I am in the process of taking the prerequisites for an Accelerated BSN program. I have done very well (4.0) in A&P, Micro, Psych and all the other miscellaneous prerequisites, but now I am taking general Chemistry, and it is killing me. I understand the lectures and even find them very interesting. The theories all make sense to me, and the application of their basic formulas is simple. The problem is, our exams are 100% calculations-based. I am not talking simple calculations, but the kind that take up a few 8 1/2 x 11 sheets to complete. This is an 8-week, 5-credit course and I have taken three of the four exams. Up until this last one I have had a B, but I failed the last exam so miserably that I am now getting a C. Now, the best I can hope for is to make it through this class with a C. If I bomb the final like I bombed this last exam, a "C" would be a gift. This is the only time in my life that I would be happy to get a "C" in a class.
I will admit that A "C" hurts my ego more than it does my GPA, especially considering the amount of time I have spent trying to master the material. Each day's homework takes at least two hours to complete, plus pre- and post-lab calculations, and general studying along with that. (It doesn't just take ME this long to do the homework, etc - most of the students spend several hours a day doing the work for this class.) I do know how to study. I know how to work all the formulas and do the conversions on an indivudual basis, and even the stoichiometry is not a problem. But I bombed the last exam because I could not figure out how to apply four or five formulas in the correct order to come up with the right answers. I have gone to tutors and done my best, but I am finding this part of the class impossible.
I know that, in the grand scheme of things, my grade in one class is not going to matter. What I'm more concerned with is whether or not my lack of understanding of how to apply chemical formulas is going to impact my future as a nurse. Just to be clear, I do not have a problem with math. It's just the application of multiple formulas that is giving me such grief!!!!
I cannot spend any more time studying, or less time doing homework, or less time sleeping. Even working with a tutor isn't helping because it all makes perfect sense when someone explains it. I feel like a failure and I am even more upset because I have never worked so hard and not seen the results.
More than anything I guess I just needed to vent, but I would appreciate it if the nurses out there could give me some insight as to how my problems in chemistry might (or might not) impair my ability to do my job as a nurse, or to get accepted for higher-level study (advanced practice or MSN). Please help!!!!
But, I guess if everything was easy, everyone around here would just get their BSN instead of waiting several years to get into an ADN program!!! Believe me, I would have LOVED to avoid taking these chemistry classes. I can't help but think that if they were vital knowledge, they would also be required coursework for the ADN, since we'll all be doing the same work when we graduate!!!!!
Chemistry was a requirement in my ADN program. Guess it depends where you are.
Sincere apology!!!!! It's not required at for the CC program where I'm doing these prereqs.
LOL
No problem... I was just taken aback a bit.
Keep in mind I'm an old lady, so maybe things have changed in the past 20 years. Back then, we were required to have pretty much the same science courses (chem, micro, A/P, pathophysiology, etc., along with soc, psych, abnormal psych, child development, speech, composition and writing classes... there were many more requirements, but I'm having a brain farct)
Uh. Excuse me. I have an Associates' and I most certainly was required to take chemistry classes.
It's interesting that different nursing programs sometimes have different chemistry requirements. We tend to assume that whatever info we have pertains to all programs. Sometimes that's true but other times it isn't. Some programs don't require any chem courses to apply, some require a "chem for nursing" or "chem for allied health" course, some require 1 term of gen chem, some require a year, etc.
They took my high school chemistry as the pre-req to my ADN program, but others who had not taken it in high school had to take it as a pre-req. 15 years later I needed college chemistry to get my BSN at my preferred school. There was hardly any point in that. But I did make an A. :)
Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
It's interesting that different nursing programs sometimes have different chemistry requirements. We tend to assume that whatever info we have pertains to all programs. Sometimes that's true but other times it isn't. Some programs don't require any chem courses to apply, some require a "chem for nursing" or "chem for allied health" course, some require 1 term of gen chem, some require a year, etc.
My diploma program required inorganic and organic chemistry, my two year program did not. My BSN required both. My two year program was one of the very true two year programs. There were no pre-reqs, only co-reqs. You either passedall your courses and clinicals or you dropped out and repeated the nursing class you failed. It was the nursing classes that got most of my fellow students.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
i know that, in the grand scheme of things, my grade in one class is not going to matter. what i'm more concerned with is whether or not my lack of understanding of how to apply chemical formulas is going to impact my future as a nurse. just to be clear, i do not have a problem with math. it's just the application of multiple formulas that is giving me such grief!!!!
i cannot spend any more time studying, or less time doing homework, or less time sleeping. even working with a tutor isn't helping because it all makes perfect sense when someone explains it. i feel like a failure and i am even more upset because i have never worked so hard and not seen the results.
more than anything i guess i just needed to vent, but i would appreciate it if the nurses out there could give me some insight as to how my problems in chemistry might (or might not) impair my ability to do my job as a nurse, or to get accepted for higher-level study (advanced practice or msn). please help!!!!
there are a couple of concepts that i believe you are intertwining here that need to be looked at separately.
getting training and a license in nursing and a bachelor's degree are two very different things. if you only want to be a nurse, you can do that any number of ways. you chose to go by way of picking up a bachelor's degree along with it.
a bachelor's degree is harder to get than an associate's degree and you will have to work harder for it.
