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hey everyone, quick question. how important is A&P 1 and 2 for nursing school? do you use the info from those classes a lot? i was thinking of taking both A&P 1 and 2 over the summer, but am afraid i won't learn the material as well as i need to. thus, i'm looking into taking it over the fall and spring semester so i can digest the stuff a lot better. let me know what you think

thanks

Very important!! You are dealing with the human body and their systems on a daily basis!!! That is one class that you cannot get out of!! Good Luck!!!

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

it doesn't matter when you take it. just keep the textbook so you have it for reference. most of the nursing textbooks will have a brief review of the important points of any anatomy and physiology that you will need to know as you study the various diseases. there are also gobs of websites with anatomy and physiology on them for quick reference (they are listed on post #45 of https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/pathophysiology-p-fluid-electrolyte-resources-145201.html). there is no way anyone can possibly remember everything from a&p class no matter how well they did in it. the trick is knowing where to go to find information you can't remember. what will be more important is going to be learning the pathophysiology (what goes wrong with the normal a&p) that results in the diseases. that will be taught either as a separate class or incorporated into your nursing curriculum.

Specializes in none.

I'm not in nursing school yet, but I know that these classes are the most important prerequisites to the program. Also if you can, get your AA degree first if you intend on getting anything higher than an Associates or else you'll be going back to school again. Its been a year since I've taken these classes and believe it or not I can remember a large sum of the information. Also I think your plan of taking them separately is better, if not you will want to pull your hair out by the end of the semester. Good luck and I hope everything works out for you!!!!

Specializes in General adult inpatient psychiatry.

As others have said, Anatomy and Physiology is very important in nursing school. A&P is your backbone and when you know how things go right in the body, nursing school helps you learn about all the things that can go wrong with those same body parts and interventions for them. That being said, you aren't going to have to identify all the parts off the top of your head in nursing school. I remember memorizing alot of stuff when I took A&P that I couldn't for the life of me talk about now (like the bones in your fingers). What you do use in nursing school will come back to you if you learned it well enough in A&P. My classes cover material by organ system so we learn about nervous system disorders and then GI disorders and so on and so forth. I hope this helps you. I would recommend taking them separately, although it can be done. I also agree with Daytonite's statement that you can't possibly remember everything you cover in A&P and that it's important to know where to find that kind of information.

In regards to your question about taking it all at once or spreading it out, I found A&P II to be more difficult than A&P I simply because the material seemed more in depth and the body parts covered more complicated and I think I would have floundered if I had taken them simultaneously. Good luck with your decision and nursing school as well!

hello all! thank you for the responses! they are greatly appreciated. i was going to take A&P 1 summer1 and A&P2 summer 2. however, i am afraid that i won't really learn the material. i am looking to apply to accelerated bsn programs for people who already have a degree, and the schools are telling me that the grades i get in these 2 classes are very important. so i think i will wait and take them during fall and then spring semester, so that i can do my best. does that make sense?

thanks

Specializes in Cardiac Care.
hello all! thank you for the responses! they are greatly appreciated. i was going to take A&P 1 summer1 and A&P2 summer 2. however, i am afraid that i won't really learn the material. i am looking to apply to accelerated bsn programs for people who already have a degree, and the schools are telling me that the grades i get in these 2 classes are very important. so i think i will wait and take them during fall and then spring semester, so that i can do my best. does that make sense?

thanks

It makes perfect sense!

This science, more than all of the others, is what you'll base your entire practice on. That's why there's two semesters of it! There is a great deal of information and a lot of commitment to memory. Lots of reading. As Daytonite said, the textbook you use will be a keeper.

Because this course is so important to your success in school and in your career, certainly it's worth preparing for properly. I think you're headed on the right track!

Much good luck and success to you!

This is like asking "how important is anatomy and physiology in medical school" or "how important is it to know how the government works to be a politician?"... I'm concerned you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Nursing school, which the media doesn't emphasize enough, has a lot of medical information you need to know. It's not just "caring" and "hand holding." You must master A&P or nursing school won't make any sense at all. Try to take it whenever you have the least amount of coursework. The earlier you take it, the better so you can keep on going back to review it. I spent almost every waking hour studying that course. Good luck to you.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
hello all! thank you for the responses! they are greatly appreciated. i was going to take a&p 1 summer1 and a&p2 summer 2. however, i am afraid that i won't really learn the material. i am looking to apply to accelerated bsn programs for people who already have a degree, and the schools are telling me that the grades i get in these 2 classes are very important. so i think i will wait and take them during fall and then spring semester, so that i can do my best. does that make sense?

