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Discussion

How much do I need to know..

Hi everyone. I am in my pre clincal courses right now, and am due to start clinicals next Spring (wooohooo) I have taken Anatomy (B) and I am currently in Microbiology (will have an A or B).

I just feel so overwhelmed by the classes. And half the time I feel like I haven't learned a thing. Even though my grades are decent, I know by the time I start clinicals I won't remember a bit of all this stuff.

I just wanted to ask the nurses how critical is retention of aspects of anatomy, physiology, and microbiology ..Or do I learn the stuff I really need to know in clinicals?

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  • Experts

It is not unusual to feel this way, particularly since you are being exposed to these subjects for the very first time. Don't throw your textbooks or class notes away. What will happen is that when you get into your nursing classes you will begin studying about many different medical diseases. Part of that will involve reviewing the normal anatomy and physiology of the organ or body system(s) involved. No one expects you to recall all the information. However, you will be expected to know where to go to find this information. Over the years as you see many different patients and mentally review in your mind what is going on behind their disease (pathophysiology) it all starts to make more and more sense. Critical thinking, a term you will hear a lot in nursing school, is pulling together all this scientific information and merging it with medical treatment and nursing care to justify and rationalize WHY the doctors and nurses are doing what they are doing to treat the patient. You'll see. You haven't gotten to that part of it all yet. Just keep hanging in there and doing your best. Concentrate on getting the best grade in these courses that you can get because it may affect your acceptance into nursing school. If we all had photographic memories and could recall this stuff instantaneously after one reading we would be heading up NASA sending rockets to the moon or sitting next to world leaders advising them! Most of us aren't operating at that level of genius! :lol2:

  • Author

LOL Thanks for the reply.I feel alot better now. I have been saving my books because my grandma was an LPN and she said I would definately need them to refer back to. Though she is retired, she still pulls them out all the time to explain something to me, and she tries to stay current on the changes going on in the field.

She told me she just got a job offer the other day..She's 80!!! :lol2: (is the nurse shortage THAT bad???) One of the RN's who worked with her a few years ago recomended her. She was tickled pink, and we got a good laugh about it. But of course she is going to stay happily in retirement. Though she is a strong healthy OX of a woman, she was just getting every virus the patients had, and she needed to take care of my grandpa.

if your not doing anything this summer and you old instructor is teaching a class that you feel like you need a brush up on they might let you sit in on the class without paying for it. I did it for physiology and dosage just because it had been so long inbetween taking the class and actually getting into the program. There is no pressure either since you already passed the class and they most likely wont have you take any exams. Go right to the professor and ask THEM. dont bother with the registrar's office they will make you pay for it again. It helped me

  • Author

I have to take my first nursing class over the summer..and two others so I don't have an open slot for it :(

I think I am just going to go through all of my notes. I take notes like a fiend. :)

Im so glad I came across this because I dont remember anything. I know I can recall it after hearing it again but I was still scared!!

Know the physiology. That'll make nursing so much easier. If you've got that down the rest of it is pretty much obvious. The anatomy is really just kind of a nice to know thing, and micro is...well...mostly pointless. Gram stains, shapes (bacillus, coccus, spirillum), and just knowing the names of common pathogenic bacteria is about all you'd need. The more education you have the better but with everything you've said physio is the handiest, yet there are people passing nursing classes I'm in that don't know squat about physiology. Of course, they have to study a lot and try to make up for it.

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