What helped you learn Physiology? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

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Specifically, I'm having a difficult time understanding the sodium-potassium pump. Anyone else struggle with this? Please help!

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Specializes in Emergency, Med/Surg, Vascular Access.

There are quite a few videos on youtube concerning the Na+ - K+ pump. They're probably a lot easier to understand than a textbook explanation.

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Specializes in Putting band-aids on boo boo's :-).

From what I understand, when the ACh neurotransmitters diffuse across the synaptic cleft of the neuromuscular junction and bind to the ACh receptors of the sarcolemma, this binding will cause the ion channels to open.

Once the ion channel opens, this will allow more sodium to flow into the muscle fiber than potassium that is flowing out causing depolarization (change in membrane potential.

Hope this helps.

Also, I wrote on a LOT of index cards. For some reason, the constant writing (and reading) help me to subconsciously internalize the material.

:)

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Specializes in Mental Health/Substance Abuse.

I draw everything and color code it. This helps me because I can see it and it seems to make more sense after that. lol

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

I agree that YouTube videos help a lot in understanding these kinds of concepts. Once you add the imagery to something you're reading, it kind of all comes together.

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I also agree with the YouTube videos. It's much easier to understand if you see it in action. I couldn't wrap my brain around it in A&P but our professor showed us some videos and gave us links to others and being able to see it work really helped a lot.

You'll eventually get it and then look back and wonder why it was so hard to understand in the first place.

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