What Exactly Is Nursing Fundamentals

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Hello. I am taking nursing fundamentals and Advanced A&P next semester. I believe Nursing Fundamentals has to do with nursing history and theory. However, I am not sure what else it is about and what to expect in this class. Our school lets us take this class a semester before you enter the program. (I'm entering Fall 2011) Can anyone let me know what this class is about and what to expect? Thanks so much. :)

We were never required to do an assignment with our Potter and Perry workbook or whatever it was. Some people in class filled their's out electively, but I'm not the type so I never used it. I sold the whole set back, but we were required to buy it. I think it would've been a hinderance because I don't have time in life for workbook pages. I think the book had a CD in it. I never used it either.

There's a thread addressing the Potter and Perry book. Collectively, no one likes it. It's just a bad book. Even the Amazon reviews of it suck.

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We were never required to do an assignment with our Potter and Perry workbook or whatever it was. Some people in class filled their's out electively, but I'm not the type so I never used it. I sold the whole set back, but we were required to buy it. I think it would've been a hinderance because I don't have time in life for workbook pages. I think the book had a CD in it. I never used it either.

There's a thread addressing the Potter and Perry book. Collectively, no one likes it. It's just a bad book. Even the Amazon reviews of it suck.

Thanks ThatGuy! My med-surg class is combined with fundamentals next semester so I dont think we will even use the book much. I guess Ill try to find a cheep price or get an older edition

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Is Nursing Fundamentals an intense class? The reason I ask is because I am taking Advanced A&P too. I want to be able to get a strong understanding and good grades in both.

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In my program, nursing fundamentals IS nursing 1. It's a part of the program. The first couple weeks are kind of boring but interesting depending on if you like history and enjoy learning about the founders of the nursing profession. As far as the med/dosage stuff.....what I did the summer before I started was buy a dosage book at B&N....don't remember the exact name but it was one of those "made incredibly easy" books. It helped me a lot since I'm bad at math and it brushed me up on things I hadn't done in years. Anyway, good luck!

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Is Nursing Fundamentals an intense class? The reason I ask is because I am taking Advanced A&P too. I want to be able to get a strong understanding and good grades in both.

All nursing classes are intense and I would never recommend taking A&P with nursing. I've seen/read (which includes myself as well) that students do so much better in school if they're only taking nursing by itself. Not saying you can't do it....it's just going to make it harder. Good luck!

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Is Nursing Fundamentals an intense class? The reason I ask is because I am taking Advanced A&P too. I want to be able to get a strong understanding and good grades in both.

Alot of people in my program take a&p II with thier first semester classes and its def doable but it does add extra intesity and stress so if you can take it in the summer of before you start that would prevent some of the extra stress. Good luck!

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Alot of people in my program take a&p II with thier first semester classes and its def doable but it does add extra intesity and stress so if you can take it in the summer of before you start that would prevent some of the extra stress. Good luck!

Fundamentals and a&p 2 are my only two classes next semester. I also don't have a job. (just a hubby, one kid in 4th grade, and housework) :)

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I'm just finishing up my first semester of nursing school and my fundamentals class. We DEFINITELY did care plans. On our unit test yesterday we had to write one off the top of our heads.

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We were never required to do an assignment with our Potter and Perry workbook or whatever it was. Some people in class filled their's out electively, but I'm not the type so I never used it. I sold the whole set back, but we were required to buy it. I think it would've been a hinderance because I don't have time in life for workbook pages. I think the book had a CD in it. I never used it either.

There's a thread addressing the Potter and Perry book. Collectively, no one likes it. It's just a bad book. Even the Amazon reviews of it suck.

We had to do the workbook. It was 5% of our grade. But it was useless. For us, it was a guide to what WASN'T on the test!

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Is it intense? It's all a matter of perception. I found neither A&P nor nursing foundations to be intense. The difference was that A&P was interesting, and foundations wasn't.

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... Would you or someone else be able to elaborate on med administration? Will there be a lot of math, conversions etc? I am wondering where I should focus my preparations for this next semester ...

I bought an inexpensive used textbook on eBay, just so I could see what the med calculations were all about, because I heard that it's very difficult. I bought 7th edition "Dosage Calculations" by Gloria D. Pickar, and it came without the CD, but that book can be picked up for maybe $12 shipped sometimes. Lots of schools seem to use that one or a later edition of it, plus it was cheap. That's why I bought that particular one.

Dimensional analysis is also known as "factor label method" and you can Google that. It's a calculation method that is used a lot in engineering, so I have lots of experience with it.

Become familiar with the SI (metric) to English units conversions, at least the ones related to meds.

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I bought an inexpensive used textbook on eBay, just so I could see what the med calculations were all about, because I heard that it's very difficult. I bought 7th edition "Dosage Calculations" by Gloria D. Pickar, and it came without the CD, but that book can be picked up for maybe $12 shipped sometimes. Lots of schools seem to use that one or a later edition of it, plus it was cheap. That's why I bought that particular one.

Dimensional analysis is also known as "factor label method" and you can Google that. It's a calculation method that is used a lot in engineering, so I have lots of experience with it.

Become familiar with the SI (metric) to English units conversions, at least the ones related to meds.

do the teachers test you on two or three chapters from the dosage and calculations book? are the problems you are tested on just like in the textbook?

and did you find the med calculations difficult?

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