Path as a prereq/no pharm

CFnDogs · Jul 1, 2017

You're right, most of us feel that way!

I have never heard of patho as a prerequisite. Are you in the US? I have seen some schools allow some students take patho early if they have the grades and are already admitted, but never as a pre req! Is there any sort of additional patho being offered at the beginning of the program?

I have also never heard of pharm being included with patho. Pharm is one of my classes this semester, and I have also NEVER seen this as prerequisite. We do sometimes talk about drugs in patho, but I would never say that it is it's own class.

Is this an ASN or BSN program? I've never heard of this before.

In terms of feeling prepared, none of us do. You're going to school to LEARN. Believe me, I feel lost every time my patho professor says "This is just A&P or high school science review..." and then I glaze over! I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you did well, you likely retained more than you think. Patho is just to give you a baseline of knowledge so that you can see things down the road, and go "hey! I've heard that word!", or "Hey, I kind of remember that, but not really. Let me go over it again". Trust the process. I have to admit that I was a bit short changed with some online pre reqs, but so far I am very successful in my classes and scoring well on all my exams.

Don't worry, you'll be taught what you need to know.

Alexis_chiane · Jul 2, 2017

Yes, I'm in a BSN program in the US. Most BSN programs in Texas have the standard path and pharm classes in your first year but for whatever reason mine doesn't! My first semester I have fundamentals, but I doubt they'll go into as much detail as an actual pharm class... I don't get it either :)

direw0lf, BSN · Jul 2, 2017

The patho you had is going to be reiterated..again and again...in your upcoming nursing classes. Because you may not have retained too much of it, you'll need to study more in your classes. You won't be completely lost though. You can catch up, and will learn it all over again in your in person classes. When you take notes in your nursing classes, and there is a patho concept you don't remember/know and the teacher mentioned it or went over it quickly expecting you know it, make a note that you'll have learn it on your own time. It will be easier that way though, because it won't be such an overwhelming amount of patho to go back and review.

I'm sure you'll be getting more focused pharmacology as you go through your nursing subjects like peds, maternity, psych, etc. Take it one day at a time. I'd get overwhelmed every time I got the syllabuses for each semester because of how much work it appeared, but then it all worked out when you just stay organized and stay on top of the assignments and studying. So it's easy to get overwhelmed thinking about what's to come and what you might not know now, but my suggestion is to be sure to have an agenda/planner, and tackle each assignment and obstacle as they come. Enjoy your time in nursing school!

HalfBoiled, BSN, RN · Jul 2, 2017

Your program will reiterate those topics again. It's important to their curriculum.

OliverElio87, BSN, RN · Jul 2, 2017

I am almost certain majority of the people in your cohort are feeling the exact same way. It's always the feeling of the unknown.

If there was one book someone told me to purchase before starting nursing school it would be an NCLEX-RN Review Book like Saunders. I purchased mine when I was desperate during med-surg and it has helped me out tremendously for every nursing class since then (OB, Peds, mental health). It basically goes over all the important topics/meds that your class will go over for every core nursing classes (fundamentals, med-surg, etc) and you can start learning how to answer NCLEX style questions.