Medical terminology or not?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hello everyone I start prereqs this month for nursing school! Yay! I had originally planned to do a one semester EMT program first so I signed up for medical terminology which was a prereq for EMT, but I have now opted out of EMT and medical terminology is not required for nursing. I'm sure I really do need medical terminology but I also want to work on prereqs that I will need for the BSN way down the line. So my question is will medical terminology make my nursing school career and future nursing career a lot easier or should I let it go. I am allowed to drop six courses at my community college but I don't really want to. I do however know I don't want to clog up my time I could be using for the courses I MUST HAVE! Any advice would be great and thank you in advance!

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Yes. IMHO extra term will be helpful. Especially if you want to work in ER

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I would let it go. I took a medical terminology class before the rest of my pre reqs, and I honestly believe you'll learn what you need to know through your other classes, depending on the teacher I suppose. My teachers always broke down the words and had us learning the meanings of the roots, prefixes, suffixes so that we could figure out unfamiliar terms later on, which is essentially what medical terminology is. If you really want to, you could google lists of medical terminology and study those before school starts. I just wouldn't waste my money on medical terminology if I could do it over again.

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Purple_roses did what you learn in medical terminology help later at all? You know like when you relearn something you have an easier time than the first go-around? It would be great if it would hive me an advantage later but like you said I don't want to waste money. I also don't want to someday be one lonely prereq behind and have to wait a whole semester for a single class I could squeeze in now.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

It would be very helpful if you have 0 understanding of medical terminology and how things are named/defined. If you have a fair enough grasp of this already, A&P will fill in the blanks. There are also "med term for dummies" type books that you can use to learn on your own. I never took medical terminology but I came from a background that had prepared me to deal with medical roots/suffixes/prefixes so I didn't struggle with it. I have known some people, though, that really could have benefited from a medical terminology class. It's really up to you and how comfortable you feel with it and if you're good at studying independently.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
Purple_roses did what you learn in medical terminology help later at all? You know like when you relearn something you have an easier time than the first go-around? It would be great if it would hive me an advantage later but like you said I don't want to waste money. I also don't want to someday be one lonely prereq behind and have to wait a whole semester for a single class I could squeeze in now.

Don't overthink it. Use your time for the prereqs you actually need.

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Purple_roses did what you learn in medical terminology help later at all? You know like when you relearn something you have an easier time than the first go-around? It would be great if it would hive me an advantage later but like you said I don't want to waste money. I also don't want to someday be one lonely prereq behind and have to wait a whole semester for a single class I could squeeze in now.

Well sure, it helped. But you don't always have to pay for helpful knowledge. There are many free resources out there that can help you learn medical terminology. Library books, quizlet. You can rent or buy a book on Amazon for very little. I would do that instead.

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