Pathophysiology Help!

tryin2 · Feb 28, 2006

finished

Lisa CCU RN, RN · Feb 28, 2006

I must agree, this class is kicking my butt.

I passed my first test, but barely.

RN and Mommy · Feb 28, 2006

Ok, so last night I attended class and I am not sure I can take it anymore. All my instructor does is READ off the powerpoints! I can not learn that way! I can READ MY OWN! It's very frusturating. Last week, she was out of town and her boss (the head of the biology department) taught our class and he was awesome! It was the first time I learned anything in that class. I am not the only one either. Most of the class has these same complaints and he said that he'd talk to her, but he must not have because last night...same thing. She also gives us these terrible (hard and long) case studies on topics we haven't even had lecture (if you call it that) on. My last one took me well over 10 hours to complete. She gets them off some website. Half the info isn't even in our books! I think I am going to email her boss today and let him know how she still is and that I am seriously thinking of dropping the class and taking it at another college next fall. She is the only instructor, except in the summer, but I will be busy taking NCLEX and starting a RN job. In my school Pathophysiology isn't required for your ASN, just your BSN so I wouldn't need it to graduate in May. I'll let you know how things go! Thanks for listening.

Lisa CCU RN, RN · Feb 28, 2006

I wanted to know if ASN doesn't require patho, then how do you tell your patients what's going on in a certain disease process?

My biggest fear is not doing anything wrong or hurting a patient, but having someone ask me about a certain disease and my not being able to explain it to them.

I guess I just don't understand how you can be an RN and not take patho.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I just wanted to know what is the curriculum in ASN.

RN and Mommy · Feb 28, 2006

I don't make up the ASN curriculum, but we do learn about disease processes in the theory portion of our classes. I am not positive, but I don't think it's required in many ASN programs.

DZcarrie · Mar 1, 2006

We learn the patho associated with the disease processes.

Lisa CCU RN, RN · Mar 1, 2006

Cool. I actually think this would be better than learning it separately.

SFCardiacRN · Mar 1, 2006

Pathophysiology is the disease process. It is probably the most important thing you will learn in nursing school. It is where your critical thinking skills come from...being able to tie everything together. Nursing is not about memorizing skills but rather WHY you do them, when are they appropriate or not. How are they going to affect disease process and other systems. We don't just change dressings on decubitus. We consider many factors including nutrition and co-morbidities. We need to know how everything inter-relates to promote healing and prevent recurrence and how to pass that on to our patient. Hang in there, it's hard but it's interesting!

PS At least in CA, patho is required for ASN. I don't know how you could pass NCLEX without it.

futureRN07 · Mar 1, 2006

That's such a shame because I had a fabulous patho. instructor. I took it last term and it was an extremely hard class but the enthusiasm my instructor showed for the subject and the way she taught made it not only bearable but fun and interesting. Having a good instructor can make all the difference!

RN and Mommy · Mar 2, 2006

I just couldn't do it anymore. I dropped the class today. :imbar I will take it again in the fall while I have a lighter class load. It is just too much right now. I am really not concerned with not having enough pathophysiology to pass NCLEX, because since it is not required in my ASN program, they load up on it in lecture portion of my program. I just hope that a few complaints to the head of the biology department will get her to change a few of her teaching methods before the fall semester (or better yet...maybe another instructor will be teaching it). I wish you all the best of luck in the class! Hang in there!

Lorodz · Mar 3, 2006

i love pathophysiology. i think a disease process is best understood with pathophsyiology. for me, pathophysiology is like a story/movie of a disease process.