Surgeon for an instructor

Nursing Students General Students

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Has anyone ever had a surgeon for an instructor and not an RN? He wasn't a very nice guy was he? Mine sure isn't. He asks very difficult questions that make you think "were these covered in the book or power points?"

Is there some way I can practice medical terms that have the same meaning so I can kick some butt on his exams?

The first off putting sentence is "he wasn't very nice was he?" That's telling us you judge every surgeon based on your experience with one. If you would like us to be more empathetic to your situation, I would suggest giving examples as to how he's mean. Try to look at it in a good way. This is pathophysiology, literally the foundation to everything you will learn. You can't memorize as a nurse, unless it's lab values, you MUST comprehend. The only way to comprehend is to have a strong understanding of pathophysiology. I would feel extremely lucky to have a surgeon teaching me this subject. His knowledge is pure gold. Try supplementing your text with other online texts or watching YouTube videos. I loved the series "made incredibly easy" by Lippincott. I'm sure they have Pathophysiology Made Incredibly Easy. It gives a basic understanding and then you can get details from your text. This class is no joke, it's extremely difficult but you can do it.

I have both Lippincott books, made visual and made easy. although I noticed the books will not teach two things at the same time. One teaches hypertension, the other doesn't.

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A friend of mine in another nursing program that I originally wanted to go into told me that the book we're using in class is the same book they are going to use in Pharmacology. I thought that was weird because there's not much Pharm discussed in this book. She said not to worry about that book and that it will prepare you for pharm.

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This is what college level learning is about...teaching yourself. The professors are there to facilitate your journey, to guide you. You are responsible for your own learning.

As others have recommended, medical dictionaries are a good resource, as is YouTube, or the Khan Academy. Your school may also have a tutor if you need one.

Additionally, learning from other disciplines is imperative. They often bring knowledge and skills that nurses may not have, as well as a unique framework from which to view patient problems. They are also going to be your colleagues, so to work with them pre-employment is a good thing. You are lucky to go to a college that provides a robust learning experience.

I enjoy learning but I would like practice with what I'm learning so that I know what I've wasted my time doing has paid off instead of finding out after the exam like "oh well, your study skills are ****, find some other way to study". But you can't because you don't know any other way. I read the power points, then read the book. I did learn, and this is just in the book as I'm not sure how it is in the real world, that beta blockers are not preferred for HTN anymore, ACE and Thiazide as well as maybe some calcium blockers and diuretics are more preferred. Beta blockers risk a stroke. I believe is what the book said. And that was for the hypertension area. I'm just worried about his level of vocabulary vs. mine. I don't think I could get to his level, but I'm not wanting to give up.

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This is what college level learning is about...teaching yourself. The professors are there to facilitate your journey, to guide you. You are responsible for your own learning.

As others have recommended, medical dictionaries are a good resource, as is YouTube, or the Khan Academy. Your school may also have a tutor if you need one.

Additionally, learning from other disciplines is imperative. They often bring knowledge and skills that nurses may not have, as well as a unique framework from which to view patient problems. They are also going to be your colleagues, so to work with them pre-employment is a good thing. You are lucky to go to a college that provides a robust learning experience.

As in, when he went to med school, how did he understand what he studied? How did he practice what he conceptualized? Were books written back in those days of high quality literature? I can't afford to buy books. Maybe a medical dictionary, but I would like the words to have synonyms of the word i'm looking up. Some medical terms have the same meaning, just worded differently. His dad was a physician as well because he once told us a story involving how hypertension works culturally and I'm like you ****ing cheater, you had help....lol

Btw, the internet doesn't always help. I'm still trying to figure out what fibrosclerotic remodeling of the skin means when it comes to Chronic Venous Insufficiency and if Peripheral resistance has to do with the legs and arms or just the arms or just the legs. I think of peripheral as peripheral vision.

