Pathophysiology

Nursing Students General Students

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My school does not require patho for our program. Will I be missing out on a lot if I dont take it or should I just take it next summer as an elective? Thanks!

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
We do that with our careplans as well but our patho class was an upper level very in depth class which I think has been very helpful in my nursing courses. I know pharm is like that too, some schools don't require it just integrate it into the program and boy do I wish ours did that! I hated pharm :(

You'll be thankful for that hated course when you start working. Trust me...;).

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I'm finishing up a class that's basically an intro to pharm class, then I'll have pathophysiology in the fall...then three semesters of Pharmacology I,II,III. The three semester change supposedly was in response to so many people failing the one semester Pharm. Hopefully it'll be a good thing.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I am amazed this is not a requirement. Understanding disease processes is essential to avoiding complications.

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i used to tell my students that they'd better understand physiology and pathophysiology really well, because none of the people they would ever take care of in a hospital would have normal physiology. fortunately, this is still true.

i hear you about the "integrated into our nursing classes" but seeing as how not every one of your nursing instructors is going to be really expert in pathophys, you might miss out on some key concepts, and you wouldn't even know it.

do not assume you'll learn all you need to know in class and clinical. get in the habit of seeking out and providing your own learning opportunities, because you'll have to do that all your working life. get a great book and when you have a new patient, flip open to that chapter and refresh.

you'll find that the further on you are, the more you'll get out of this kind of learning. heck, i've been out of my basic program since nineteen-smumblemumble, and i still buy books and go to educational offerings.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I look up stuff everyday. I read constantly still everyday there is somehting I need to look up or double check.

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Specializes in ER.

i hear you about the "integrated into our nursing classes" but seeing as how not every one of your nursing instructors is going to be really expert in pathophys, you might miss out on some key concepts, and you wouldn't even know it.

huh. that is a really good point. thank you for that insight.

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Specializes in Primary Care; Child Advocacy; Child Abuse; ED.

Well most schools or at least my school has an instructor that is an expert in that field (course) teach the specific course. We also take patho before nursing courses.

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My school has patho and pharm. I am starting this fall and taking Fundamentals, pathophysiology and pharmacology and I am scared to death! I heard patho is one of the hardest classes you can take. But, seeing the previous posts make me thankful for it at least. I can tell it will really benefit me.

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