Cardiac, neuro, or renal?

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What content is more difficult? Renal, neuro, or cardiac?

*I am in an ADN program. Going into my last semester. Our 3rd semester was OB/maternity (87) and peds (93)

Last semester we had mental health (80- doesn't seem like a great grade, but the teacher was impossible and the class avg was a 72), respiratory (85), cardiac (95) and endocrine (95).

I ask because a lot of students are telling me that renal and neuro (which are the content we learn next semester) are "impossible".. They said the same thing about cardiac and I thought THAT content was relatively "easy" and straightforward.

What do you think?

I love cardiac, so while it is not easy, I tend to do really well because I actually enjoy studying it. Renal can be rough and neuro is not easy. However, none are impossible. I found that of the three, renal was what I had to study the hardest for. I tend to be a Googler to supplement my textbooks and you can find tons of interactive study guides, more notes, etc. all online that explain things in different ways so you can find the explanation that you understand best. Quizlet has some really nice stuff, but you have to dig through it all and keep in mind it is made by students, so be sure to fact check it, though in my experience, 99 percent of the stuff I have used on there is completely accurate.

Neuro. It's like math... Just when you think you understand a concept, the instructor is like 'Nahh, just kidding!' and flips the script. You'll be fine.. Cardio is easy, but neuro is a little harder.

Specializes in Peds, Float, Ambulatory, Telemetry (new).

Yeah I did so good in cardiac for some reason. I was the only one in my class who got a high grade on our cardiac exam. Neuro was hard to grasp and renal wasn't too bad. I could have done better if I cared more for it lol. Good luck

Specializes in Telemetry, OB, NICU.

Renal is the hardest I think. I don't know what people meant by "impossible". Impossible to do what?

Renal is a lot more complex than most people think, but it's interesting so I believe it's "learnable." Cardiac is just fun. It's not really difficult, and most people seem to be interested in it. Cardiovascular my favorite system. Neuro is easy to get bogged down in. I've been reading neuro again, since school ended, to brush up on some things for this fall (as there is some overlap between neuro and psych), but I find everything south of the brain to be pretty boring, lol. I think neuro is hard, for me, because it's not that exciting, there's little to be done when something goes wrong, it's really easy to get bogged down in as there are a lot of words that aren't really used outside of neuro, and it requires a lot of memorization to retain these words and find application for them. It's all very doable though. Everything is doable!

Which of your children is the best one?

See, there's really no answer. Each has its great points, you have to know a lot of each, and as I used to tell my students, if your patients don't have them, they might be dead so you don't have to worry about them anymore. So... be happy to learn all of them, because you'll need them. :)

Specializes in ER, progressive care.

I think it depends on the person...but neuro was the most difficult for me.

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Cardiac and renal were in the same med/surg class for me. Neuro/psych was a class all its own. I aced Neuro/Psych with an A. My quiz and tests grades for renal were also A's but my cardiac quizzes and test grades were bad. Even during LPN schooling the cardiac section is the one I did most poorly in. Most in my classes were the opposite, great in Cardiac and didn't do well/did poorly in neuro and renal.

For me cardiac issues all blurred in together.

Is it totally wrong for me to say I hated kidneys for a long time?

It wasn't until I did a year or so in oncology that all that stuff started to make sense for me. I guess we all have our quirks...

I loved cardiac and neuro, while complex, is just fascinating. To me. :)

Cardiac is my favorite system. Renal is the most difficult one (and most hated) for me. I think I need to go back to the anatomy and physiology.

Cardiac is my first love! I absolutely hated neuro and renal. Class wise...I did my best in cardiac and renal. I had an extremely difficult time in neuro.

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