hard time getting into nursing school as a result.