So sick of A&P

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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This is a whine/vent about A and P.

The whole thing is a gigantic hazing exercise.

Do I think it's helpful to know the general location of all the bones of the body? Yep, sure do.

Do I think asking about the most obscure landmarks on the bones amount to nothing more than a gigantic hazing exercise, necessitating one to memorize, and then subsequently dump, information I will never have a reason to remember? Yep.

Is memorizing the general location of ll muscles important so one doesn't think, say, the external oblique is in your neck? Yeah, I see that.

Is memorizing the origin and insertion of 100 different muscles useful for anything else besides seeing who will sit down and memorize it before brain dumping it?

And I haven't scored less than a 94 on any of these tests or quizzes. But I am sick to death of the classes being hard for no other reason than the professor can make them that way.

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It seems like many people have pretty dreadful a&p classes compared to mine. We don't have to know about insertions and origins besides what they are and also we seem to only study the most important bone and muscle structures :) .still there Are many people in my class that are struggling including people that are taking this class for the second time. All in all I can say that I enjoy the class but will be relieved/happy when it's over.

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This is a whine/vent about A and P.

The whole thing is a gigantic hazing exercise.

Do I think it's helpful to know the general location of all the bones of the body? Yep, sure do.

Do I think asking about the most obscure landmarks on the bones amount to nothing more than a gigantic hazing exercise, necessitating one to memorize, and then subsequently dump, information I will never have a reason to remember? Yep.

Is memorizing the general location of ll muscles important so one doesn't think, say, the external oblique is in your neck? Yeah, I see that.

Is memorizing the origin and insertion of 100 different muscles useful for anything else besides seeing who will sit down and memorize it before brain dumping it?

And I haven't scored less than a 94 on any of these tests or quizzes. But I am sick to death of the classes being hard for no other reason than the professor can make them that way.

Amen. It is definitely a hazing exercise at my school. Everyone is well aware A&P's primary purpose at my school is to weed people out. So far, my class has been reduced by half. My lab now consists of ten people. Yup. And this is the norm at my school. We do need to know where things are and how the body works, but really, the even bigger, unseen purpose of this class is to see if we can synthesize large amounts of information in a short period of time and intelligently communicate about that information. I know we will need it, but I'm right there with you... I'm ready for it to be over. I'm exhausted. My classmates are exhausted. My instructor is even exhausted. It feels like a cruel hazing ritual, for sure. We study study study and try to anticipate what will be on the test-- we're always wrong. So very ready for it to be over.

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Specializes in Oncology, Critical Care.

We all go through it and thousands of students pass it each year. We had to know the origins, the insertions, and all the bone markings. Sadly, the best way to do it is to power through it. If you dont pass the first time, take it again and try to pass.

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Specializes in Psych/Mental Health.

I didn't like the bones and muscles chapters either.

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I know what you mean. My Prof likes to ask some of the most tricky questions. It is really frustrating sometimes!

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This is a whine/vent about A and P.

The whole thing is a gigantic hazing exercise.

Do I think it's helpful to know the general location of all the bones of the body? Yep, sure do.

Do I think asking about the most obscure landmarks on the bones amount to nothing more than a gigantic hazing exercise, necessitating one to memorize, and then subsequently dump, information I will never have a reason to remember? Yep.

Is memorizing the general location of ll muscles important so one doesn't think, say, the external oblique is in your neck? Yeah, I see that.

Is memorizing the origin and insertion of 100 different muscles useful for anything else besides seeing who will sit down and memorize it before brain dumping it?

And I haven't scored less than a 94 on any of these tests or quizzes. But I am sick to death of the classes being hard for no other reason than the professor can make them that way.

I get it... A&P was a lot to handle... But, from what I understand, nursing school is a lot of memorizing and building on the A&P foundation... The grades one gets in A&P also reflects the drive it takes to make it though nursing.

I wouldn't consider it hazing. I'd consider it a pretty effective first step to keeping people who shouldn't be nurses out of the field...

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I can see that to be true, that we are given massive amounts of info to see if we can handle this type of learning before nursing school. Sometimes I feel really frustrated by it, but other times I feel this is probably going to be what nursing school is like if not harder! I imagine this is good prep for nursing school. At times I am truly amazed at the amount of info we are asked to learn and I am amazed I am doing well enough to remember a lot of it. I get so frustrated however when I study my rear end off all day everyday to miss questions on the exam that are meant to be tricky! I hate that! I realize it is needed to weed out those who shouldn't get into nursing school, but I feel so frustrated to try so hard and only make an 82 on the exam...but I will keep going...I can see that it is an effective tactic!

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Specializes in OR.

If any of you decide to make a career choice in OR nursing, you will love the fact that you covered so much A&P

A&P is very interesting when you work in the OR and I hope some of you will choose this career path!

(Just my 2 cents from an OR nurse) Good luck to all of you!

:yeah:

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If any of you decide to make a career choice in OR nursing, you will love the fact that you covered so much A&P

A&P is very interesting when you work in the OR and I hope some of you will choose this career path!

(Just my 2 cents from an OR nurse) Good luck to all of you!

:yeah:

That's what I want to be! An OR nurse :) thanks for your post.

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A&P classes are definitely difficult. The only thing that really kept me going was because I really loved the content. My professors were helpful (for the most part), but it didn't make it any easier. I keep thinking to myself that if I can make it through this, I can take on something even more difficult in the future. This is just a stepping stone to get into nursing school, and I know that it will be much more difficult!

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Specializes in Oncology.

How do you know that you will never need to use it? As a senior nursing student, there have been many times that I have seen something in my nursing books or lectures and thought "so THAT'S why I had to learn xyz." I know this post is a rant but nursing school will be much, much more information to digest.

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