Should i already know this

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Am i expected to already know what all these diseases are already. Were they supposed to teach these in A&P or Micro??? i am freaking out because i am reading through my books and in my Med Surge Book there are tons of diseases and i have heard of some, but the others i have no clue about. I'm afraid that i am already supposed to know them. Like Dyspnea i never even head of that until i opened my care plan book. Now i did read a lot of medical journals and living with parents who are Nurse and Doctor i know about a some diseases, but not many.

Specializes in NICU/L&D, Hospice.

My school doesn't require Med Terminology or Pathophysiology. I was in the same boat as you. Our Fundamentals class had a med term quiz, of which they gave us a 9 page study guide of words expected to know. That really helped! Until then, I was a stranger to the terms. I look in my medical dictionary for the words I come across in my texts and write it directly in the book, so when I review I keep learning to associate those terms with the layperson definition. As far as diseases/process, if I don't know it I know that it is my responsibility to learn it. I look on this website, print it out and put it in a notebook A-Z. I love, love, love this website!

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus

If this link doesn't get you to the "medical encyclopedia", take out the /medlineplus part of the link and look on the start page for the encyclopedia. It's a wonderful tool!

Good luck!

babynurselsa, RN

1,129 Posts

Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

First....Take a deep breath. You will find many terms in your nursing textbooks that are unfamiliar. NO you are not expected to know them all beforehand. Usually there is at least a basic explanation in the text, you can also utilize you Medical dictionary, or any number of online resources to get more indepth info. You are going to encounter many words, and terms that are going to be new. I remember my very first clinical I went to get my patient info at the hospital and kept seeing how my patient was SOB. I was a little shocked that they would put THAT in the chart until someone kindly explained that in a medical chart it meant short of breath........

You won't even be expected to know it ALL when you graduate. I am 10 years out and still looking things up all the time.

GOod luck to you.

Tweety, BSN, RN

34,248 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

No you weren't.

A&P is the what the human body is like normally at homeostasis.

You learn what can go wrong and how to take care of it in nursing school.

Daytonite, BSN, RN

1 Article; 14,603 Posts

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

welcome to nursing school, andy! no, you weren't supposed to learn about these diseases in a&p or micro. you learned about the normal anatomy, physiology and microbiology. now, you have to take that information and use it to apply to pathological situations. this is the pathophysiology of diseases. some schools go so far as to now require a class in pathophysiology. my school years ago didn't. it was incorporated into our nursing studies. you need this pathophysiology component, however way you come by it, to help bridge your link and understanding as to "why" the doctors and nurses are doing what they are for the patients. it helps to rationalize why the docs are ordering the tests, drugs and treatments and the nurses are doing the interventions they are doing. this is why there is so much studying to do in nursing school. there is so much to learn!

if you have a medical dictionary, like taber's or mosby's, keep it at your side while you are reading your nursing textbooks. that's what i did (and that was 30+ years ago!) because i ran into the same situation you are finding yourself in. dyspnea will be in the dictionary and defined for you. it's also a term that will become very common to you.

i'm sure you must have seen me post these before, but you can use these sites to get information on diseases.

don't freak out yet. save your freaking out for when you really need the energy for it. just kidding! didn't mean to scare you! :rotfl:

Specializes in Neuro/Med-Surg/Oncology.

Buy a Taber's medical dictionary. I still look a lot of things up. Also, you'll find when you start working that some abbreviations can vary from floor to floor and region to region. Just like anything else, you don't have to know everything, but you have to be able to know where to find it.

tookewlandy

727 Posts

Thank you all so much, whew got worried that i missed out on something from the classes i took ove rthe summer. I have the Mosby's medical dictionary, is it the same as tabers or is one better than the other. My schol doe snot have apathos class but im sure it is worked into the program just liek Pharmacology. I took teh advise and got my Medical dictionary righ tby my side as i read my books and i will have it with me in school in case i hear something in lecture.

tookewlandy

727 Posts

DAYTONITE-- thanks for the website suggestions, that FPNnootebook is a really awesome site, i'll have fun with that!!!!

BoonersmomRN

1,132 Posts

I hear you andy.....you will STILL see stuff you have no idea what it is even AFTER your first semester. I just had to do pheochromocytoma and I was like WTH is THAT? lol. But, I learned. As you go through the systems in Med/Surg you will learn the different diseases/disorders. No, they don't teach it in A+P ( I mean I had heard of SOME but not all).

Mosby's medical dictionary is great. No need to run out and buy a Taber's. They have the same info.

Daytonite, BSN, RN

1 Article; 14,603 Posts

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
DAYTONITE-- thanks for the website suggestions, that FPNnootebook is a really awesome site, i'll have fun with that!!!!

Mosby's Medical Dictionary is good. You're talking about the big one that will break your toe if you drop it on your foot, right? It has some nice pictures in it. Also, take time to look at what is in the appendices in the back. There's a lot of good information there. I haven't gone on the companion website for the book, but I should. There's probably good stuff there too.

I wish Family Practice Notebook had been around when I was in school. It would have made things so much nicer. When you are doing your care plans or even case studies it will have nice guidelines for the various medical diseases of what to look for in patient charts to make sure you haven't missed anything. It's faster to find a disease by using the search box at the top left of their webpages rather than searching through their electronic specialty textbooks.

I bought one of the Pathophysiology books that Lippincott has been hawking these days. What a waste of money that was! They are sending me advertising in the mail just about every other day for something or other. They currently must have about 3 or 4 different pathophysiology books they are hawking. The one I got cost about $70 and it is a joke. I can find way more information in my Pathophysiology textbook by McCance and Heuther. Lippincott also publishes Mosby textbooks. Be careful when buying books from them if you don't know what you are buying.

I keep my Taber's close by while I'm reading and look up medical terms that I'm not familiar with. You might want to make flash cards for these terms if you don't pick this kind of thing up quickly. You'll be suprised when after the third or fourth time you hear or read the term, you'll know it right away.

Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.

Andy, I am in Med/Surg as well. The whole point of med/surg is to start learning about these pathologies I think. Last week we did the cardio system and spent a lot of time on CAD, MIs, etc We have to learn all about the disease, be familiar with the common drugs they use to treat them, and are learning a LOT of terms I am unfamiliar with. I have Tabers and that has really helped me because I don't know these terms. I also look up a lot of stuff online on my own.

We have a case study for each unit (cardio, neuro this week, etc) to do and 10 NCLEX questions to answer (even if we don't know the answers). In Med/Surg clincals I am learning about all sorts of diseases and drugs and labs and procedures I've never heard of in my life....I find it interesting and exciting to learn about all this!

One of the reasons I love the medical field is there is so much interesting stuff to learn and know and do and it is never ending.

I think your doing great!

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