Anatomy harder than nursing school classes?

[want2banrn]

Hey I'd like to know how people thought the difficulty of their anatomy class (be it a stand-alone anatomy class or the A&P I, II sequence) compared to the difficulty of nursing school classes. I ask this because I was an engineering major in school and I dropped anatomy once because I wasn't doing very well in it (a C is likely what I would have ended up with). I didn't think the material was hard in and of itself but rather it was hard because I never knew what we were supposed to know. Now maybe that's a sign of a bad teacher so that could be part of it.

People might say, isn't engineering hard? Yes, I wouldn't say it was an easy major. But what made it easier is that you can work problems until you are blue in the face and figure out where you need to do work. So unless your professor just pulls a fast one, you can prep for the class and go into an exam with very little doubt that you have matched up your prep to the class.

My anatomy class was completely different. The professor's position was that she was empowered - I heard the phrase "I don't want bad nurses coming out of this class" more than I care to admit and it got old real quick.

Bottom line for me, I'm trying to decide if the difficulty I experienced in that class foreshadows trouble that I'd have in nursing school.

[Despareux]

A&P I, II is equivalent to one piece of a puzzle; whereas, NS is putting all the puzzle pieces (all prerequisites) together.

I wouldn't say that one is harder than the other. NS requires you to pull knowledge from many resources, and then apply that knowledge to provide safety for your patient.

[tokyoROSE, BSN, RN]

I took A&P when I was 17, with terrible studying skills and I managed to pull A's. I just finished my year of med/surg with B's and considered myself lucky because a bunch of my friends failed to meet the passing grade of 75%. The focus and questions are in a completely different ball park; its like comparing apples to oranges. I would take A&P over nursing classes any day.

[anonymousstudent]

They aren't similar. A&P is a lot of memorization. There's a lot of material in nursing, but you have to apply it.

I thought A&P was MUCH easier. I think it depends on your skill set though.

[Guest463881]

It completely depends on your teacher, I was lucky and had an awesome A&P teacher. But I would def say that A&P is one of the harder classes in nursing school because its alllll memorizing! goodluck!

[Anne36, LPN]

I cant wait to be able to answer this question once and for all. I start pharmacology next week. Mabye I will revisit this thread in a few months.

There were only a handful of A's given out in my Anatomy classes. If someone gets an A in anatomy and finds nursing school harder then I dont see how anyone who even gets a B could ever make it in NS. We worked our butts off for those A's. It was not straight forward memorization that got A's those classes.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Anatomy is rote memorization. Some people aren't good at that so it's probably hard for them. I think it's boring, but I'm interested in the topic so it comes more readily than if I were to try and memorize something else. I did used to teach A&P, btw. Physiology involves understanding and a lot of it if you're the type that wants to answer questions and tie it all together. I took it solely as a hobby course back when I took it. It's something I wanted to know about. It's also the only college book I ever read.

Nursing school should involve application and synthesis of knowledge. Forget that critical thinking hogwash. It's vague and meaningless. Focus on application and synthesis. Nursing school is a lot of "new" for most people. It's not all that new to me due to my science background, having taught A&P which helps understanding, and having been a paramedic. I don't think it's hard in the least, but that's just me because of my own interests and experience.

However, I don't think nursing should be any harder than physiology if you're actually trying to learn the physiological processes. If you're just taking the class to pass it then it'd be easier because you'd only regurgitate the crap for the test and forget about learning anything.

Cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, and chemistry are in fact more difficult than nursing school.

[shortnorthstudent]

They are very different types of classes. I took a 3 term sequence of Anatomy, Physiology and Patho. For me, Anatomy was the most difficult. Straight memorization and regurgitation. Not my strength. But, I worked really hard and got a solid A in the class. Physiology took that anatomy and put it into a context. It was fascinating and the material was more difficult than anatomy, but it was easier for me to comprehend than it was to memorize the anatomy. But, if you didn't have a good grasp on the anatomy, then physiology would be very difficult. Patho was similar to physiology -- taking all that normal and apply it to the abnormal. Again, you really need a strong understanding of both anatomy and physiology in order for patho to make sense.

Then last term I strated nursing classes. They are completely different. You are applying the knowledge from all of those pre-reqs. Taking it, synthesizing all of those biological sciences, throwing some math and chemistry into the mix and then putting it into a nursing context and deciding what is best, or what is first or what is the most important, etc.

In some ways, this both easier and more difficult. The material first term wasn't as difficult for me, but picking out the best answer out of a bunch that seem potentially correct.

FTR, I got As in each of those classes.

[CardioV]

Sorry I was a bio major and I took A&P 1 & 2 at community college, slept through both classes and still made an A! However, when I took human physiology at a university level, it was a whole new ball game. Trust me take the time to master your physiology and everything else will come easily.

[penaheather]

I agree with you! I had a really hard time in A&P. But thats just me!

[EveRose]

Sounds like you had one of those teachers who thinks it their job to "weed out" the nursing school applicants. Get yourself a different teacher and try it again. All your pre req's are basic knowledge based testing your nursing classes are a whole different breed of cat. To get through nursing there is no "formula" you have to be flexible, be able to pick the best correct answer because all the choices will be right, and to pass clinical you have to have excellent people skills. If you prefer things to be straight forward, logical and black and white nursing may not be your best choice.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

my anatomy class was taught in a 700-seat lecture hall by a physician from china who was not able to take the time to do an internship and residency after he and his family escaped to the us, so he could not get work as a physician and ended up teaching undergrads in order to earn a salary to feed his 7 children. once we got past the accent it was easier, because he was able to toss in some clinical examples along with the names of the parts. one of the best things i did was to get the anatomy coloring book, and a book on medical transcription because the latin/greek roots gave me infinite hints as to what i was looking at.

physiology, ahhhh, i loved physiology. when i taught nursing students, i always told them that people come to us for care because they have screwed up physiology in one way or another, and so it's completely not optional to learn it, especially (imnsho) cardiac and pulmonary physiology, including fluids/electrolytes and acid/base. lots of people have a lot of things wrong with them, but by gawd if they don't have hearts or lungs they're dead and we don't need to worry about them anymore. sad but true.

when i taught the nursing classes, i always asked, "why do we care?" about things, because it's always been my experience that the more you can relate what you're learning to what you already know (or know you need to know), the better you can retain it. the physiology coloring book is still on the market, too, and a classic. i think you can read both for download online now, too.

so whenever somebody tells you to learn something, ask yourself, "why should i care about this? how does this fit in to the infinite scheme of things?" and if you can't think of a good reason, ask the faculty person (i'd suggest using more diplomatic language, though:d).

[ERGirl83]

I think it depends on your program, and your personal skill set. For ME, my nursing classes are so easy, it's a big let down, and it's making it hard to enjoy my program. I LOVED anatomy and physiology, and microbiology and chemistry. I am a scientist at heart. I didn't mind putting in the study time because it was challenging, and exciting. In nursing school, while my classes are easy, I still have to put in the reading time, and it's worse, because it's NOT challenging, or exciting. It's "harder" for me to put the time into something that doesn't challenge my brain. So while my pre-requisite classes were much more challenging academically, nursing school is "harder" for me, just to stay engaged.