I've had it! Is this normal?

[Ms Kylee]

Anatomy class tonight... 2 chapters on Cardiac. The instructor just breezed through both chapters and pretty much leaving all of us with the deer in the headlight looks.

We told him 3 times to slow down and explain things because we're not getting it/understanding what he's trying to teach, and he kept saying "You'll understand it and it will all make sense when we do vessels tomorrow night".

Now, most of us are pretty smart, and usually don't have much of a problem following.

I just feel like we're being pushed aside and we're not important because we're the part time class, and the only thing they care about is getting the full timers out the door and graduated.

Our class president went to the Director and expressed our concerns about how we're not seeming to get all of the stuff we need (lab time, tutoring, etc), and she was pretty much blown off. Other classmates went to her and explained that they were having trouble with Anatomy and were told that all they had to do to pass the tests was to memorize the objectives in the book.

Is this normal? I'm really this close to throwing in the towel and saying the hell with it, and enrolling in the RN program at my hospital.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

kylee45. . .i guess you've never had the pleasure of having a professor who wrote the textbook you're using like i did. he was even worse. he came into class and asked, "any questions about your reading in the book for today?" if no one asked anything, he was off onto his own agenda. no other questions about the textbook would be answered. and, you couldn't come back in the next class and ask about something from a previous chapter until the day the test review was scheduled. he was a real b*****d. he knew every page and topic in the book. he could tell from any questions he was asked if students had even looked at the material.

had another prof who was deep into some kind of advanced chemical research and had to teach our lower division chemistry class. he thought it was beneath him. he took no questions at all. his lectures seldom covered much of what was in the textbook and a lot that very incidentally sounded like his research. when someone dared to challenge him about his policy about not answering questions in class, they got a tongue-lashing about being college students and it being time to act like them and start doing some study and investigation of the subject on their own.

in my day we had to drag our butts to a library to look these things up. these days, you smart kids have the internet to help you and you can find an immense amount of supplemental information to assist you in learning from your desk at home. there is an anatomy sticky on the pre-nursing student forum that has anatomy & physiology weblinks in it. there are a lot of websites with cardiology information on them. a good number of college science departments have put some of their anatomy resources on the internet. the more and varied information you read, the more you're going to understand. the heart and the way it functions is very complex.

• http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio202/cyberheart/cardio.htm - cyberheart - tutorials for basic heart anatomy, physiology and ekgs
  
• http://cvphysiology.com/index.html - review of cardiovascular physiology
  
• http://www.guidant.com/condition/heart/heart_bloodflow.shtml - diagrams of blood flow through the heart
  http://www.guidant.com/physician/media/animation.shtml - links to animation of the circulatory system, heart, heart chambers, heart valves, and the electrical system
  
• http://www.tmc.edu/thi/anatomy.html - anatomy of the human heart from the texas heart institute - includes information on the heartbeat, heart valves, the conduction system, the coronary arteries and the circulatory system
  
• https://medschool.mc.vanderbilt.edu/mpb/medphysiology/week5/vascular.2.pdf - an explanation of cardiac output from vanderbilt medical center

[Ms Kylee]

Thanks, everyone... just chalk it up to PMS last night... I really do love my instructor.. he really is great... but this stuff is just a bit beyond me right now. However, I will say that I DO study... at least 2 hours a day, sometimes more, and the program inisists on no more than 90 minutes a day. However, that's not enough time to do my reading assignments, so I usually ignore that. I also preread the chapters before lecture so I can at least try to make sense of what is being said. I've just always had trouble with cardiac, all through health class in school. Didn't cover it in Biology, and not in my original BS degree. Maybe it will make more sense after tonight's lecture. I don't know. I'm just stressed, PMSing, and want about 200# of chocolate right now. And I really wish I would have recorded that Bayer Asprin commercial jingle from a couple of years ago that Anson Williams sang.... all I can remember is "The right atrium is where the process begins when the CO2 blood enters the heart".... Oy....

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

If the instructor won't spoonfeed you, then just learn it yourself.

Read before class, then when you go to class, you won't be lost.

Then review after class. Then join a study group, look things up online, look at other reference books, get Made incredibly easy books.

Spending time complaining or be upset with the teacher never helps, but being proactive will help everytime.

[amyk_ncsu]

Pardon my sheltered existance, by what is a gamecock? Sounds violent to me.

University of South Carolina Gamecocks :)

oops, 2nd page already... back to the topic!!!

[studentADAM]

I was a student instructor for a&p for a year, both teachers i worked with had their quarks...

[Michelle123]

Adult learning at college is different from learning at High School and it can be difficult to get used to even if you left high school 10 years ago. The emphasis is on self- directed study and the learning(or at least reading) of the material before you go into the classroom. At higher levels of education, it really is up to the student to do the ground work themselves and not be 'spoon-fed'. Now, this isn't very useful when you are having problems grasping a subject but as Luvmygamecocks(great name!) said, the best thing to do is join a study group. and make sure that you do the ground work.

