Help! I want to be an NP but A&P is killing me! Should I reconsider?

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Hello All,

I am taking Anatomy & Physiology and frankly, I cannot seem to get the hang of it. I have done incredibly well in all of my other sciences as well as my non-sciences. I do not understand why I am not doing well in Anatomy & Physiology.

Since this is an integral part of being a Nurse Practitioner, should I reconsider my career path or should I just get over this bump as one course should not determine whether or not I should become an NP?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

You have to crawl before you run. You're not even in nursing school yet. Focus on that first, then getting the requisite RN experience to apply to NP school. A&P is rote memorization, so look at how you're studying for it and see if you can try a different approach.

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Specializes in Prior military RN/current ICU RN..

Listen to Username. You are uitting the cart in front of the horse. SLOW down. Focus on the task at hand. One day at a time..one week at a time. No step is more important than any other one. When I was in school I would focus one week at a time. What did I need to do THAT week. I pretty much figured out with hardcore studying I could do well on any test if I had 10 days of solid studying. Stop even thinking about NP. I didn't even talk about graduation. It will get there when it gets there.

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I agree with above. I wouldn't change your life plan off of one class. Talk to your prof & classmates about your struggle. Maybe they have tips. One thing that helped me a ton was Khan Academy.

Khan Academy

They have videos on nearly every concept. If you struggle with a idea or a system - look it up on that site.

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Stop basing your expectations for success on how you did in previous courses. A&P puts everyone on a level playing field.

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Specializes in Critical Care Transport, Cardiac ICU, Rapid.

Nothing new to say from me really. A&P is literally just all memorization and regurgitating that information on the homework, tests, and practicals if you have that. I'm assuming you must not have taken micro yet either since that class also required a bit of memorization. When I took the series I found that people that people who couldn't repeat back what we learned did not do well

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Specializes in Cardiac, Home Health, Primary Care.

Ditto to what the above posters said.

Also consider that it may be that you don't get your professors learning style. There is a lot to anatomy and physiology. I was terrified of the lab over bones and muscles (oh the memorization!). Many have done the class before you and passed and you can too. Just have to find what works for you in terms of studying and additional material (there are many YouTube videos available to help). Perhaps just seeing it/hearing it/reading it in different terms will help.

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Thank you all sooo very much for your kind words and sharing your wisdom with me. I greatly appreciate it.

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