I am ashamed in myself

[KariT]

Hi everyone!

I passed A&P 1 with a A and A&P II with a B. Although I don't feel like I have learned anything in A&P II because I barely studied for it and just kept guessing on the exams and it help that my teacher kept adding a 15 point curve to each exam (test average was usually 54%-67%). I scored a 75 on all my exams without the curve (except for th final).

My final exam in that class (digestive system) I did not study for it at all because it was take home and all I did was Google the answers and ended up with a B with no curve which boosted up my final grade to a high B (89%).

Same for lab, I only attended maybe 5/16 labs because attendance was not mandatory. All I did was copy from my friends labs and studied those then took the lab exams. I ended with an A in lab as a final grade as it was really easy to get.

So as you can see, I just don't feel prepared to start nursing school without much background in A&P II even though I took it this spring semester which I am ashamed of.

Same goes for my medical terminology class, I received an A but since it was online I never once studied for it but just googled all the answers and got help from my sister who was a medical assistant on some problems. This is why I absolutely HATE online classes because I never take them seriously or put any effort in them.

How bad will this affect me in nursing school? I was a 4.0 student but my GPA went down to a 3.84 this semester. I took these classes at my state university. Thanks.

[kkbb, BSN, RN]

^^^^^^THIS!!!

It doesn't matter how the teacher grades, or if it is at a liberal arts school. Your dedication to learning the material is all on you. And I have seen students pass nursing classes that maybe shouldn't have. But here is the thing, at the end of all of this YOU and you alone will have to take the NCLEX. If people take the easy way out of school then they are only cheating themselves.

Think of it like this...why spend ALL that money to earn your degree and to take the NCLEX if you are not going to be able to actually PASS it? If being a nurse is really what you want, then you need to put in the effort. And for the record, my text books for adult health included sections on A&P for review if we needed it. We just didn't go over it in lecture. Learn from your past and change your future!!

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

I don't think it is that serious. Just study harder, and you will be fine going ahead.

[shan_elle]

I'm really surprised that so many people think having a weak A&P knowledge base is acceptable. A&P is so important and provides the foundation for understanding many of the nursing interventions you will provide. I've even had an ED physician tell me that understanding A&P is one of the most crucial things for healthcare providers. The nursing program is much more difficult than pre-reqs and can be challenging to get through even if you are genuinely interested in the material and intrinsically motivated. Without strong A&P knowledge you will surely struggle in pathophysiology and pharmacology, but without motivation you will struggle throughout the entire program. You should also keep in mind that we aren't just learning things for our own sake or to jump through hoops. We are learning things to help our future patients and potentially save their lives.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

Physiology is going to be important the further you go on through nursing school. How are you going to understand how heart disease affects the patient and what ways this manifests itself when you don't understand how blood pumps through the heart? What are you going to see with right-sided vs. left-sided heart failure? How will looking at arterial blood gas results tell you your patient is being ventilated if you don't know the difference between respiratory acidosis and metabolic? If you have aspirations of being in the ICU, ER or trauma specialties, you really need a firm grasp of physiological concepts in order for you to think critically.

Time & time again, I've see the students who struggle the most in nursing school are the ones who barely passed physiology (or passed on curved grades). If your school offers supplemental instruction for physiology, go to a few sessions. Especially know heart, lungs & kidneys backwards and forwards.

I don't know what your program was like, but the one I went to expected you to have a thorough baseline knowledge of A&P and they did NOT do any review in class. You were expected to refresh your own knowledge before the unit began.

[/username, BSN, RN]

Are you going to copy your classmate's answers when you're taking care of patients?

[tcvnurse, BSN, RN]

Your original post is one of the most frightening things I've read on here, ever. Your lackadaisical attitude toward the most important fundamental classes for nursing is shocking. What exactly did you think was going to be the outcome? Did you think that A&P is a fluffier class? Do you understand the point of learning all that stuff is so you can understand all the disease processes in order to catch patients while they are cycling the drain but BEFORE they die?

I mean.

You will not survive nursing school. And that is probably a good thing.

