A&P not really helpful in nursing school!

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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 Home Health Care.
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.

:stoneface: Either you misunderstood her or she misunderstood you. If the nurse doesn't use anatomy & physiology in her assessments & interventions, what does the nurse use?

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Try reading some charts and you will quickly see who knows anatomy. Depending on the kind of nursing you will be practicing, you will need to know anatomy. For instance, what veins are you accessing for the IV? Describe the pressure ulcer. Describe which digit is affected by trauma. What is missing on your patient? Without proper knowledge you will look like an idiot and may have a tough time explaining yourself in court should the occasion arise. Lawyers (for the other side) love it if you don't know one vein from another). IMHO knowledge is only wasted on people who refuse to use it.

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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!

You are hitting a nerve by talking about nerves......and mine are shot at this moment! I've got to know 16 innervations for the last (yeaaaaaah, the last) lab test Dec 1st. One of them is the 'sciatic' nerve, accordidng to our crazy prof it's the nerve that gives people the most problems. Wish me luck on my lecture test on the muscular system tomorrow. He said it will be hard, and having endured him for 13 some weeks I don't doubt him for a second! AAAAaaaarrrrgggghhhh enuff to git you muscle spasms :uhoh3:

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Try reading some charts and you will quickly see who knows anatomy. Depending on the kind of nursing you will be practicing, you will need to know anatomy. For instance, what veins are you accessing for the IV? Describe the pressure ulcer. Describe which digit is affected by trauma. What is missing on your patient? Without proper knowledge you will look like an idiot and may have a tough time explaining yourself in court should the occasion arise. Lawyers (for the other side) love it if you don't know one vein from another). IMHO knowledge is only wasted on people who refuse to use it.

Too often you read about those stories where the wrong leg got sawed off etc......:rolleyes:

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Yes, but what muscle is it that you are talking about? ...AND what is causing it to spasm? :rolleyes:

You'll do fine!

You are hitting a nerve by talking about nerves......and mine are shot at this moment! I've got to know 16 innervations for the last (yeaaaaaah, the last) lab test Dec 1st. One of them is the 'sciatic' nerve, accordidng to our crazy prof it's the nerve that gives people the most problems. Wish me luck on my lecture test on the muscular system tomorrow. He said it will be hard, and having endured him for 13 some weeks I don't doubt him for a second! AAAAaaaarrrrgggghhhh enuff to git you muscle spasms :uhoh3:
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Yes, but what muscle is it that you are talking about? ...AND what is causing it to spasm? :rolleyes:

You'll do fine!

Thanks, I'll try my very best! All my muscles are cramping right now, escpecially my 'brain muscles', call it pre-test rigor? :) (OMG if my teacher would see this......)

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Specializes in Operating Room.
Thanks, I'll try my very best! All my muscles are cramping right now, escpecially my 'brain muscles', call it pre-test rigor? :) (OMG if my teacher would see this......)

:rotfl: If he saw this, he'd ask the following:

1. Lots of ATP and Lots of Ca++ = ?

2. Lots of ATP and No Ca++ = ?

3. Little ATP and Lots of Ca++ = ?

4. No ATP and Lots of Ca++ = ?

(1. Contraction, 2. Relaxation, 3. Fatique/Cramp, 4. Rigor Mortis/Unending contraction)

Yep, I learned this in my "Handy Dandy" A&P class! :chuckle

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:rotfl: If he saw this, he'd ask the following:

1. Lots of ATP and Lots of Ca++ = ?

2. Lots of ATP and No Ca++ = ?

3. Little ATP and Lots of Ca++ = ?

4. No ATP and Lots of Ca++ = ?

(1. Contraction, 2. Relaxation, 3. Fatique/Cramp, 4. Rigor Mortis/Unending contraction)

Yep, I learned this in my "Handy Dandy" A&P class! :chuckle

Those will probably be on the test, knowing him......:rotfl: I know he will kill us with his electron transport system......glycolysis, and the dreaded Krebs Cycle!!!!!! I'll be in full rigor mortus at this time tomorrow :)

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All I can add to this is that my A&P instructor gave us a lecture about how we have to know all the parts of the heart and how the blood circulates through the heart. He says that the nursing instructors told him that the students they got didn't know this and what was he teaching us? So he drummed it into our heads and we had questions on that test and the final on it.:rotfl:

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I honestly can't imagine whay your friend meant. I'm not in the nursing program yet ( still waiting on my letter for Spring) but I have a friend in right now who traded back her A+P book...and wound up basically begging to use mine for this semester.

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Just curious; have any of you had to 'use' the sliding filament theory?

This is some of the most difficult......... I've ever gone through:(((

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Specializes in Nada.

If you really wanna know..

I think general chemistry is a waste of time.

Am I ever going to have to balance reactions as a nurse? :bugeyes:

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