Chemistry not required for nursing program?

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Hi guys!

I applied to a school and found out that chemistry is not a pre req for their nursing program and you don't have to take it at all. Is that normal?

No, but you need to know that the drug the doctor ordered will do the right thing for your patient. It's important. Doctors make mistakes all the time that can be incredibly bad for a patient. It's a heads up nurse that can save a life.

And, if I hadn't had chemistry, I would have had a tougher time with drug calc for sure.

*Fair warning!* I'm not trying to be a jerk, even if I come off like it. I say things as I'm writing it with my own voice, with added emphasis, but the interweb hasn't developed enough for me to show it here.

Example: I type Nu-uh. But what I am doing in real life is weaving my head side to side as I snap my fingers.

Way off topic.

Back on topic.

I understand the nurse needs to know what each drug is and why you are giving it. You need to know what to look for and when not to give it and call the doctor. I know this. However, any pharmacology class is going to teach you these things, along with all of your nursing integrating related medications into the information.

When you say drug calc are you talking about calculations?

Chemistry is a great class, but far more in depth, at least at my school, than/then (tense?) need be. I understand the frustration from both sides.

On one side, you have happy-go-lucky students that don't need to take it, that may be fine without it. I only say this because I go to a 4-year BSN program where every class and pre-requisite you take all have nursing integrated into them. All of the faculty know each other and most of them are nurses themselves, or doctor's. If you want to know about isotonic fluids or positive contentrations, but the Chemistry class you took 2 years ago just isn't filling in the blank, my nursing class will fill that in with no problem and you reinforced your learning or learned something new.

On the other side, Chemistry greatly helps people with various things, such as yourself. Perhaps you are dumbfounded that such a scientific art can be depleted from programs that greatly need Chemistry in order to be successful. Perhaps you are a working nurse who is weary of the wave of new nurses that don't know what a covalent bond is and that you'll probably have to teach them yourselves. Whatever the case, there are always differences in cases.

My program could have probably gotten by without Chemistry just because of the small size and closeness of all of the classes relating to nursing. Although, I think I would have still wanted to do Chemistry just so I didn't miss anything.

Chemistry is hard. So I do see why people would be happy to not take it. But sometimes it may not be needed in certain situations and places.

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Specializes in Pediatrics/Developmental Pediatrics/Research/psych.
oh wow well then I stand corrected! you should at least take an intro Chem class though in my opinion

I don't think chemistry will necessarily make you a better nurse. Just chck if you need it for grad school if you plan on going. If you have financial aid now, it might be worth it to take it as an undergrad

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I have an entire spreadsheet devoted to pre-reqs, application dates, degree types, etc. and one of the columns is CHEM REQ?

From what I've seen, it appears the chem requirement is more common in western schools and less common in eastern schools. I have no idea why this is, but if there is any sort of pattern to this requirement, that is the only one I have noticed.

There are a number of ABSN programs in the east who do not require any chemistry while there are numbers of associates programs that do require it both east and west. I think every ABSN program I have looked at out west (Rocky Mts. and west) has a chem requirement.

Really I have no idea why this is other than maybe some programs are trying to look more attractive to potential applicants than others. My top 4 schools all have a chem requirement. If I didn't mind leaving a good job and moving somewhere crappy, I'd apply to some of those non-chem requiring programs, but I'd rather get more medical experience at my job and spend an extra year taking chem.

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Yeah, to take BIO 251 Microbiology we need to have CHEM 110 now which is annoying because I have one extra class to take now, and because only CSN offers it with only two open instructors for next fall.

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That is a little weird to me

I attend a university in CA., Biochem was mandatory.

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ah lucky OP, you said its a legit program and no chemistry, so certainly I won't complain, one less class is one class. The program I am at required Inorganic biochemistry-while not as hard as the "real" chemistry that science majors take, it was still chem none the less. What I see in regards to chemistry in nursing programs- most do require some sort of chemistry-that "sort" of chemistry is a often a nursing version or a somewhat easier version of the standard chemistry that bio, chem, physics, etc... majors take. At the same time there are some schools that forgo chemistry all together-

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

I'm in the southeast, and only about half the BSN programs here require Chem. Of the ones that do, 2 semesters of Chem are required. Seems like a pretty big knowledge disparity among graduate nurses. Very odd. None of the ADN programs require it that I am aware of.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Education requirement vary school to school and state to state.....and yes there are ADN/ASN programs that require chemistry.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

Sorry, I meant none of the ADN programs in my area require it.

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This is old now, Sept. 2016 but would like to know what Community College you went to thanks.

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Intro to Chem for the CCs here & Chem 1 & Chem 2 for the 4 year colleges

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