[/username, BSN, RN]

Your original post is one of the most frightening things I've read on here, ever. Your lackadaisical attitude toward the most important fundamental classes for nursing is shocking. What exactly did you think was going to be the outcome? Did you think that A&P is a fluffier class? Do you understand the point of learning all that stuff is so you can understand all the disease processes in order to catch patients while they are cycling the drain but BEFORE they die?

I mean.

You will not survive nursing school. And that is probably a good thing.

I'm surprised that they weren't kicked out, tbh. Most schools have an academic integrity clause that prohibits cheating.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Wow....I am old school and when I read stuff like this it just boggles my mind. Taking the easy route will not help you in the long run. A and P are very important in nursing. YOu need to have a good working knowledge of physiology to safely care for your patient. I would be careful about the short cuts you took for many schools have rules about testing in online classes and consider googling as cheating. If they don't....I would regard that school under par.

These habits will NOT! sustain you in nursing school. Change your habits now and remember that you are taking care of real people and they depend on you...((HUGS))

[NurseKait_11, BSN, RN]

I have to say that this post was a little frightening to read.

Nursing school is a very different type of class and test. Having a solid foundation in A&P is super important for med-surge and pathopharmocology. Nursing test questions are all about application and safety. Most of it is not straight memorization and just learning facts, it's how to apply what you have learned to a patient situation and consider what will be the best answer that is safe for the patient. Copying answers will absolutely do you NO good whatsoever in nursing school. If you copy and google answers, sure it might get you good grades, but when it comes to tests and the NCLEX, you will have NO idea how to rationalize the best answer because you never learned correctly how to answer an NCLEX style question on your own in the first place.

My suggestion would be to completely change your "study" habits if you get into nursing school and independently take charge of your own studying. Don't rely on other people to get answers from, rather form study groups and study with them. Go to labs and simulations since they probably won't be optional and really take all opportunities to practice and learns skills and content. It's important when you have NCLEX style questions to learn to rationalize and prioritize so your able to pass class tests and ultimately the NCLEX. Teachers in nursing school will not be as lenient as your A&P teacher has been.

[TriChick]

I'm thankful to see some of the later comments. I was worried I was the only one reading the post thinking "this is the definition of cheating". If I had any even REMOTELY identifiable information in any of my previous posts, I probably would not be publicly admitting that I cheated my way through some of my pre-reqs.

Edit to add: I know my post sounds harsh. I don't mean for it to be mean, rather honest and hopefully helpful in "dose of reality" way. In the schools I've attended (as well as online courses), copying my friend's lab assignment would have likely sent me to an Academic Review Board and resulted in subsequent dismissal from the school had I been caught.

[babychickens]

As a student reading these replies I was prompted to go back to the original question asked by the poster. Yes... they made poor decisions, maybe even decisions most of us wouldn't have made, but how many of us didn't get serious about our education until something smacked us in the face and forced us to? Some might even say they had a "come to Jesus" moment. This poster asked if they could move on from these decisions, not how we felt about them morally. Many times nursing students, myself included at times, have felt they didn't deserve to be where they are due to the difficulty of nursing school or the pressure; hence the suggestion to let go of old guilt. If this poster has decided to learn from their mistakes and do better, carrying that burden around will perpetuate feelings of inadequacy. IMO that's how a fellow nursing student supports another. Especially anonymously. We are all in this together. We are all human.

[/username, BSN, RN]

As a student reading these replies I was prompted to go back to the original question asked by the poster. Yes... they made poor decisions, maybe even decisions most of us wouldn't have made, but how many of us didn't get serious about our education until something smacked us in the face and forced us to? Some might even say they had a "come to Jesus" moment. This poster asked if they could move on from these decisions, not how we felt about them morally. Many times nursing students, myself included at times, have felt they didn't deserve to be where they are due to the difficulty of nursing school or the pressure; hence the suggestion to let go of old guilt. If this poster has decided to learn from their mistakes and do better, carrying that burden around will perpetuate feelings of inadequacy. IMO that's how a fellow nursing student supports another. Especially anonymously. We are all in this together. We are all human.

Cheating and dishonesty has no place in healthcare. We have no obligation whatsoever to either normalize this behavior or to make OP feel good about this behavior.