anonymousandy

Thanks! I think I understand the mechanism more now.

Can hypovolemia/hypernatremia cause polyuria? I want to say it can because the kidney would recognize a high level of Na rather than a low level of H20, but I'm not sure... A practice quiz just said that was wrong, but I don't know if it was just not the best choice or actually incorrect. Thanks!

2. The list of topics is really long, but I've got most of it down. The last ones are: Oxygenation, I/O, Incontinence, Delegation, Community Nursing, Postmortem care, HIPAA and other legal stuff, Communication w/ special needs patients, Different note-taking strategies [e.g. narrative, charting by exception], Nutrition [we talked about vitamins for about 3 minutes in one class], and the list goes on. The patho class is the only one I still have an A in, so I'm not worried about it. There's a lot of political discussion thrown into class too, so I have to learn proper euphemisms [e.g. independent practice vs. dependent, collaboration, delegation (applied to CNAs, not us)]. 3. My study-habits have changed. I started the semester reading everything, and now I only read my patho book, and study from the topical outline. I've never found a lot of benefit from studying powerpoints, but I think I'll give it a try for the program. Thanks! Btw, all our tests are NCLEX style with maybe 10% knowledge-based questions.

Yes, it's an integrated program. I guess the idea of knowing something superficially and then going to the nursing homes to participate in treatment scares me, and I get overwhelmed. My grades are still adequate [i'll be making Bs this semester instead of As like I thought I was going to have], but I'm going to make it work. Transferring isn't a realistic option for me. Thanks for your advice. I'm glad to hear someone else had a similar experience :).

Hey all, I'm in my first semester of nursing school and I'm starting to feel a bit hesitant about the program. Everything started fine. I got A's on my first couple rounds of tests, but now they're starting to plummet to C's [this is abnormal for me]. I just don't know what they're trying to teach me anymore. It's like they took a bunch of different puzzles, dumped them into a bucket, selected a handful at random and decided that would be the material for the class. Does anyone else feel this way? Whenever people ask for more details in lecture the response is generally, "that's beyond the scope of this class." End of discussion. Sometimes it's like they skipped most of the knowledge-acquisition parts of school and went straight to discussing test-taking strategies.

I go to a public research university. There's a lot of material that she covers in class, but the lecture exams are multiple choice, so if you're fuzzy on some of the material you have the comfort of being able to eliminate wrong answers. I'd PM you with what school I go to, but I don't think I'm allowed to do that yet. (new member). I think most of the stuff for which we're responsible is pretty standard with just a little extra, but she goes into a lot of bonus details. The class doesn't really seem to be harder than any one else's, but she's a great professor.

We're using Martini & Nath's "Fundamentals of A & P." First test covers: Chapter One- Introduction/Anatomical terms/Most of this material is to be covered in Lab quizzes, but we are responsible for the material for lecture exam as well. Chapter Two- Chemistry review. The test will largely focus on transcription, translation, protein synthesis, macromolecules' functions for this part; but there is some very basic chemistry too. Chapter Three- Cell theory. Must know organelles, their functions, understand communication cascades, gene expression. It sounds difficult, but we're mostly responsible for the concepts and terminology for lecture. Although we are responsible for some snippets of cascades (CdCs / CdKs / P53). We also need to understand how how cancer works, and quite a few "triggering" factors. Chapter Four- Histology. Tissue types are important. If you understand Chapter 3 well, then its been said that this part should come easily. However, we need to understand intercellular communication, and tissue interactions. The difficult parts of histology are covered in lab. And that's it for the first exam. The prof said about 80 % of the test will come from the textbook, and 20 % will come from additional material she's added in the lecture. Her specialty involves intracellular communication, so she stresses that quite a bit (and it's useful). She also ties the theory to pathophysiology to help prepare us for the nursing program, and goes into some specifics about certain proteins for her biology majors. There's no curve, and no study guide; however, she offered us a bonus point for writing up a paper about cystic fibrosis (one student got 3 + for doing extra work). These points are added to the first exam, so like .25% of your final grade. If you do all the extra credit assignments, I think the most you can get is +1% on your cumulative average. Some students have dropped, but there's no telling how many are just skipping the lectures, and how many have officially quit. My first test is next Friday, and I'm petrified. I'm guessing that after we get our first official grade, that's when people will really start to panic and leave.

I'm in A&P right now. From what my professor's said, the class is going to get more and more difficult, but we've also lucked out with her because she holds study sessions outside of class on her own time (they're SO helpful). During one of them, this topic came up, and she said this: "I can dumb it down, but then I'd be doing a disservice to the better students...so...I'm reversing 'No Child Left Behind.'"

I took Ambien once, and didn't sleep. It was as if I were dreaming reality, and I remember the events as if it were a dream as well (i.e. clips and phrases). Never took it again, but if you look at it like that I think these aforementioned behaviors make more sense. A lot of this (semi)literally sounds like a nightmare.

I don't know about immediately ameliorating the problem, but I suggest studying hard, scoring really well (beat them) on the next exam/practical, and "accidentally" let them know that you did well. They'll probably bring you into the fold because you'll be a potential resource... Other than that, your situation sucks. Sorry to hear it.

Black looks professional/serious, and can be off-set with a contrasting undershirt to add a little color. The skeletons would do just the opposite for me. If I were a patient, it would be like having a piece of fabric taunting me, saying, "Hey, death is pretty goofy! Look! I'm dancing!" Ugh.