when i was in my bachelor's program i often shot the breeze with a professor (this guy was a full phd) mentor. he was so patient and listened to my needling about why i had to take this course or that course and what possible importance it had to nursing--and i already had an rn and was in a bsn completion program. finally, he patiently explained to me that one of the purposes of completing a bachelor's degree is to show that you can be put through the paces of doing the work required. that's what all those term papers, research projects and long, long pages of calculations in chemistry (i took a course in symbolic logic!) are about. when you get your bachelor's degree, believe me, if someone gives you a set of instructions and a goal to accomplish, you will have a pretty good idea of how to go about it because you had lots of practice doing that in getting your bachelor's degree.
this application of instructions to reach a goal does have a much more practical purpose in nursing. nursing students and those who already have been through nursing school will gladly give you their opinion about critical thinking and the nursing process--something that you will be expected to have started to get some mastery over by the time you finish nursing school. it involves applying, not chemical formulas, but knowledge you have learned in a number of different scientific disciplines (biology, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, microbiology, pathophysiology, psychology, sociology, nursing) with medical and nursing knowledge to come up with treatment strategies that will benefit patients. what we do for each patient is often customized for each patient and requires the ability to think through a heap of information about them as well as apply all the knowledge we possess to come up with likely solutions. so, what you are doing in these pre-requisite classes, while teaching you some facts you will need to know, is preparing you to be able to think and process information. healthcare workers in lesser positions than rns do not learn this to the degree you are being taught it. when you graduate with your bachelor's degree, you are going to be better prepared to think and make decisions. as well, you will be a nurse. an rn is a leader and supervisor. i was told this over and over and over. leaders must be able to process information in a systematic way and make decisions in order to solve problems. if you want to be just a nurse and take care of people's physical needs at the time of their illness, go to lpn school or be a cna (no offense meant to lpns or cnas). but, you as an rn/bsn will be expected to perform at a much higher standard by virtue of the training you are receiving--and, i might add, that you are paying for.
keep working at your chemistry. i was a chemistry major at one time. i know how difficult these calculations can be. however, learning dimensional analysis is going to be immensely helpful to you when you have to do drug calculation problems in nursing school. look at some of the examples of this on this thread (https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/dosage-calculations-88867.html). so, i'm telling you to hang in there and just keep on keeping your head above water. when it's all over, it will make a lot more sense to you when you get to see the bigger picture. it is also helpful to take your chemistry problems and turn one term into the unknown and rework these problems just to get the practice of doing them. they are, after all, mostly math with some chemical principles applied to them. you're going to be doing the same thing with drug calculation problems in nursing. i had one chemistry professor who wrote our chemistry textbook (wasn't that lucky?). he alternated our tests--one would be all information strictly from the book; the next would be totally mathematical formulas. sometimes we had to know the formula of the reaction and sometimes we were given the formula. higher chemistry is almost all mathematical. instructors in universities generically prepare students for higher levels of chemistry classes. this is just the way the university system works. you'll find similar things going on in your upper division nursing classes as well when you get assignments to give you a taste of what lies ahead of you in a master's or doctorate program of nursing.
I do already have a bachelor's degree and I was one class and a thesis away from a master's degree in management when I decided I no longer wanted to work in corporate finance. I know all about taking classes just to "learn how to think!!!!!"
I didn't think this would be easy, but I also didn't think I would ever see the day that I couldn't conquer something if I really tried my hardest.
I have aced almost every class I have ever taken. There is just something about this part of chemistry that my mind can't process! I don't know why I can get an A+ in a graduate level research course or A&P, where the rest of the class really has to struggle, but I look at a page of high-level chemistry problems and, to me, it looks like it's written in Japanese! If there were something besides these calculations on our exams, I would be doing fine.
Now I have to study, which I am beginning to fear is an exercise in futility.
"however, learning dimensional analysis is going to be immensely helpful to you when you have to do drug calculation problems in nursing school. look at some of the examples of this on this thread (https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/dosage-calculations-88867.html)."
i did look at this link - thanks! i am happy to see that these calculations are basically stoichiometry, which i have no problem with!!!! i am feeling better... at least about having to do those types of calculations some day!!!!
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Well, I am an LPN that graduated from a program that offers a bridge to the RN; we had to take most of the same pre-requisites as the RNs with the exception of chemistry. I did attempt to take the class, not because I wanted to eventually become an RN, but for the heck of it, basically, and that I had the opportunity to take the class with the best chemistry instructor at the school. Most people walk out of his class with at least Bs from what I heard. I took the class for three weeks before I dropped it like a hot potato because it was horrid to me and I really didn't see the connection between chemistry and nursing. The professor was willing to work with the students that did poorly by giving take home assignments, but I didn't see the reason to waste time busting brain cells for something that wouldn't matter to my daily practice. I asked most of the nurses (RNs)I know and they all told me that chemistry never applied to their jobs, or their nursing programs. And, there are other programs that didn't require chemistry (mostly associate degree programs). It never showed up on NCLEX, or daily practice. I don't plan to become an RN, so, it REALLY didn't matter to me.
I think I would have made the effort to understand it if it did impact on nursing or if I was able to make a correlation between nursing and the need for chemistry. An explanation of how it mattered would have helped me a bit, but never received it.
It is unfortunate, but, if this is part of the program, I guess you have to find a way to cope with it and pass the course. It sucks lemons to me, though.
I am not downtalking chemistry for those that really gained much from it, or maybe it bridged some understanding to things for them, but, if I had a motion for those that are aiming to be RNs, I say to rid them of the headache.
took 4 quarters of chem. I've found it very useful. Acid base- ekg, understanding chem changes in the body. etc. Hang in there, it will get better. Remember, the real test comes when your at the bed side of critical pt and your thinking through what's happening. You'll see how many of your classes tie in together.
EGKB
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Sincere apology!!!!! It's not required at for the CC program where I'm doing these prereqs.