Med Surg

RossayRN · May 21, 2009

Well since you don't know where to start i would just start with some of the more common disease like diabetes, cardiac problems, and respiratory problems. Or pick something that interests you and learn about it s well. Our program is broken up into medsurg 1 and 2. 1 consisted of liver disease, diabetes, gallbladder, kidney, musculoskeletal, endocrine (diabetes), iritable bowel sydrome, crohns (regional enteritis), and ulcerative colitis. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Good luck.

Tziganka · May 21, 2009

Thank you for your reply, but I still don't understand; If all I have to do is learn about diseases then how is it different from Patho?

Daytonite, BSN, RN · May 21, 2009

open and copy my critical thinking flow sheet for nursing students and use it to study for this and subsequent classes in your nursing school. pathophysiology is included in what you will study in med/surg along with the nursing interventions. the reason people are overwhelmed with med/surg when first presented with it is because all the information you studied prior to the nursing is now going to be called into use. many people "conveniently" fail to review that information thinking that it is no longer necessary. wrong! you are now going to start answering some important questions. why do those particular symptoms of a specific disease happen and why does the doctor do a particular treatment or order a particular drug? also, you will need to answer why nurses do some particular nursing intervention as opposed to another and the reasoning will have to do with the pathophysiology or perhaps the chemistry or biology involved. if you haven't learned the nursing process yet you will and it becomes a major force in responding to problem solving as an rn. critical thinking and the nursing process are intimately involved and one of the major learning objectives of your entire course. without critical thinking you cannot perform an rns job.

please bookmark this thread which has many useful websites to investigate medical diseases and conditions and their medical treatment: https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/medical-disease-information-258109.html - medical disease information/treatment/procedures/test reference websites. your nursing textbooks will have the nursing care and nursing interventions.

RossayRN · May 21, 2009

Med surg adds the nursing process to the patho and also goes into more dept than in the patho classand you will be in clinical applying it and not just reading about it.

Nursey103, ADN, RN · May 22, 2009

Med surg adds the nursing process to the patho and also goes into more dept than in the patho classand you will be in clinical applying it and not just reading about it.

Exactly. You can read and learn all the patho there is for cirrhosis but in nursing school, you learn how to take care of that person & you need to understand the patho to do that.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · May 22, 2009

You also learn how the physician diagnoses and treats the disease because we also work in collaboration with the physician as well as many other healthcare professionals. RNs are managers of patient care so we have to be aware of what the patient's disease is, how it is treated, what those treatments entail, how to carry some of those treatments out, how to assist in the delivery of some of those treatments, the untoward effect and complications of the treatments and assist the patient in coping with treatment. That is all in addition to our own nursing interventions for the patient's responses to their disease process.