Setting myself up for failure??

xluescluesx · Mar 6, 2011

From what I hear from friends who graduated from nursing school recently, basic chem is not really that important for school. They go over whatever you need to know in nursing school, like acid/base etc. The prereq chem is more to establish a foundation more than to actually prepare you for nursing. I say if you get in, just do your best to pass with a C. You'll be fine.

PS: what are you having trouble with exactly? Maybe I can help you. I rock at chem. : ) PM me if you want I can try to break it down in simplest terms.

mangopeach · Mar 6, 2011

Check out Khanacademy.org - I think they do a really good job of explaining things.

queenjulie, RN · Mar 6, 2011

I am pretty terrible at chemistry; I have a lot of trouble understanding how things that are so tiny can work together and make so much (everything, really!) happen. However, in my opinion, the chemistry in nursing school is *much* easier than in a chemistry class. For one thing, it's far more limited--you basically need to know about hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and a couple of other elements, and that's it. You don't need to know their chemical structures--if you can understand that H + O2 = H2O, and CO2 + H2O becomes carbonic acid (which is H2CO3), you'll know 95% of what you need.

(Carbonic acid floats around your body until you pee it out or breathe it out as carbon dioxide, and when something goes wrong with your kidneys or lungs, you can't get rid of it and it makes you sick: That's probably the most important chemistry fact you will ever need to know in nursing school!)

And at least in my school, we've gone over that at least five times, to make sure everyone gets it, because it's important. What the body does with them, and how they affect your pH (whether they make you more acidic or more alkaline on the pH scale) are what you'll need to know, and they'll teach you all that, probably several times.

Keep it up, and don't panic! Nursing school is *not* chemistry class, I assure you!

--Julie

my4helpers · Mar 6, 2011

Thank you for the help! The last few weeks has me panicking and I started thinking if I cannot get through Chem, how on earth am I going to get through NS. I feel better now, I just need to concentrate on getting through chem now.

manu705 · Mar 21, 2011

A chemistry class is definitely more involved than anything you need to know for nursing school. Focus on passing this one class, you won't need to know all this stuff later!