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.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

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...

I agree with everything you said except for the memorizing part. Yes, you need to know the anatomy, and you have to understand the physiology. It's much more than memorizing, hence the reason so many students who 'get through' A&P don't necessarily get through nursing school. Because they either memorized and/ or leaned it for the test then dimpled it out of their heads.

I disliked A & P as well....I couldn't wait for the class to be over! Except when I was in Fundamentals, I would have little light bulb moments when I would make the connection-A & P, I believe is one of the most important classes to build on your nursing career...

I am entering my second semester of nursing school and trust me, I still look at my A & P flashcards and textbook from time to time....

Specializes in OR.

Dear ATLback2RN

You are welcome! I hope you love OR nursing like I do! Good luck to you!

Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.

I had a great A&P teacher. Yes, I had to study and memorize stuff. But I never felt like it was just a class to weed people out. My teacher was extremely helpful to those who put the effort in. (If you didn't try, that was another story.) She made us work hard but gave us every opportunity to succeed. She is one of the best teachers I ever had and I was lucky enough to have her for A&P I an II. I think A LOT depends on the teacher you have for those courses. I can't say I would ever want to take them again. But I can say that getting through them taught me a lot about myself (how I study best and etc.) and boosted my confidence. I am VERY happy I had to take those classes.

I agree with everything you said except for the memorizing part. Yes, you need to know the anatomy, and you have to understand the physiology. It's much more than memorizing, hence the reason so many students who 'get through' A&P don't necessarily get through nursing school. Because they either memorized and/ or leaned it for the test then dimpled it out of their heads.

Oh yes! I should have mentioned that I have not yet started nursing school and don't actually know how much memorization is involved... Just speculating on that haha but I know A&P is pretty dang important and I'm glad I did well :)

In fact, it made me feel smart when I was doing personal research on a birth control method (Mirena) and understood their "for health care professionals" version because they layman's version wasn't satisfying my curiosity!

Specializes in LTC.

It's not so bad towards the end! And it's really nice to actually feel educated in a college course because to be honest I have not thus far. All my other course work just felt like filler, stuff I knew (even Spanish) now I feel challenged and invigorated by my education. It's nice!

It's not so bad towards the end! And it's really nice to actually feel educated in a college course because to be honest I have not thus far. All my other course work just felt like filler stuff I knew (even Spanish) now I feel challenged and invigorated by my education. It's nice![/quote']

Yup. Couldn't agree with you more. I actually am learning now where as the other courses are just filler. I definitely feel accomplished acing such a difficult course.

I agree on memorizing some of the bony land marks though underst

Sorry for the last post. iPhone did it.

Anyhow, I can understand your sentiments. I can assure you memorizing does serve a purpose and will help greatly when going more in depth for physiology in AP2. Some of the bony landmarks I've never heard again and not sure I will. All in all every little structure to the T serves a function so it does help to know some stuff that seems mundane. If One is able to apply all that memorization and see how that produces a function in the body that's a huge leg up. So though it may seem like brain stuffing and dumping it will come to fruition in time. Best of luck!

You will definitely use those landmarks again. Just wait....lol

You will definitely use those landmarks again. Just wait....lol

Haha I should know by now that it will come back to haunt. :)

You will definitely use those landmarks again. Just wait....lol

What is a landmark??

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