How into detail do nursing studies go?

allnurses Guide · Jun 9, 2012

You will be expected to memorize all of those for A&P.

Later, when you are in the nursing program, you will build on top of that knowledge as it applies to a nurse.

country73 · Jun 9, 2012

You do go into a lot of detail during nursing school. I assume you have not taken A&P because you mentioned bones. I just want to let you know from personal experience my teacher expected us to know every bone and muscle. It seems over whelming, but honestly that was one of the easiest chapters in A&P for me, because its just memorization. I am a visual learner so I really enjoyed Youtube. There are tons of videos going over some of the exact same models, and charts you will be tested on. Here is a link to just one of those videos.

Hope this helps, just remember to take it one test at a time, otherwise you will get to overwhelmed. Good Luck! Make sure you study hard :)

Altra, BSN, RN · Jun 9, 2012

There's no where clear on the internet that actually explains what we will be taught in classes. It's always vague so I've got nothing to go off

Did you consider a non-internet source of information, such as a course catalog or admissions information from a school in your area?

lilliben1 · Jun 9, 2012

Not only did we have to learn every bone in the body, we had to learn every notch, every part that sticks out, every hole, etc. For muscles we had to memorize what/where they attached to and inserted to. Needless to say I'm retaking that class lol. :uhoh3:

MattNurse, MSN, RN · Jun 9, 2012

It's not like you have to memorize 206 different bones, there are 206 total bones but many are repeats. It is rather easy because you have 10 fingers (fingers have 3 bones each) and 10 toes, 2 femurs, 2 radius, 2 ulna, etc etc. 106 of the bones are in the hands and feet combined. It really is not that bad when you think of it that way, same with muscles.

And you don't have to learn it overnight either, from prereqs to finishing school will probably be like 4 years.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jun 9, 2012

there are general objectives for every nursing school, but there is no one overarching curriculum that every school uses. that's why you can't find one.

you can go to the website of a given school and you might be able to see the list of courses required for the nursing major and its prerequisites, and that will help you. you will have to take anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, chemistry, microbiology, and math in addition to the nursing courses per se and any distribution requirements (english, history, sociology, psychology, etc) that your college requires for a degree.

and never, never rely on the internet for your main educational support if/when you go to nursing school. you won't have time to be online. it's, like, books, reading, studying, memorizing, repetition. true that.

vwgirl22 · Jun 9, 2012

Like the others said, anatomy and physiology is a prerequisite to nursing school and there is tons of memorization involved. Things you can expect to learn once in a nursing program (where all your classes ar NURS 100, 101, 102, etc..) include: assessment- head to toe and specific body systems, fundamentals- basic nursing care, medical-surgical nursing- you will learn about ALL the common diseases that affect each body system-cardiac, renal, respiratory, neuro etc (this is where remembering A&P comes in handy), Psychiatric nursing, pediatric, nursing, labor and delivery...Another HUGE part of nursing school is learning pathophysiology and pharmacology. You will likely learn this by each system- for example you will learn about specific respiratory diseases (whats going on at the cellular and tissue level= physiology) in addition to what medications are used to treat the diseases (pharmacology). Pharmacology can be very challenging because you need to know the action, indications, uses, side effects and nursing interventions for A LOT of meds (hundreds and hundreds). You will have a corresponding clinical to most classes. This is where you will get to practice what you are learning in class. In clinicals, you will be in a hospital working with real patients but you will always be under the supervision of a nurse/your clinical instructor. For clinicals, you will have to write care plans that outline every detail about your patient, their condition and what nursing actions you will do. It sound like a lot of stuff, AND IT IS, but the good thing is you learn it all over time and one thing builds on the next and so on. If you can make it through the first year, then you can do it. The first year is hard cuz nothing seems to make sense but as you go on through the program things will come together and you will see the bigger picture. I hope this helps give you an idea about what nursing school is like!

RNGriffin · Jun 10, 2012

Each individual course will be more informative than looking up nursing school information collectively.

Muscles & Bones are learned in A&P I, along with the physiological study of nursing and bones. You will learn conversions of medications, Basic Chemistry, Cell Biology, how nerve impulses are transmitted, cardiology( study of the heart), respiratory functions, digestive functions..etc. over all how these systems correlate to one another.

In nursing courses, you will begin to apply the acquired knowledge from your A&P I and II courses to nursing skills. You will learn how to recognize which disease is related to say for instance, you have a elevated amount of esinophils(leukocyte) in the blood, what diagnosis should you be looking for and what treatment you should render...

ex: if a kid comes in with a temp. reading 101.5, is it best to tell the parent to monitor the fever or should this be an emergency admit...

Nursing school is too broad to be condensed into a syllabus!

leenak · Jun 10, 2012

Like others said, it sounds like you are describing the pre-requisite classes like A&P. Learning 206 bones and the muscles sounds intimidating at first but it really isn't that bad. I found a site that mirrors my A&P class pretty well in terms of material:

Anatomy & Physiology

Not only would you need to know the bones, you'd need to know parts of the bone and their names too. Some bones had 10 or more things to remember about the 1 bone itself. Again, it sounds intimidating but it isn't bad.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jun 10, 2012

Not only did we have to learn every bone in the body, we had to learn every notch, every part that sticks out, every hole, etc. For muscles we had to memorize what/where they attached to and inserted to. Needless to say I'm retaking that class lol.

We didnt have to go that in depth until Advanced Anatomy w/ cadaver lab. One of the most fun classes I ever took.

Stephalump · Jun 10, 2012

Same as most people...every bone, every part of every bone, every muscle and attaching point, every nerve, every blood vessel. We dissected cats and had to identify the anatomical parts that way.