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I swear to god I will put in 10-12 hours a day of studying. I didn't think studying has to be that intense, but what else can I do? If I spend all day writing down notes in different colors (Blue pen for veins, red pen for blood), I feel like I'm never going to learn anything because I'm spending too much time using different colors for notes. The TŪL pens from office depot are so nice. I spoke to my instructor and he said, "I am teaching you the basics. You better know what hypertension and how to explain it to a patient or there is going to be a problem in your career and that's just an example". For a brief moment he didn't have that "I could careless about you or your career or your visions". He's not approachable, and I heard from another student that a student was told by him that he needs to go back and retake A&P after the student asked him a question. I was kind of appalled, but maybe it was a stupid question the student asked? I guess if a cardiology chapter talks about veins, arteries, heart, and alzheimers relationship with hypertension and his power points only talk about veins, arteries, and heart, I guess I can rule out the Alzheimer's relationship with Hypertension? If you guys studied outside of what your instructor taught, did you pass the class on the first try or did you overstudy? And was that your tactic throughout your entire time in college? When he said, "I am teaching you the basics" That narrowed a lot of things down, then I thought I just had to worry about the variable medical verbiage he uses on his tests. I'm pretty good at picking these medical terms apart like "Chronic Venous Insufficiency" to my eyes translates to "long term vein deprivation". But not all words are like that like "Intermittent Claudication".

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A lot of new nurses are weak on terminology and just makes the learning curve steeper.

You could not be anymore right..

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I am surprised there isn't good study material in your textbook to help you learn medical terminology. If you still want to supplement, a medical dictionary is a good idea, and I would also recommend the Khan Academy videos. They are great for learning anatomy/physiology as well (and you need to understand normal physiology before learning pathophysiology.) They also have some good patho videos.

I wish nursing school would have included MORE non-nurse instructors, personally.

The back of the chapters that we've been assigned to read so far don't have practice questions. They just factualize which is like reading the answer at the back of a chapter.Theres no practice questions.Oh, you were talking about med terms, ehh that too.

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Oh yeah, A word I noticed in the cardiology chapter I'm reading had thromboembolism and embolism. I thought what was the difference between the two? I had to look it up and I guess they're literally the same thing, but that's what I'm saying is he uses different words that have the same meaning and I'm not sure where is a perfect place to get practice with that.

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Yes, my Pathophysiology instructor was an ER MD. It was a wonderful class, he was an amazing instructor.

Wow, that sounds a lot better than an eye surgeon. Yours sounds more connected with pathophsyiology because yours probably sees all kinds of things vs mine is just on eyes. Mine is an eye-surgeon.

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Oh yeah, A word I noticed in the cardiology chapter I'm reading had thromboembolism and embolism. I thought what was the difference between the two? I had to look it up and I guess they're literally the same thing, but that's what I'm saying is he uses different words that have the same meaning and I'm not sure where is a perfect place to get practice with that.

A thromboembolism is a blood clot that moves through and then occludes a vessel. An embolism is anything that occludes a vessel. This could be a blood clot (thromboembolism), fat tissue (fat embolism), an air bubble (air embolism) , a large piece of plaque, or even amniotic fluid that can make its way to the mother's lungs (amniotic embolism).

Embolism is the general umbrella term, thromboembolism is a specific type.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

One doesn't have to be an RN to teach a science course. Let's see... I had a PharmD for A&P I and II, a PhD microbiologist for microbiology, and an MD/JD (a practicing neurologist) for medical ethics.

All were very nice people -- Dr. Attorney even had us over to his house for dinner after class wrapped...and gave advance permission to use him for a reference --

AND asked the hard questions... as nurses, we need to be able to answer hard questions! ;)

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One doesn't have to be an RN to teach a science course. Let's see... I had a PharmD for A&P I and II, a PhD microbiologist for microbiology, and an MD/JD (a practicing neurologist) for medical ethics.

All were very nice people -- Dr. Attorney even had us over to his house for dinner after class wrapped...and gave advance permission to use him for a reference --

AND asked the hard questions... as nurses, we need to be able to answer hard questions! ;)

I don't think a patient, or a large majority of patients I'll see, will have any knowledge of medical terms I've never seen before.

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