Help Pathophysiology!!

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Nov 8, 2012

Patho is hard. No doubt about it. It is all memory work, and I usually refer to it as learning another language. What helped me was to talk the concepts over with classmates - over and over. If I can tell you how blood flows in and out of the heart then I understand that concept. Good luck!!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2012

You know, if you really know physiology, pathophysiology is a lot easier. My best advice to students is to get the Anatomy Coloring Book and the Physiology Coloring book, available online from your favorite bookseller, free 2-day shipping from Amazon for students. This is not a joke and not a comic book, but a real, good resource that my students said saved their behinds in this class.

Get the hard copy, not the online download or the iPad version, because part of the reason it's so good is because it engages different parts of your brain when you use your colored pencils to help you retain the material.

There are no shortcuts for A&P because it's a big part of being a nurse. It will be an integral part of the critical thinking process; your faculty will expect that you remember it, and this is the first place it's risen up to smack you in the face. it won't be the last. :) . These books will be excellent reference for you when you start seeing real patients. This is unlike any other education you have ever had, trust me. Get the books.

And word to the wise: Anyone in your class or in your faculty can totally identify you, your faculty, and your classmates from your post. Work on disguising things a lot better in AN posts. Don't give your real school or situation. "Sue" and "Beth"? C'mon.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2012

And word to the wise: Anyone in your class or in your faculty can totally identify you, your faculty, and your classmates from your post. Work on disguising things a lot better in AN posts. Don't give your real school or situation. "Sue" and "Beth"? C'mon.

I believe they changed the names

We have 2 teachers, 1 in awesome will call her Beth, and the other one is newish and doesn't really teach she just reads out of the book we will call her Sue.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2012

I know, but my point was that with the descriptions given for them, the pseudonyms won't fool anybody.

nguyency77, CNA · Nov 11, 2012

There are many creative strategies to use in your studying. For complex disease processes, I draw a flow chart. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to make sense. As I go along, I think of possible test questions and note them in my text book or in my notes. I think getting the general idea of how the body functions normally is the key to understanding the abnormalities.

I'm taking some junior level psychology classes and one of my professors does not provide a study guide. Thus, I hear a lot of whining and crying about how it isn't fair, etc. etc. We are all adults here. Why should the professor tell us what's going to be on the test? Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Relying on a study guide is not going to help you do well on a test, let alone even learn the material. Reading the textbook for 10 hours is not studying.

hodgieRN · Nov 11, 2012

Patho is difficult. With anatomy, it's all memorization, but with patho, you have to understand processes and why they happen. It's a totally different ball game. My advice is:

-Study every single day as much as you can.

-Once you have a section down, go to the next one, then go back. If I came back to a previous section and didn't understand it, I knew I still had work to do. It was constant repetition, over and over. Then, when I though I knew the section, I would go about my day and try to recall it. I would be standing in line at the grocery store and try to recall all the normal ranges of electrolytes or all the steps of nerve conduction. If I couldn't couldn't recall a couple steps, I would go back and re-study the section.

-Always review your notes right after class, even if it's for 30 minutes. If you are taught something and then review it that day, you will retain so much more information b/c it's still fresh. If you just review it before a test, you have to re-learn it for the first time.

-On top of normal studying, dedicate every Sunday to studying your notes (for the week) as if you are taking an exam. Even though my next exam was 4 weeks away, I would have a mock cram section for the week. So when I had to take the real exam, I had already engrained it in my head 3 weeks ago. Then, I would constantly go back and review the same thing over and over until it was redundant.

-(you might laugh at this) but when I had to review something that had multiple processes, I would draw it out and talk out loud to myself and pretend I was teaching someone sitting next to me. Ever explained a test question to someone else and suddenly realize something new yourself? If I couldn't explain the pathway of blood through the heart, then I wouldn't be able to do it on an exam. If you can teach it, then you actually understand it.

- Learn the latin terminology of the each word, not the whole title itself. Most people know what meningitis is. Maybe a brain infection? Well, -itis means inflammation and mening- refers to the meninges of the central nervous system. So meningitis is inflammation of the meninges....which is caused by an infection that can not only affect the brain, but the spinal cord, etc. Encephalitis - enceph(al) mean brain...encephalitis is brain inflammation. Thorax means chest, lung and pneumo mean air, gas...pneumothorax means air in thorax aka collapsed lung. Based on this, I bet you can guess what a pneumocephalus is.; So, trying to learn that hydrocephalus (which is fluid (CSF) in the brain b/c hydro means water,fluid) is impossible to just memorize b/c there are thousands and thousands of terms. But if you know hydro.....and cephalus...then you know it. If you see a new word, only look at it in parts. Never try and memorize it.

-If you think you know a process, try and do it backwards or know the opposite You may be able to follow a drop of blood through the heart from the vena cava to the aorta, but can you trace it from the aorta backwards to the vena cava? See if you can trace the formation of a scab back through to the laceration. If you know it backwards, then you know it forwards. The side effects of hypokalemia are usually opposite hyperkalemia.

-Study the pictures in the book. Reading notes and power points may not turn on the light until you see a picture with with all the dissection, arrows, and labels. It's a difference between someone telling you to remember name vs. seeing a name with a face.

-Study over, over, and over. Know the "why" and "how," not just "what."

Good Luck!

FLmed · Nov 11, 2012

Great advice by previous poster. Only thing is that hypokalemia and hyperkalemia have similar side effects.

hodgieRN · Nov 12, 2012

Hypokalemia has loss of smooth muscle tone, skeletal weakness, constipation, intestinal distension, paralytic ilieus, and slowed ventricular repolarization. Hyperkalemia has neuromuscular irritability, intestinal cramping, diarrhea, and rapid ventricular repolarization. Exams will want to know the difference between the two. They both cause arrhythmias or N/V and but these factors are basically opposite of each other and many of lab values or pathological processes work at different ends of the spectrum. Paralysis can be seen in both if you include everything in one basket, but paralysis and apathy is more of a hypokalemic side effect where as paralysis is seen in hyperkalemia when you are close to being dead. Hypokalemia and hyperkalemia don't have similar side for exams sake.

FLmed · Nov 13, 2012

I see your point, but you stated that they are opposites, and that is just not the case since they do have similar side effects. Perhaps a better example would be hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. These would be opposites, with the exception that both can present with goiters. This is of course all in the testing world. I have seen in clinical practice an obese woman with hyperthyroidism who had a slow metabolism. There are always exceptions to the rules.

hodgieRN · Nov 15, 2012

Well, that's why I put usually.

FLmed · Nov 15, 2012

:-). You have a great gift at explaining things and helping others!