yes. you want to take them and do your best in them. the grade you make is most important for entry into a nursing program. however, i will tell you that you will understand more a&p when you start seeing patients and you start to associate it with other information, like how disease works. memory is an interesting concept and educators in particular know so much about how and why we retain information.

i've been in nursing school twice. once for my adn and again for a bsn. i had to take a&p both times. i've actually taken a&p a total of 4 times over my school career, the first time in high school. the university required it for my bsn because it had been more than 10 years since i had taken it for my adn program. like a smart alec i thought i would just waltz through the university's a&p since i was a working rn and i was no stranger to the information i was hearing in the lectures. after all, i was seeing living anatomy in the patients i took care of every day at work on a busy medical stepdown unit. wrong! i bombed the first test because of my arrogance. i failed to study to get a grade. that was my wake up call that there was learning and there was getting the grades. you have to become accomplished at juggling the two.

thank you for the responses. i greatly appreciate the time y'all took to answer my question. i don't know any nurses so this board is my only outlet for information. i was thinking taking them during the year would be better, but then i got some idea that if i cram it in over the summer i can start nursing school sooner. since i'm already in my mid 20's, that would beneficial. but it won't be beneficial if i don't know my material. therefore, i'm going to take them during the year when i have the time to really masterial the info.

thanks for the help

have a good day

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

(1) i went to nursing school for the first time when i was 24. i was a bookkeeper before i decided to go to nursing school. you are not too old. in fact, you are really young. the average age for nurses, i believe, is around 40.

(2) i know you want to learn the material--and i agree--you should, and that needs to be a prime reason. but, keep in mind the reality that in the university system you are not getting a place in a nursing program if you don't have the grades and the gpa. anatomy is mostly memorization and a lot of it. the physiology part is understanding step by step processes that are occurring in the body.

(3) don't know if it's doable in this age of homeland security, but i went to school with a bunch of people that wanted to be doctors. they scoped out classes and professors before they took them. this is what they did, and you might want to try this to set your mind at ease to see if you'll be able to "cut it" in this class. find out from the class schedule when it meets during the summer and just show up and sit there for a couple of the lectures. at least be there to get the syllabus. the prof won't know who you are and unless they are really tight on security they probably won't even ask who you are. my pre-med friends used to do this all the time to find out what profs to sign up with. one of my boyfriends sat with me through an entire zoology course and he wasn't even registered in the class--the prof said nothing. if you can get away with it, i'd sit through the whole class for the entire summer. obviously, you won't be able to get into the labs, but you could try. then, when you take the class for real in the fall and spring, you'll know what's coming and will have already heard some of the material. repetition is one of the ways we learn and retain information. (i have links to sites on how to study.)

(4) most of my friends are now doctors or pharmacists.

(5) i know time seems to move slow for you now and waiting a year longer to get into a nursing program seems like an eternity, but, honestly, it isn't. i can tell you that as i am getting older, time moves so much faster! it was just christmas the other day!

(6) quality rather than quantity is always better. you'll get there. i see that the ana (american nurses association) is finally advocating lower nurse to patient staffing ratios. we already have that by law out here in california. so, the trend is upon the profession. what it means is that there will be more jobs than ever for rns and probably not enough rns to fill them, better working conditions and better salaries. you are coming into the profession at a very good time. you will never have a problem finding work.

(7) have you read the information about nursing on these websites?

Specializes in Pediatrics.
hello all! thank you for the responses! they are greatly appreciated. i was going to take A&P 1 summer1 and A&P2 summer 2. however, i am afraid that i won't really learn the material. i am looking to apply to accelerated bsn programs for people who already have a degree, and the schools are telling me that the grades i get in these 2 classes are very important. so i think i will wait and take them during fall and then spring semester, so that i can do my best. does that make sense?

thanks

I think that makes very good sense. I am on the admission committee at my school, and we frown upon weak A&P grades. So many students are so concerned with just taking it and getting it over with. If you have a solid knowledge of it, it will help you tremendously in nursing, espeically in the advanced Med/Surg concepts. Especially the physiology. I cannto tell you hpw many times I ask the question, "what is going on in (pick a body system)?" And I get blank stares from the crowd :(.

The one thing I am finding with some students, is that they took A&P too long ago, and do not remember it:imbar.

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