CSN BIO Prerequisites (Pre-Nursing)

[nurs84]

I just want to say that College of Southern Nevada (CSN) has the worst "weed out" theory there is for potential nurses. I'm sorry but not everyone lives with their parents and don't have any bills to pay or responsibilities, outside of school, to take care of. Not all pre-nursing students are teenagers. I spoke to a health care advisor who told me which classes to take with BIO 223, 224, 251 and he set me up with a misleading plan. He told me to take 223 and 251 (Micro) at the same time. Well, he didn't mention that in order to maintain at least a C+ I had to study 50+ hours a week for both classes combined. The labs to these BIO classes are ridiculous. They want you to know ever little detail about everything (grooves, spaces, shapes, etc) and where every muscle in the body is located (and their functions) all within a week for each chapter. Oh, and labs are NOT MULTIPLE CHOICE. YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO SPELL, DEFINE, AND GIVE THE FUNCTION TO EVERYTHING IN YOUR BODY WITHIN A WEEK BECAUSE THERE IS A QUIZ EVERY WEEK. Not to mention the added time you have to spend on studying for lectures. Imagine if I told you I want you to know the structure, spelling, and function of every muscle in the human body within a week and you had to work, study for your other classes, had a family, and had to sleep... do you think you'd make a C? NO. LITERALLY ALL OF MY CLASS, INCLUDING MYSELF, IS FAILING LAB. And most people in my lecture are failing too. I had to ask my job for a leave of absence so that I can work my butt off for a C. The professors for lectures just read off of her PowerPoint verbatim and lab is just thrown at you without explanation. The thing that pisses me off the most is they absolutely don't care. There are mothers and fathers who have children to take care of in my class who cry because we only get a couple of chances to take these classes or else we can't be nurses. I felt like I was lied to by the health care advisor. I mean, I knew the classes would be challenging but I didn't know I had to pay to spend that many hours learning on my own without any explanation besides YouTube videos. They're making a killing off of students because the students have to keep retaking these courses.

This is not a good theory to "weed out" potentially good nurses. Someone who expects to pass these classes should take each class BY ITSELF. I can't even take any other classes because of this situation. I know I will have to retake both classes after this semester because I'm barely pulling a C+. There is just too much to know in so little time. The lab classes are like hell. Imagine drowning and reaching up for a professor to pull you out of the water but instead they drop a ton of books on your head to cripple you from being saved. That's EXACTLY how I feel. So my advice is to take each BIO class by itself. If you have a job, children, a life of any kind, and or think you may want to take another class (even an easy class like math) with one of these BIO classes at CSN, be prepared to retake it the following semester. IF CSN wants to "weed out" potential nurses, they should weed out the ones who have the nasty attitudes towards other students and who already have low GPA's.

This is my experience and everyone else's I've ever talked to who is going to CSN for pre-nursing. I'm not a lazy student either. I have straight A's so I really do care about my grades and my reputation. I just wish someone would have warned me before I blew one out of two chances to get a good grade. After this semester, I will never go back to CSN because of this disgraceful motto they have.

Good luck :)

[THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN]

Sorry, but you're wrong. Many people before you have done it and many people after you will do it. And it's true that many people fail 223 the first time but many people pass as well.

I took Eng 251, bio 224, bio 251, stats and span 2 together and worked two jobs and still had a life with my boyfriend and my family. And I got all A's and 1 B that semester.

I know it's hard but nursing school is wayyyyy more work than this is. And bio 223,224,251 and 189 are like this everywhere.

[nurs84]

It is my opinion regardless if I am right or wrong. Maybe you learn differently than me. I don't have children but I worked a lot and it is a lot of information to try to digest each week. Of course people have either passed the first time or had to retake it. I'm just giving my opinion and experience, along with everyone else's opinions of these classes (in my class), that I am not having an easy time remembering every little detail about several subjects each week. Congrats to you if you if you're one of the ones who has the memory of a computer but to me, I am not a computer. I cannot digest this much information in a short period of time. Yes, I am (barely) passing the class but I basically had to take a leave of absence from work just to do it. So, people have different capacities as far as memorization goes. I'm not a lazy student. I have a really high GPA and put in the work to study but in my experience with this class, it seems as if they are making it way harder than it should be. I want you to dissect the human brain, identify each crevice and tell me it's function, tell me what happens to each crevice and section that doesn't get enough nutrients and make sure you spell everything correctly or you don't get any points for your answer. BTW it's not multiple choice and you have to do all of this within a week without any help from your instructor. That sums up my biology classes. BIO 189 was completely different. I got an A in it during the Summer and had really good instructors.

My BIO classes this semester are not accelerated and my instructors can give a rats ass if people are passing or not.

Hell, if you can do all of the things you're doing with ease and not be stressed out about it. That's great. People are not the same and not all learn the same. I'm just warning people in advance, something that I WISH someone would have done for me. :)

[THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN]

I just want you to be mindful of trashing an entire school just because you're having trouble. They're not going to make it easier or less difficult and if they did you would not be getting the awesome education that you deserve.

You will look back on these classes when you're a nurse and understand why it's so hard now.

[nurs84]

I'm not trashing the entire school. I (along with everyone I personally know) think that some instructors make it harder than would it could be. I work in the medical field now and don't use a lot of the information I learned in class. None of the patients' I've ever cared for asked me to explain anything "physiological" to them. The nurses I work with even say once you're out of these classes you rarely use the information.

I'm not the only one who is complaining about this same issue. So, like I said earlier, I am warning people about enrolling into BIO classes thinking that they can slide by with an A while maintaining a family, work, social life, and etc. It takes many hours of studying to do well in these classes unless you're a great guesser. Even being a great guesser will not work in the lab portion because it's not multiple choice. And yes, they, even the school counselors, call these BIO classes "weed out classes". Just FYI.

[THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN]

Well since I am an ACTUAL neurological medical surgical nurse, I can tell you that this information will be used. Maybe not constantly but if you don't plan on doing patient teaching then I guess you're right.

It seems that you won't understand what I'm talking about until you are actually a nurse and work with someone who took the easier route and can't teach her patients a thing and has no idea why she's giving certain meds or why she should hold certain meds either.

This is also going to help you develop critical thinking that you will use all day everyday.

[WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Like PP said many people have been successful before you took this class, and will be after. Maybe you need to change your study habits if you're studying that much for 1 class and still not doing well.

What study tactics are you using? are you at studying passively or actively? Do you use more than one method to study? At the midterm point when you were still doing poorly did you attempt to get a tutor or start a study group with others?

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

Closed for review.