First semester of RN program fundamentals/foundations diseases

Hello Izzy, congratulations on entering nursing school. I am an instructor who teaches this course for a nursing school in my area. Because I may not teach at the school you are entering, this information may not be 100% correct. It will be somewhat close because the Fundamentals of Nursing courses are similar based on the HLC, ACEN, CCNE, and state Board of Nursing guidelines.

Prelearning disease processes is not what I would concentrate on at this time, but if you want to, you can review the majors. I am talking about heart disease, diabetes, diseases with mobility problems (fractures, MS), and incontinence in general. In fundamentals, you will learn the basics of skills and providing care. I do not cover specific diseases except those that constitute a change in care routines.

If you were required to complete A&P one and two before entry, I would review them. Understanding how the body is structured, functions, and behaves under normal conditions will help you understand the concepts surrounding assessing malfunctions.  If you can, and you have not, take a medical terminology course.  I am surprised at how many new students cannot understand basic terminology, which puts them at a severe disadvantage.  If you don't know what the words mean, you will not understand what you are learning.

I hope this helps. Always remember that you do not have to be perfect on your scores, and put things in perspective. All you have to do is understand the material and pass. I know many nurses who passed with a 'C' who are incredible nurses. Be open to being directed; you will not always be correct in every test question or situation.

Good luck!

rob4546 said:

Hello Izzy, congratulations on entering nursing school. I am an instructor who teaches this course for a nursing school in my area. Because I may not teach at the school you are entering, this information may not be 100% correct. It will be somewhat close because the Fundamentals of Nursing courses are similar based on the HLC, ACEN, CCNE, and state Board of Nursing guidelines.

Prelearning disease processes is not what I would concentrate on at this time, but if you want to, you can review the majors. I am talking about heart disease, diabetes, diseases with mobility problems (fractures, MS), and incontinence in general. In fundamentals, you will learn the basics of skills and providing care. I do not cover specific diseases except those that constitute a change in care routines.

If you were required to complete A&P one and two before entry, I would review them. Understanding how the body is structured, functions, and behaves under normal conditions will help you understand the concepts surrounding assessing malfunctions.  If you can, and you have not, take a medical terminology course.  I am surprised at how many new students cannot understand basic terminology, which puts them at a severe disadvantage.  If you don't know what the words mean, you will not understand what you are learning.

I hope this helps. Always remember that you do not have to be perfect on your scores, and put things in perspective. All you have to do is understand the material and pass. I know many nurses who passed with a 'C' who are incredible nurses. Be open to being directed; you will not always be correct in every test question or situation.

Good luck!

Hi, thank you for responding. Can you give me other subjects that are crucial to study in fundamentals? I hear people say first semester is so hard but I don't understand how. Are there any medications I should know for first semester (fundamentals/ foundations RN class)?

Izzy12 said:

Hi, thank you for responding. Can you give me other subjects that are crucial to study in fundamentals? I hear people say first semester is so hard but I don't understand how. What medications should I know about in first semester of RN school?

Nursing school is just as hard as you make it.  It is challenging, but being hard is a relative term.  In our program, Pharmacology is a course to be taken with Fundamentals.  Beginning Pharmacology can be difficult if you cannot grasp the concepts.  If you want to jumpstart your knowledge, get an old pharmacology book from Amazon (or elsewhere) that is used and start reading from the beginning.  I suggest this (https://a.co/d/7IwM9Ej) as it is the one we used, and it is a basic book for pharmacology.  The used version is about 7.00 and worth it.  We use a more up-to-date version, but this older version has good concepts, and the price is right.  

I suggest getting some relaxation and recharging your batteries before the start. Ensure you have all your support resources together, as this is one of the biggest determinants of success. Oh, and get Grammarly or the like. I am amazed at some of the papers and care plans that students submit. Good grammar, word usage, and spelling are a must.

rob4546 said:

Nursing school is just as hard as you make it.  It is challenging, but being hard is a relative term.  In our program, Pharmacology is a course to be taken with Fundamentals.  Beginning Pharmacology can be difficult if you cannot grasp the concepts.  If you want to jumpstart your knowledge, get an old pharmacology book from Amazon (or elsewhere) that is used and start reading from the beginning.  I suggest this (https://a.co/d/7IwM9Ej) as it is the one we used, and it is a basic book for pharmacology.  The used version is about 7.00 and worth it.  We use a more up-to-date version, but this older version has good concepts, and the price is right.  

I suggest getting some relaxation and recharging your batteries before the start. Ensure you have all your support resources together, as this is one of the biggest determinants of success. Oh, and get Grammarly or the like. I am amazed at some of the papers and care plans that students submit. Good grammar, word usage, and spelling are a must.

 

Luckily I took pharmacology already. All I have to take is fundamentals. In fundamentals do they still talk about pharmacology and medications and stuff?

If you have taken Pharmacology, then you should be okay.  In Fundamentals, we cover the administration of medications.  Of course, this is our program.

rob4546 said:

If you have taken Pharmacology, then you should be okay.  In Fundamentals, we cover the administration of medications.  Of course, this is our program.

Okay thank you for your help I appreciate it.

Izzy12 said:

Luckily I took pharmacology already. All I have to take is fundamentals. In fundamentals do they still talk about pharmacology and medications and stuff?

Sorry I have a couple more questions. What's the math like for first semester? Do we learn different math in each semester in nursing school?

Izzy12 said:

Sorry I have a couple more questions. What's the math like for first semester? Do we learn different math in each semester in nursing school?

Medical math and nursing math is not difficult.  Using this math in differing situations is difficult.  Medical math is just addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  We highly suggest all our student take our 1 credit medical math class.  We also expect each student to pass a math exam 3 times, with a 100%, during their education.  Our students take the math exam at the end of their first semester, and every year, there is at least one who does not heed the warning and does not move on.  Take it seriously and move forward.

I strongly urge you to learn some medical terminology.  This will really help in nursing school.  There are a number of online courses and also some nice self-study workbooks on Amazon.  I took a medical terminology class for nursing school and was very glad - it really helped me a great deal.

FullGlass said:

I strongly urge you to learn some medical terminology.  This will really help in nursing school.  There are a number of online courses and also some nice self-study workbooks on Amazon.  I took a medical terminology class for nursing school and was very glad - it really helped me a great deal.

Did taking the medical terminology class help you for your first semester of nursing school?

Izzy12 said:

Did taking the medical terminology class help you for your first semester of nursing school?

Yes, very much.

1.  It made understanding anatomy and pathophysiology much, much easier.  I could figure out the meaning of disease terms usually, w/o having to look them up.  That also made them easier to remember.  You probably know more of these than you think:  gyn for female, etc.

2.  It made learning the meaning of procedures much easier, as well.  Again, you probably know some of these already:  -ectomy means surgical removal, as in vasectomy, hysterectomy, etc.

Most of my classmates really struggled with this throughout nursing school because they lacked the foundational knowledge.  There truly is a "language of medicine" and it is important to learn this language.

Personally, I found it a lot of fun.  It's like being able to figure out a puzzle:  what is the meaning of salpingo-oophorectomy?

It is a surgical procedure that removes one or both ovaries and fallopian tubes. The term is a combination of the words "salpingectomy" (fallopian tube removal) and "oophorectomy" (ovary removal).