I'm just jumping in here without reading the rest of the thread but I totally agree and it has taken me almost 18 months to figure it out. There are about 9 of us who have started a study group and we just go over everything again and again and ask questions etc, now coming up to exams we give each other topics and we research it and present it to the rest of the group the next day. I am finding the study group really helpful and feel that I have learnt more in the 2-3 weeks that I have been participating in it than in the 7 weeks of tutorials that we have had.

I don't think there is a difference in the way that this stuff is taught anywhere as we all seem to be having the same problems, but once you get the hang of going over the stuff on your own in a group, it gets easier to study. The material doesn't get easier, but the method of study will. Each person will bring something different and will have different knowledge. But hang in there and don't give up!

[Ms Kylee]

Well, the test was last night.. and I got a 93. Tonight is the start of clinicals, and I managed to get lucky and was able to switch to my favorite instructor and his site. We were asked for a volunteer, and my hand shot up so fast, I am still surprised that I have a socket left.

And today, I passed my work clinical for my Nursing Assistant class, so all I have to do is pass the final tomorrow morning.

[clementine1027]

I feel your pain. I completed A&P 1 and 2 this past year and it was the hardest class for me. It was the only class I was taking at the time. I considered myself a fairly intelligent person, but felt so stupid. Our instructor went very fast, and offered no help. Tests had 4 or 5 essay questions. Quizzes almost every week. More than half the class dropped out, we went from 24 to 11 students quickly. I considered dropping out too, but hung on. It had been a long time since I graduated from high school. I had my daughters high school biology teacher tutor me when she could. I studied all the time. I bought the a&p coloring book and used that when I could. I think the stress of taking the course can actually make it harder to learn. A person can feel panicked. One woman in the class developed shingles from stress the first week! I woried about passing. I did poorly on the tests, but did very well on the practicals. This is what saved me for a&P 1.

A&P 2 was better b/c I had a wonderful teacher who gave us typed handouts. We only had to follow along with her slides, which were the handouts, and highlight the book. She was a good instructor, easy to follow. She gave extra help, as well as many extra credit questions which was a huge help bringing up a test grade. I also had a wonderful study partner this time which helped me a lot. I still had to study as though my life depended on it, though. I still worried about passing.

For a&p 2 my grade was much better. My advice to you is to hang in there. Do your best, find someone to help you, believe in yourself. This is no reflection of you. This will pass. Another thing, in the hospital, I have never heard of anyone talking about neuromuscular junction, the krebs cycle or endochondrial ossification. Those are things we have to deal with in school. Please don't despair and write again if you need comfort.

Clementine1027

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

. . .in the hospital, i have never heard of anyone talking about neuromuscular junction, the krebs cycle or endochondrial ossification. those are things we have to deal with in school.

i don't know how long you have been an lpn or how frequently and routinely you read patient histories and physicals or procedure reports, but these terms are going to show up on these reports (maybe not the krebs cycle so much). knowing what they are and how they are contributing to a disease process is important to know. it affects the treatment a patient is getting. this is why pre-requisites include taking these classes. you deal with this stuff in school so you don't have to take the time out of your busy workdays later to look the importance of them up. as students you need to keep your minds open and trust nursing educators as to why you are being asked to learn these things. if if weren't important to learn these things, don't you think nursing educators would have dropped these classes from the curriculums long ago as they are trying to crank out well-trained nurses as fast as they can to meet the shortage?

[CRNA2BKY]

Unfortunately, there will always be bad teachers out there. And, I have never seen the administration side with the students instead of the teacher. The teacher is part of the team, and in most instances, the other administraters will back the teammember (not in all cases, but most of the time.) This is just an unfortunate reality of our school systems. So, what is the solution? Well, you have to make a decision. You can drop the class (perhaps) and take it another semester with another teacher (possibly at another school), or you can just accept the challenge and get through it the best you can, and move on with your life. I have learned to fight battles that I can either win or make a difference in. Unfortunately, this is the type of battle that just can't be won. Do your best you can and if needed, get a tutor (many schools offer a free tutoring center) to help you. That way, you can learn the material, pass the class, and move on. Best of luck with your class.

[KyPinkRN]

Pardon my sheltered existance, by what is a gamecock? Sounds violent to me.

It is a college mascot... I believe the University of South Carolina

Also a gamecock is a bird... like the bird in Snoopie.

[Ms Kylee]

Well, guess what... it all did make sense the next night when we did the vessels. And I managed to get a 95 on the test for that unit. I have a 95% going into the final on the 23rd.

Everyone in class is stressing about the final, and last night in clinical, my instructor offered the following words of encouragement. First, the school is there to make money, and it isn't in their best interests to create a final that most everyone wouldn't pass. He then said that we were the best clinical group that he has had, and that he doesn't think any one of us in this clinical group will fail. We were then told that those who would have most likely failed the final have already resigned from the program. It's kind of a weird feeling that even if I do bomb the final, I will still pass the class. I've never been in that siituation before.